Do Bookshops Have A 2020 Vision?

We have all read about the decline of the independent bookstores in the UK and US. However, we have also seen the relaunch of Foyles in Charing Cross, the expansion of the Hatchards brand by Waterstones to St Pancras, the growth online of the bargain bookseller, The Works. So what is the future of the Bookstore and does it have a vision of itself in 2020, or is its vision somewhat out of focus and requiring both short and long sighted correction?

Stanley Unwin once said that, ‘To write books is easy, it requires only pen and ink and the ever-patient paper. To print books is a little more difficult, because genius so often rejoices in illegible handwriting. To read books is more difficult still, because of a tendency to go to sleep. But the most difficult task of all that a mortal man can embark on is to sell a book.’

Today more than ever before that quote reflects the significant changes and challenges facing booksellers. Some would say that the question of what is sold, is as important as that of how it is sold.

Today many continue to sell not just a narrow range dictated by their physical square footage, but a range focused purely on the new or only available through the publisher. It’s as if they haven’t read what it says above the door and have ignored the word ‘bookseller’ and replace it with ‘new books only seller’. Books are books and the consumer doesn’t grab a book and turn immediately to the copyright page and look as to when the book was published, so why do so many bookstore restrict themselves? In a market that over produces both in titles and quantity, there are many mint condition ‘bargains’ to be stocked from outside the traditional publisher channel. They may not have the ‘sale or return’ safety net, but they also can be often acquired at a fraction of the price. One of the salient lessons we should have learnt by now from the likes of Amazon, is that consumers want to buy new, old, rare, bargain and used books and to do so from one place where they can seen the full range.

A recent article in The Economist looked to the future design of the bookshop and asked four firms of architects and designers to create the bookshop of their dreams and in doing so reinvent it for tomorrow. The designers looked at many aspects and even covered the sale of used and digital books and using the space to sell lifestyle, create theatre and host events. It is worth a read.

However, they started from the premise that the hub was the bookshop and everything revolved around the book. Is that how we should look at it, or is the book merely part of a larger proposition based around a wider lifestyle offer? This obviously raises the question of range both in terms of width and depth. We have seen many acclaimed bookshops which have narrowed their offer to appeal to a segment of the market, but how many of these have actually complimented their book offer with a full range of products that appeal to that same segment? Does the cookery shop sell cookery product and books, or books and cookery product? Does the children’s bookshop sell toys, children’s clothes, prams etc. alongside books, or books alongside childrens’ product? Ex Borders UK head, Phil Downer has made his Calliope gift shop one that sells gifts which include books and in doing so he is able to cross sell and merchandise and adjust his offer to suit the market. Will books be a major or a minor element in years to come will depend on many factors, but ultimately it should reflect consumer demand.     

The coffee shop within the bookstore is often a very good earner per square foot and creates lifestyle and greater selling opportunities. It is claimed that our obsession with coffee houses is going to grow by a further 20% by 2020. So would you open a coffee shop that sells books or a bookshop that sells coffee?

A further example of how market trends have changed well established markets is in the off licence sector, where the supermarkets have come in and not only wiped out much of the previous retail space, but also have actually expanded and grown the market. When supermarkets first started selling petrol it looked obvious and was restricted to their out of town supermarket locations, but now some have taken their supermarket offer to the garage forecourt and taken over independent stations which are convenience stores that sell petrol and this has enabled them to grow their convenience business and opened new locations miles from their supermarkets.

Just focusing on books is obviously a very limited consumer offer. Just selling new books could be terminal.  

Livres Ancients Livres Modernes

There used to be a category of retail for books at UK Companies House. There is however one for, newspapers, stationary, magazine and other, but no longer books. We also read that the UK’s Bookseller Association claim today that some 25% of independent bookshops have gone out of business in the last 5 years and we find ourselves reminded about the sign over the door of that old bookstore of Emile Raoust & Co. in Lillie that now sells mobiles.

