Since schools are hurting, what about giving back to the community by coming up with an engaging presentation about some of the people you write about? You are obviously passionate about Civil War history, and I am sure that would come through and maybe get some of the students excited about learning more. It might even get some of the teachers motivated to learn more and teach it!

Imagine if a whole group of Civil War authors would do this. What if it got students interested in doing Civil War related projects at some of the historical battlefields? Eventually, you just might get a new generation interested enough that Barnes & Noble would find it profitable to expand their Civil War section once again.

Best
Rob

Never really liked B&N as its history title selection was always inferior to Borders, and it was always a tad more expensive. But I have noticed the trend you mention at both stores, and have to believe that it is due in large part to internet sales.

Both companies took off in the late 80s – early 90s when internet sales were low, and it made sense from a marketing standpoint to have a broad assortment of titles on your shelf that other book stores did not carry. However, even B&N and Borders did not carry everything, and I have recent memories of ordering books at Borders and waiting a month to pick them up.

Now, while I still like leafing through a book before making a large purchase, I do most of my shopping online. If I want to know more about a book before buying it, I can go to a book review blog, and in many instances, actually see the table of contents and a few pages of text. If I want to peruse new books, I go to Amazon, type in a topic of interest, and sort by date of publication. When I order a book, it comes directly to my mailbox, sometimes in less than a week. What’s more, with services like Bookfinder4U, I can search multiple bookstores, and set an alert when the price falls within the range I can afford, which is particularly useful for out of print books or books that I would like to buy at the right price, but are not on my “must have” list. Thus, I would estimate that, of the 50 – 75 books I purchase a year, no more than 5 are purchased at an actual bookstore.

If this represents the typical history buff, I can see why B&N and Borders are reducing their history shelves. If there average customer is there to drink a latte and pick up a book on the historical topic “du jour,” why clutter your shelves with serious history?

Chris

As for Borders, they vary from location to location. The Borders in Kennesaw (not far from the battlefield), has about one-and-a-half cases of CW titles, while, perversely, the Borders over in Roswell, far from the battlefield, has three-and-a-half cases. It just depends. It seems, though, that Borders are harder to come by, whereas B & Ns are like Starbucks—they’re freaking EVERYWHERE.

You’ll be pleased to know, though, Eric, that the Borders in Roswell DOES have a copy of “One Continuous Fight”. It’s been sitting there for several months now, and I’ve been tempted to buy it (funds are kinda low right now, though). They also at one time had a copy of your “Rush’s Lancers”.

Truthfully I don’t see much that can be done on a large scale. You need to keep going to your store and keep asking them why they don’t have a specific book in stock and that you think they could expand their sales if they kept the title in stock. Some managers will listen, others won’t.

Barnes and Noble remains the largest bookseller in the world, but we are also in the business of selling discount cards (drummed into our heads at every store meeting all the time), collecting e-mail addresses (so we can send coupons and try to bring more people into the store to buy member’s cards) and selling gift products and coffee (because too many people aren’t deciding to buy books instead of groceries or paying the bills). What I’m trying to sarcastically say is that most managers are under pressure to sell several things other than books that make the store far more money, so while they might be polite and say they will do all they can to satisfy you, bringing in books on the possibility that they might sell someday down the road is unlikely to happen. Right now, vampires sell to a far larger audience than history titles do. More’s the pity.

However (and as an author you probably don’t like to hear this) when I buy books I normally don’t buy from the store. I usually buy used copies from Amazon or ABE because I can get them cheaper – sometimes A LOT cheaper. My wife and I are both historians employed by the state, so we can’t afford to buy a lot at B&N. Every holiday that comes around, I tell folks to buy me B&N gift cards, though!

Andrew Duppstadt

The history selection at the local Borders is spectacular, with whole bookcases full of ACW titles. I’d say there are about as many ACW books on sale there as there are books on the whole range of European history. Same thing at the big used bookstore in West Knox, which has a section of ACW books that rivals the general US History section.

Down the road, by contrast, B&N’s history section is much smaller, and ACW titles constitute a much smaller percentage of what history titles they do have. Maybe it’s some B&N thing?

–ML