WSJ: Borders woes help ebooks

For those that have have a subscription to the WSJ they have up an interesting article on Borders and ebooks titled as my title (minus the WSJ:)

Quote from Smashwords CEO:"Once physical shelf space is gone, it's gone forever," says Mark Coker, chief executive of Smashwords Inc., an e-book publishing and distribution platform based in Los Gatos, Calif. "If you remove books from our towns and villages and malls, there will be less opportunity for the serendipitous discovery of books. And that will make it tougher to sell books."

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703515504576142663906541514.html#ixzz1DzMvO0PZ

Also interesting is this tidbit:
"Borders plans to close about 200 stores, and possibly 50 or so more later.
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But those who read my blog know I like to quantify the impact. This sums it up nicely: ""Overall, Borders is probably around 8% of sales for many publishers, but on certain titles, Borders could be 20%," said Laurence Kirshbaum, a New York literary agent. "That's a big number, especially when you are talking about smaller titles. How will those books get adequate distribution?"
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20% of lesser selling titles. In other words, closing 250 of 650 borders knocks out 5% to 6% of the midlist pbook market. Combine this with the expanding toy sections and I really wonder why any new author isn't going Indie or small publisher.

Got Popcorn?
Neil