Every action has a consequence and impact and the book market is no different. What would you think is the consequence of:

• Supermarkets being incentivised to shift volume and the likes of Asda selling shelves of books for a £1 each and cheaper than they sell greeting cards
• Chains demanding tiered incentives to merely place titles in windows and catalogues on sale or return terms
• The suicidal discounting of best sellers and new titles where consumer demand is a given
• The ‘safe’ and cosy sale or return safety net, were there is no or low risk buying and shelf space is effectively rented on consignment
• The spread of ‘white label’ and catalogue internet offers, where everyone has everything, only the brand label and template changes and the seller is actually someone else.
• The breakdown in the difference between bargain and full price titles, where all to often even the best sellers are skimmed or offered to other channels before the ink has dried.

When we first stepped into the book publishing marketplace, we found it crowed, overly complex and some would suggest very adversarial compared to other markets. There was not so much a blame culture, as much as a lack of communication and understanding of others. It was as if everyone thought the other’s job was simple and the book world revolved around them. Even today, some fail to realise that there are only two people that matter, the creator/author and the consumer, and that everyone else has to earn their place in between by adding real value.

Today we now have publishers becoming retailers, retailers becoming publishers, agents becoming publishers, authors doing it themselves, wholesalers and aggregators borrowing brands to sell through white label stores and libraries being scanned.

Bookselling is about what it says on the tin – selling books. Bookselling is not easy nor is it about being a super franchise shop for publishers of new books, it’s about selling books; new, old, used, remaindered, back list, specialist whatever. Despite what Companies House may think book retailing will survive but will be different and will continue to be heavily impacted by others and its own actions.

There is no divine right to bookselling and we must ask if today’s news is really surprising, or whether it’s only alarming in that it didn’t happened sooner. Perhaps Companies House spotted something before the trade.

Bookselling Now Faces the Need to Change

The BBC recently ran a series of programmes which brought home the changes in High Street retail and how retailers have had to adapt to cultural, competitive and economic changes over the ages. It is easy to now see the next big step change taking place today, as Internet shopping grows and increasingly grabs the consumer and the cash. This is a very real challenge to bookshops who find they are facing a similar changing landscape to that which faced the High street baker, butcher and greengrocer when the supermarkets stepped up their game. They always misguidedly believed that it was the tactile nature of the business that guaranteed their survival. Unfortunately that is no longer the case.

They now not only have the Internet, which many have entered too late, or simply failed to realistically grapple with, they have a digital explosion, that to date, they have they thought wasn’t their business and to make matters worse they now find themselves competing with supermarkets who are wanting to cream off the volume traffic. Many small grocery retailers survived the supermarket explosion, but in doing so, had to also step up their game and realise that there was no divine right to retail. .

Some argue that the ones that will suffer most are the chains and it is clear that they are suffering. However it would be very arrogant to presume that the slack will be merely taken up by the independents, it won't. Booksellers need to focus on what it says over the door and sell books, used, new, classics, remainders and not just continue to be hoodwinked into believing that the consumer only wants the latest release.

It’s interesting that the only clear beneficiary from the demise of Borders was Kobo who had effectively used the brand to capture the digital footfall and when Borders stumbled into Chapter 11 still continued their business as usual with the customers Borders had effectively given them. Overdrive have built a strong and expanding library business on the back of the library community’s inability to build their own service. There are a number of aggregated ‘white label’ offers but few co-operative ones and it’s easy to hand over customers and business as an affiliate but its hard to get them back once change happens.

It is always important to own both the brand and the customer and not merely hand them over and the future to others. Many say it is impossible to compete and see doors as closed.However it is these players who will loose long term.

It is not all doom and gloom on the High Street and neither is the super Highway paved in gold. There are many positives and shoots of new opportunities and the only certainty is the tomorrow will be very different from today and learning to adapt to change is the key.

Who Wins As Bookselling Suffers?

