Simon & Schuster Case Study, Part 5: In Case of Emergency...

Don't panic.

Whether my hypothesis proposed in parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this study is correct or not, it's probable that America's major book publishers will put an end to the return system while most of us are in college, at an internship, or in the middle of our first job. When this happens, somebody is going to take a hit. I'm not 100% sure that large bookstores like Barnes & Noble could even survive the change; returns are such a pivotal part of their business model (in that it allows them to stock a huge number of books) that it's questionable whether they could keep going without them.

Nevertheless, this is not a call to immediately bail on any book-related career. In the event of such a massive change in the industry, there would be jobs lost purely as a cost-cutting measure where it was needed. Most of this would be in the bookselling sector of things, but other parts of the business would feel it as well. For example, if Barnes & Noble had to close many of its stores, Hollywood might take a hit from losing a venue for DVD sales (though there are enough other places to sell them that this wouldn't affect a major change).

But while these are areas in which things might become more difficult, a change in the book industry wouldn't spontaneously eliminate demand for books. Here are some ideas for areas in which things might improve.

Specialty Retail
As you must have noticed, books are sold in more places than just bookstores. Urban Outfitters, Anothropologie, Hallmark, and the recently departed Discovery Channel Store are all examples. Even now, non-bookstore sales are a growing part of the way publishers do business; publishers love them because they're willing to buy copies of older books that fit their store's theme, and because they seldom return books (a few aren't even aware of the return system).

If specialty retail outlets are expanding in the book market now, the collapse of the return system would likely shift even more focus there, creating more of a need for bookselling expertise in more general retail industries. A combination of experience in bookselling and another area might be of great service in a job search.

Sales
This is something that would come with an increase in specialty retail as well as a decrease in big chain bookstores (since a few of them closing their doors would open things up for more small and indie bookstores to fill in the gaps).

Sales reps are an important part of the book industry, and they're very specialized to books. Books sales reps don't just sell; they need to have a mind for who they're selling to and where they are. Selling a store more copies of a book than they can realistically sell can be disastrous, and when a single rep often has dozens or hundreds of titles to pass around, book expertise is absolutely crucial.

Right now, sales reps in the book trade are a smaller population than they used to be. Most houses have only one rep who sells to the entire Barnes & Noble chain, one for Borders, one for Target, etc. Moving things to a state of more specialty and independent retail would create a need for more reps to cover more ground.

If you're not aiming for a sales degree, don't worry; you don't always need to one to be a sales rep for a publisher. Lots of people get there through publishing internships or bookstore experience, and I'm sure those aren't the only ways to get in. In any case, it's the kind of job that involves--and requires--working around books and people who buy them a lot. And you get lots of free books as part of the job.

If anything, an end to the book industry's return system would drive things into a more diverse and specialized state. The key is not to be frightened by impending changes in the way things work. Part of the fun of the entertainment business is that it's constantly changing--which means you do have to watch yourself and be aware of what's happening, but not that any of it signifies the apocalyptic doom of the industry.