When Haruki Murakami’s collection of essays Novelist as a Vocation is released next week, his fans will face difficulty finding it online.

In an effort to compete with Amazon and support bricks-and-mortar bookstores, the Japanese bookseller Kinokuniya bought 90,000 copies of the 100,000-copy first print run, according to a report from the Asahi Shimbun. The sixty-six-store chain reported that it plans to sell the copies at its own stores and also distribute copies to other Japanese bookstores through wholesalers.

“The reality of the industry today is that it is becoming increasingly difficult for brick-and-mortar bookstores to purchase copies of high-profile new books,” a spokesperson for the book company told the Asahi Shimbun. “To rival online book retailers, bookstores across the country now need to join hands in efforts to reinvigorate the conventional book distribution market.”

Kinokuniya board member Hitoshi Fujimoto said to Publishing Perspectives: “Our goal is complete fulfillment to bookstores and improvement of margin (terms of sales). This is not an experiment but our new business with certain calculated risk.”

The book, which collects essays Murakami has written for the literary magazine Monkey about life as a writer, ranks at No. 5 on Amazon Japan’s bestseller chart. It will be the second Murakami book to hit the Japanese market in recent weeks, following the release of Murakami-san no Tokoro (Mr. Murakami’s Place), which collects the author’s responses to queries received from fans.

Murakami hasn’t endorsed the move by the Japanese bookseller, but his official Facebook page has posted the link from the Asahi Shimbun.