DVD’s, Cheesecake & Book Memberships

Do I sign up for Borders Premium or no?

Since May I haven’t paid for a bookstore rewards club and I’m not sure I miss it.

My first bookstore membership was to Waldenbooks. I was in middle school, it was a Christmas gift from my sister, and I think I renewed it once and let it lapse.  (That Waldonbooks became a Borders Express, but I think they’re actually closed now.)

So then I got one to Barnes and Noble sometime in high school and kept it until just last year. It was really worth it for the first few years, until well, again competition. Borders opened up. I think the reason I kept the membership through college was because I had an easier time getting to Barnes and Noble in Boston.

But moving back home after college, the Borders was closer to me. And I had signed up for their free rewards card. Since Borders sends out a coupon every week with a higher discount, I found myself buying books there instead.

The only reason I broke even the last two years at BN was because of DVD sets and cheesecake. I had signed up for BN’s coupon list, so I was receiving 2 coupons, the first for being a paid member, but also a smaller discount just for signing up with my email address. And I would use a credit card that gave me 5% off BN purchases. It was convoluted, but I was making a killing on dvd sets. And then at Thanksgiving and Christmas they offered Cheesecake Factory Cheesecakes for cheap, and my family loves cheesecake. These were awesome coupons, I do kinda miss them, but now that my sister and cousin make cheesecake, not so much. I don’t think anyone else ever utilized those coupons because the cashiers were always surprised when I redeemed them, giving me an additional 10% for being a member when the coupon clearly said I no longer got that.

So, now, I am at another loss. I don’t know if I’ll actually make out in the end if I buy the premium membership at Borders. A plus would be free shipping all the time…but I hardly buy books online, but on the other hand, since their coupons can be used once online and once in store, I can get a book online without shipping eating the savings.

Another plus is the higher discount on hardcover books. But I generally don’t buy hardcovers, they’re heavy and awkward. I don’t care what just came out unless I’m really waiting for it. Another reason is bookshelf space. My sister moved out and freed a bookshelf, but it just meant I could put all my books from under my bed onto a shelf. And I still have some double parking going on.

The only real consideration comes from the fact that I got $110 in gift certificates there. And to me, that means about 8-10 books.  But, I think I could settle for 7 books if I got the membership. The last problem, being that I dont know how much I’ll be buying in the next year. My book spending has severely curbed this last year, and even still I have about 20 books I havent read or haven’t finished. This happens whenever I buy more than 1 book, I put it on a shelf and say I’ll get back to it, and never do. This is why I’m good with the 1 coupon 1 book buying I do.

But I am honestly stuck. Their free program is really good, does $20 justify 10% off with no real other perks for me? Or should i just shut up and get it since it’s essentially free for me anyway this year?

“Publishing House”

This was originally meant as a comment to Norbert Haupt, but it became much longer than anticipated.

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With everything becoming digital I am surprised to see that Barnes and Noble treat their Nook as a novelty rather than an essential. Very few stores have a hands on version to try.

What I expected in getting my eReader is this: browsing through Borders, and finding a book, but preferring to have it on your eReader/Kindle/Nook/iPad, being able to then turn around and download it on one of their terminals. Or when not finding the book on the shelf, consoling yourself with the digital version by going to the terminal and getting it.

The problem is the fact that publishing houses are  still separating the two versions of the book, instead of trying to reconcile them and bring them together.

I got my eReader and was 100% enthusiastic. But, I still find myself preferring physical books. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I am on dial-up, and my laptop conflicts with Sony’s eLibrary.

When the format of ebooks switched from what Sony first used, it meant my eReader would need to be updated.  But I still haven’t sent it in. Further isolating me from my eReader.

I have dreams of being a published author, I don’t know publishing, or how it works at all. But if I were to be published, I want to be able to tangibly hold my accomplishment. It is visceral.

Now with the advent of the eBooks, it seems really, you just need the agent and the editor.

But ‘Publishing House’ is a very clever statement. You think of warmth and acceptance: a support net, shield and champion. And writing requires a lot of that. Just from writing classes, empathetic/sympathetic writers can rip into each other, so when theres nothing between the author and public, I imagine something very scary and very intimidating.

A Publishing House stands by the writer and take flack for them, or comfort them even if the only motivator is that their own credibility is at stake, or just from the investment in that author.

But not having experienced it, I simply don’t know the truth from the ideal. But I’d still like to believe in the ideal. From what I know of writers, we want to write and not have to deal with everything else, thats what the agents and publishing houses are for.

Personally, if anything I wrote was picked up by a publishing house, I wouldn’t care if I signed my soul away, I would just want it out there. And while publishing houses are a company, as the New Yorker Article states, the houses bank on popular and backlist books to make money. They give advances on the books they publish completely gambling on whether or not they make it back.

In the book I’ve been plugging lately, Publish This Book, Markley got a $5000 from SourceBooks, an independant publisher. I bought it from Borders, retail price is $15. Pretending that SB gets every cent of it, and thats the price it sells everywhere, its would 334 books to make back that advance. 334 doesn’t seem like a lot, but Steve Jobs even says in the interview, “Forty percent of the people in the US read one book or less last year.” (My mom as far as I know, doesn’t own a book, my dad hasn’t finished the two he has) Consider the number of books to choose from.  Consider the lack of press for the book.

Amazon and most companies are not going to do that. They are selling at a loss, but believe in gaining the profit shares first. Without someone intercepting, I probably would end up signing my soul to Amazon.

At the very least, every english major I’ve ever met wants to be published.

Amazon is a company, more product equals more money.

I am not saying they would, but it’s possible, that by wanting the most books available, to boast the biggest library, they could pad it with so many young/new writers, it becomes even harder to find the good books and good authors. They’re about helping people find whatever they’re looking for for the cheapest price, I have no idea how much they think about product quality.

While it is comforting knowing that Apple and Steve Jobs are there to save the day, it’s unclear how long they’ll keep that cape.

The Publishing Houses need to evolve to accomodate eBooks and solve the problem on their own to continue to be an establishment, because they are a service to and work for their writers. But they’re just trying to stay afloat. And really hurting the authors it seems.

I don’t have a solution, but I don’t think they should go away. They know books, they have the experience, and without them it will all just disappear. A book is a book is a book, doesn’t matter how it get to the people, on paper, stone or computers. Without them, authors could flounder, and companies like Amazon won’t know how to interact with authors.