B & N Reaction

Reaction to Barnes and Noble Visit
Today’s visit to Barnes and Noble was both interesting and personally satisfying. I visit the store at least twice a month, but have never had the chance to learn anything about the place that frequently relieves my daily stress. The first part, presented by Terri Walsh, was mostly about the fundamentals of the store’s operations, which oddly enough fascinated me. The fact that 50% of a book’s profit goes to the retailer rather than the publisher or author was very surprising. I was also very surprised that true crime represents the number one area for sales in the Deptford store.
I never knew Barnes and Noble had a monthly calendar of events or that 195 books arrive everyday. Equally impressive is the number of transactions that occur in the store, which is around 1500. I also never knew there was a company distributor in Jamesburg, NJ. I enjoyed the information about ISBNs and the breakdown of book categories, which include trade paper, mass market, and trade cloth. I realized that while I may love books, I certainly have little knowledge of the publishing lingo or basics. The PDT was also pretty interesting, because it’s like a mini computer right at your fingertips. I found everything that Jonathan Maberry had to say very interesting as I, myself, would like to write fictional books one day.

~Alexis