Boston's Publishing Industry Mourns Borders' Death

Liquidation sales begin Friday at the 14 Borders bookstores in Massachusetts.

Among the many people worried about the company's demise, Boston's publishing industry isn't happy to see the national chain go.

With Borders out of the picture, Barnes & Noble remains the only national bookstore chain. That means fewer sales and marketing opportunities for Boston publishers and local authors.

Losing Borders makes it harder to put a new book under a reader's nose, according to Jill Kneerim, who runs the literary agency Kneerim & Williams.

"Because there are lots of people out there who actually would like to read that book," Kneerim said. "One of the great ways they used to encounter it was simply finding it in the bookstore."

Boston’s publishing industry has gotten smaller in recent years. Kneerim says the closing of Borders underlines the challenge of finding the best way to deliver books and keep paying authors well.