We are hardly 7 weeks into the New Year and we have already had more bad news on the book publishing High Street than in the whole of last year and probably the year before that!

Yesterday The RED group, owners of Angus & Robertson and Borders bookstore chains in Australia, and Whitcoulls stores in New Zealand, went into voluntary administration. The impact of this on franchise stores and jobs still remains unclear, but it removes miles of book shelves from the High Streets of Australia and New Zealand. This bad news follows only one day after Border went into Chapter 11 and effectively shut down a third of its outlets across the US. More bookshelf space lost. The UK is not immune with Waterstones under serious threat and closing stores and British Bookstores going under. We also have not to forget that this is happening in parallel to the biggest planned and threatened closures in UK public libraries.

These may look like localised bad news, but in terms of English language books this is a serious loss of miles of shelf space. We all presume that the slack will be taken up by the Internet and primarily by Amazon. Some believe that ebooks will just happen faster and that people will not only migrate online, but also to digital books.

It’s interesting to note, that the day major chains went into precarious waters, Kobo, the ebook aggregator supplying the chains customers, declared that they were still open for Border’s business for all those who had bought their ebooks from the chains. Kobo has built a healthy global business partly on the back of these chain’s brands need to be seen to be digital.

Kobo state, ‘the Borders ebook experience is powered by Kobo, an entirely separate company from Borders. Kobo is financially secure and will continue to maintain your ebook library no matter what happens… Kobo will continue to provide ebook services to Borders customers through Borders.com and Borders apps and desktop software. You shouldn’t notice any difference in terms of service or selection.’

Perhaps it’s a case of the ‘The King is dead. Long live the King.’

However, before we pass off this bad news as mere evolution and change, we should step back and understand what the true impact of this reduction of shelf space means to the ecosystem of book publishing.

Does the search for volume sales drive publishers into doing more high discount deals, or what is often termed as ‘special sales’ with supermarkets? As these retailers have demonstrated they will drive down the price narrow the range and will only entertain books if they make their square footage contribution.

It is difficult to envisage the Independents being able to take up the slack. If fewer inventory is going through the traditional channel, will this impact the economics of the current supply chain?

Publishers may have moved to shorter print runs, but the economics of publishing aren’t exactly short term, so decisions based on channels and sales margins may now prove suspect. We have seen the shift in the reward structure of authors and it is easy to see publishers becoming increasingly wary of risk.

We see the High Street retailer as the vulnerable player today, but you can’t remove miles of shelf space without impact

CAMBO – Campaign For Real Books

In the UK and increasingly right across Europe, beer drinkers are familiar with CAMRA, which since it was formed in 1971 has grown from strength to strength CABRA campaigns rigorously for real ale and has had a dramatic influence on beer producers, pubs and promoting ‘real’ beers that were either in danger of dying, or were waiting to find their audience.

In the last of the ‘Book and Magazine Collector’ a new campaign CAMBO is promoted selling and encouraging real books, or those that are not digital.

Within a week of the first Kindle TV advert the CAMBO campaign started and was greeted with a ground swell of support from used and rare book dealers, to organisations such as the PBFA and the ABA, dealers and even new book shops. CAMBO is more that just a web site. Within two weeks one hundred bookstores had signed up and the organiser even sold a rare copy of Casino Royal to get it off the ground.

Each CAMBO bookstore will be displaying a CAMBO sticker and it may say more about the store than anything else moving forward.

Members pay £15 a year for a card which entitles them to 10% discount at participating bookstores. This new book token can also be used online. CAMBO's aims are simple; to help bookshops survive and to promote independents over chains; to preserve, protect and promote physical books and finally, to protect jobs that with go with the digital books. To some these may sound futile sound bites and are doomed to fail, but to others, they make the same sense that CAMRA had some forty years ago.

We all accept that physical books aren’t going to disappear, but that the market from them and channels supporting them will shrink. CAMBO do not deny this, but through their campaign focus on supporting those who wish to enjoy and appreciates their paper ‘brew’.

