Talk:Bookselling

Comment
Books are often portrayed as one of the most ubiquitous media. I am looking for facts to support this. In particular, I wonder if anyone has a good guess of the number of shops where one can potentially buy books in the US ? This would include the specialist bookstores, but also all places where at least a few books are sold (your local coffee shop, your garden center, etc.). PhilippeK

Here are the data on bookstores from the 2002 Census of Retail Trade, by NAICS (North American Industry Classification):

451211 	 Book stores: 10,860

By type:

4512111 Book stores, general 	6,326

4512112 Specialty book stores 	2,695

4512113 College book stores 	1,839

For data on employees and sales, see:


 * Retail Trade: United States

Nonemployer bookstores are listed separately and not subdivided by type. There were 10,306 of them.


 * Nonemployer Statistics: Retail Trade: United States

Dynzmoar 14:23, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

BL link
Please note the link to the BL: these pages are produced by professional information workers for a not-for profit government body to help people research the industry. Not selling anything It's not linkspam.

I like history too, but...
I think the history of bookselling is interesting, but that's all this article seems to be. It should either be moved to Bookselling (history) or given a good sized paragraph at the top relating to the sales and marketing side of the present day publishing industry. Rlitwin 15:00, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Suggested merge
I see no reason why this article on bookselling and a separate article called bookstore need to exist. The current articles are split between a good start at a history (this article) and a pretty slim near-dicdef (bookstore) explaining that the present establishments called bookstores are places where books are sold. I propose that, unless someone can provide a reason why these two topics are separate subjects for separate articles, the two ought to be merged (and "bookselling" is a slightly more general and less dictionary-like name for the merged article). -- Rbellin|Talk 16:45, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Why merge them?
Why would you want to merge them, it saves people time if they are split so they don't have to find the specific spot in one article. This way they can find the information that they need in one easy stop. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sam2031 (talk • contribs)


 * Can you explain what distinction between two topics would cause someone to be looking for one thing in bookstore and another thing in bookselling? There's no sensible distinction between two encyclopedia article topics there that I can see. -- Rbellin|Talk 17:13, 2 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Since there's been no comment except for this one generic exception, I have gone ahead with the merge for now. If there is any disagreement the change should be easy to revert (with discussion first, if possible!) but I think this clearly improves the situation with a more comprehensive single article.  I'll also do a bit of cleanup and rewording and add a few more links now. -- Rbellin|Talk 21:39, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

staffing problems
staffing problem in the bookstor and how to solfe it —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.13.223.240 (talk) 12:33, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Lift from Enyclopaedia Britannica
Large chunks of this text have been copied verbatim from Encyclopaedia Britannica. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.212.143.201 (talk) 21:55, 4 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Checked-yes it was a very OLD edition/public domainTeeVeeed (talk) 22:27, 4 August 2016 (UTC)

Cleanup needed in the History section
This section of the article is just, in general, a mess. Specifically: I'm sure there are more problems, but I think I have demonstrated that the section is problematic. I would recommend that the section is entirely rewritten. Hucklebur (talk) 08:40, 8 April 2012 (UTC)
 * All the sections, with the exception of "Islamic bookshops" and "Selling and publishing" (more on that down the list), seem to have been copied practically verbatim from this site: http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/B/BOO/book.html. This website contains articles from the 9th and 10th editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (written in 1875 and 1902 respectively). In addition, all the information seems to be exclusively from this site.
 * The "Christianity" section starts out describing the effect of Christianity on bookselling, but then seems to go off on a different, unrelated tangent.
 * The "Modern bookselling" section contains no information beyond the Statute of Anne (which is placed in the wrong year, according to the Wikipedia article on it).
 * The "Selling and publishing" section is rather interesting because it seems to be the only part of the History section that isn't copied from the Encyclopaedia Britannica. That being said, I have no idea where it came from, and obviously there are no sources.
 * The grammar is horrible in some sections, while being tolerable in others. For example, the "Modern bookselling" section has misused semicolons and (I think) run-on sentences. The "Selling and publishing" section is made up of a grand total of three sentences, two of which go on for three lines.

I agree; this section is a mess. The section on sellers and publishers is hard to understand and poorly structured. It has, presumably, been copied wholesale (pun intended) from somewhere else. It mentions being able to see book dealers in Paternoster Row -- a streat which does not even exist any more. Thirteenangrymen (talk) 17:35, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Did a little clean-up
I have a COI. I have been a bookseller for decades. Currently not selling books recently. Cleaned-up the article a little. Most of the history and content is from a public domain encyclopedia--a really OLD one haha. Made changes requested on this TP re: publisher's row. This article could still use some ♥. I'd like to see a bookselling in fiction section--there are some really good books and works about bookselling. Also-should bookselling really be one word?TeeVeeed (talk) 22:26, 4 August 2016 (UTC)

English / French
Hello ! We have an interwiki linguistic problem here : why can't we linked bookselling and librairie ? Yours, --Marc-AntoineV (talk) 09:02, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Where to find my new release book ?
I am unknown writer and my first cook book has been released yesterday where I can look for it ? Nicoleta anton1 (talk) 09:44, 15 July 2023 (UTC)