New site puts indie bookstores online, faces competition

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by Farrin Jacobs

(IDG) -- After months of delays, the American Booksellers Association quietly rolled out a live version of BookSense.com last Monday night. A first glance at the soft launch of the national electronic-commerce hub for independent bookstores reveals a nicely designed and quickly accessible site, but with prices that don't come close to the discounts Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com offer.

Features on BookSense include "The Book Sense 76," a list of titles recommended by booksellers; "Experts' Corner," where booksellers offer their themed recommendations (this time it's old Hollywood movie bios); and "Fun in the Stacks," where visitors can play games such as Phrase Invaders (think Hangman meets Space Invaders).

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Unlike its competitors, BookSense doesn't handle the pricing or delivery of books. Instead, it funnels a visitor to the nearest participating independent bookstore by asking for a zip code--part of the ABA's plan to push the benefits of local, nonchain stores and their more personalized service.

It's early in the process, so flaws are to be expected. Entering a Manhattan zip code in the "Go Local" search function, for example, brings up the Montclair Book Center in Montclair, New Jersey, as the nearest match. And a Beverly Hills zip code takes one to the University of Southern California's store. But searching by a specific title before you put in a zip code sometimes links to stores closer to home.

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The price for a requested book also ranges, depending on which store handles the fulfillment. The trade paperback of Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible (with a list price of $14) costs $11.90 at the Montclair store and full price at the USC bookstore. Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com, and Borders all charge $8.40, a 40 percent discount, while Contentville.com comes in at $10.50 ($9.80 with a Citizen's Club discount).

Shipping costs, however, are nearly uniform. A one-book order by ground from BookSense totals $4.20; Borders charges $3.95, and the others come in at $4.29.

Independent support

The ABA's "save the indies" plan (nearly half of such stores have disappeared since 1994 due to the rise of chain stores and online booksellers, the organization estimates) has found some adherents, while others remain skeptical. Beth Puffer, who operates Bank Street Books in Manhattan, says her store initially tried to go it alone.

"We found it prohibitively expensive, so we decided to go with BookSense.com," she says.

Puffer says most stores expect to be accessed directly, rather than through the hub site, but will benefit from the back-end support provided by BookSense -- namely the title/author search function and credit card processing.

Gary Frank, owner of Booksmith in San Francisco, has not joined up with BookSense, and doesn't know if he will. His store already has a Web site, and he's not sure he'll gain anything by joining the network. He also has reservations about how the indies will fare against the likes of Amazon.

"People are hooked on Amazon," he says, "because Amazon is giving away the store." An ABA spokesperson declines to comment on any aspect of the site except to say that the network of participating indies will eventually include 1100 stores and that the official launch date will be sometime in September.

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