Below are some of the bookstores who have made the commitment and we would suggest that these should be joined by others who feel passionately about the paper book.

Amwell Book Company
53 Amwell Street, London , Greater London EC1R 1UR
Books & Bygones
40 Hollow Lane, Shinfield, READING, Berkshire RG2 9BT
C P Books
9 High Street, Edenbridge, Kent TN8 5AB
Camden Lock Bookshop
Old Street Station, 4 St. Agnes Well, Islington, London, City of London EC1Y 1BE
Ceres Bookshop
20 London st, swaffham, Norfolk PE377DG
Chorleywood Bookshop
4 New Parade, Chorleywood, Hertfordshire WD3 6BP
Colin Page Books
36 Duke Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1AG
Eastleach Books
3 Preston Place, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2SE
FALCONWOOD TRANSPORT & MILITARY BOOKSHOP
Gerrards Cross Bookshop
12a Packhorse Road, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire SL9 7QE
hellenic bookservice
49/51 Fortess Road, London, Greater London Nw5 1AD
Idle Hour Book Inn
1192 Eruera Street, Rotorua, Other 3010
Jade Mountain Bookshop
17-19 Highland Road, Southsea, Hampshire PO4 9DA
john carpenter bookshop
city of london school, queen victoria st, london, Greater London ec4v 3al
Magazero
Unit 6, Trafalgar Mew
Martello Bookshop Ltds,
Brighton, East Sussex BN1 4EZ
26 High Street, Rye, East Sussex TN31 7JJ
MSR Books
16 Laxton Gardens, Paddock Wood, Nr. Tonbridge, Kent TN12 6BB
A Book for all Reasons
6 Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR33 0HS
a novel idea
36a regent street, great yarmouth, great yarmouth, Norfolk nr30 1rr
BECKHAM BOOKS LTD.
CHILTON MOUNT, NEWTON ROAD, SUDBURY, Suffolk CO10 2RS
Bookbarrow
93, Cam Causeway, Chesterton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB4 1TL
Childrens Books Ltd T/A Letterbox Library
Letterbox Library, 71-73 Allen Road, Stoke Newington, London, Greater London N16 8RY
Church Street Books
Church Street Books, Church Street, Diss, Norfolk IP22 4DD
Churchgate Books
Churchgate Books, 47 Churchgate Street, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1RG
John Underwood Antiquarian Books
Hill House, Chapel Street, New Buckenham, Norwich, Norfolk NR16 2BB
Oasis Christian Books
88 Norfolk Street, WISBECH, Cambridgeshire PR13 2LF
Peter Moore Bookseller
Unit 7, The Old Maltings, 135 Ditton Walk, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB5 8PY
Quest Booksearch
24 Hawthorne Road, Stapleford, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB22 5DU
Red Lion Books
125 High Street, Colchester, Essex CO1 1SZ
Sarah Key, The Haunted Bookshop
9 St. Edward's Passage, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3PJ
St Paul's Street Bookshop
7 St Paul's Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE( 2BE
the Old Station Pottery & Bookshop
The Old Station., Maryland., Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk NR23 1LY
Much Ado Books
8 West Street, Alfriston, East Sussex BN26 5UK
Muswell Hill Bookshop
72 Fortis Green Road, Muswell Hill, London, City of London N10 3HN
MY BACK PAGES
8-10 BALHAM STATION ROAD, LONDON, Greater London SW12 5SG
Nineteenth Century Books
St Marys Cottage, 61 Thame Rd, Warborough, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 7EA
PERIWINKLE PRESS
