Image via CrunchBaseWanted to do some social bookmarking and payment integration for the bookstore, so got that all set up today. When you look at the software for shopping systems there is a glimmer of social book marking available, but there needs to be more. The idea of social network integration should be similar to what you see on Amazon’s wish list, but tightly coupled rather than loosely coupled into what you are doing, and how you are sharing it. Also integrated the shopping cart into PayPal, looked at Google Checkout, but the system kept on remaining in sandbox, with no way of getting it out of the sandbox.

So some might be wondering why a bookstore when there are ebook readers, and digital downloads, and a host of other ways of getting your book fix. Have you ever tried to read a comic book or a graphic novel on a kindle? Bookstores are dying out, people are changing their readership to the internet, but that does not mean that bookstores are dying, it means they need to change to meet the needs of what people expect today. That means social networking, access, and payment via mobile devices, that means more information about the product than you have time to type or copy from some other page. It means that the market for tired old mainstream books is dying, but independent publishers and a host of other graphic based or comic book based books are still doing well, if not better than everything else is. Following what is happening with Amazon and eBay, along with the way that the business models work, means that the business is doing just fine, when you get out of the mainstream.

This is what makes the internet, especially this incarnation of the internet so very interesting; mainstream is dying into a million smaller subcultures. There is nothing wrong with catering to the Goth subculture or the Punk subculture because I tap millions of them worldwide. Smaller publishers like Zenescope and the wholesalers that carry them like Haven have a huge market worldwide, but not so big a market in my local neighborhood. If you want to cater to nothing but romance novels, then a romance novel site makes sense, you tap a greater market than you can on your own. If you want to survive, you think globally, act globally, and integrate your systems globally.

You attach to social systems on a global basis; you use social networking on a global basis, and then have some fun with it. If someone is getting ready for Sakuracon or Kumoricon and wants to know more about Goth Lolita/Alice in Wonderland then you can provide that information, and the books/pictures, or information that goes along with it. Your local actions reach globally, which makes this entire process much more fun for people who think in global terms.

While it might be difficult to get a startup going in two weeks over the holidays, it can be done, but there is still a lot left to do. Mostly getting the word out on a global basis, purchasing some advertising, getting people to talk about the store and why the store exists at all. Even in this modern digital age, there is still room for books, the question is where is your market place?