BAGHAM BARN ANTIQUES CENTRE, CANTERBURY ROAD, CHILHAM, CANTERBURY, Kent CT4 8DU
Ripping Yarns
355 Archway Road, London, Greater London N6 4EJ
Robert Temple Books
65, Mildmay Road, London, Other N1 4PU
ruskin books
42 red lodge road, joydens wood, bexley, Kent da5 2jp
Stephen Foster
95 Bell Street, London, Greater London NW1 6TL
The Book Castle
12 Church Street, Dunstable, Bedfordshire LU5 4RU
The Book Nook
1 St Johns Place, First Avenue, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FJ
The Bookroom
The Bookroom, 146 Chiltern Drive, Surbiton, Surrey KT5 8LS
The Bookshop on the Heath Ltd
74 Tranquil Vale, Blackheath, London, Greater London SE30BW
This Way Books
PO Box 3224, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 6JZ
two jays bookshop
119 HIGH STREET, EDGWARE, LONDON, Greater London HA8 7DB
Aucott & Thomas
57 High St., Suite 8, Ibstock, Leicestershire LE67 6LH
BLACK CAT BOOKSHOP
BLACK CAT BOOKSHOP, P O BOX 8662, WIGSTON, LEICESTER, Leicestershire LE18 9BB
Books at Al's
127 Greenhill Road, Coalville, Leicestershire LE67 4RN
Books at Star Dot Star
Flat 23 Salisbury House, Lily Street, West Bromwich, West Midlands B71 1QD
Burway Books
10 Beaumont Road, Church Stretton, Shropshire SY6 6BN
EVERGREEN LIVRES
Evergreen Livres, 2 Talbot Court, The Square, Stow-On-The-Wold, Gloucestershire GL54 1BQ
Forest Books
7 High Street West, Uppingham, Rutland LE15 9QB
Gladstone Books
The Shambles, 4 Westgate, Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN1 3AS
Harrowden Books of Finedon
61 High Street, Finedon, Northamptonshire NN9 5JN
Jane Badger Books
The Manor House, 77 High St, Irchester, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire NN29 7AA
KEITH SMITH BOOKS
78B THE HOMEND, LEDBURY, Herefordshire HR8 1BX
Maynard & Bradley
1 Royal Arcade, Silver Street, Leicester, Leicestershire LE1 5YW
Petrsbooks
Osborne House, Ash Lane, Hopwood, Nr. Alvechurch, Worcestershire B48 7TT
robert mansfield
ivy cottage, 27 rosemary lane, whitchurch, Shropshire SY13 1EG
Sedgeberrow Books
25 High Street, Pershore, Worcestershire WR10 1AA
Shepshed Books LTd
Shepshed Books Ltd, Unit 4,14-20 Field Street, Shepshed, Leicestershire LE12 9AL
STEVE BROWN (BOOKS)
2 Curorough Cottages, Watery Lane, Curborough, Lhfieldic, Staffordshire WS13 8ER
Tin Drum Books
Tin Drum Books, 68 Narborough Road, Leicester, Leicestershire LE3 0BR
uncel phil's books
R/O 21 Holbrook Lane, coventry, West Midlands cv6 4ad
WHITE RABBIT RECORDS AND BOOKS
MARKET HALL, CLAREMONT STREET, SHREWSBURY, Shropshire SY1 1QG
Acanthophyllum Books
121 Telegraph Road, Heswall, Wirral, Merseyside CH60 0AF
Acanthophyllum Books
243 Pensby Road, Heswall, Wirral, Merseyside CH60 0AF
Barry McKay Rare Books
Kingstone House, Battlebarrow, Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria CA16 6XT
Book Bargains Ltd
31 St Andrew's Road South, Lythams St Annes, Lancashire FY8 1PZ
Bridge Bookshop Isle of Man
Bridge Bookshop, Shore Road, Port Erin, Isle of Man, Other IM9 4PB
Broadhursts of Southport Ltd
5-7 market Street, Southport, Lancashire PR8 1HD
C L Hawley
26 Belgrave Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 1QB
Clitheroe Books
29 Moor Lane, Clitheroe, Lancashire Bb7 1BE
Copnal Books
18 Meredith Street, Crewe, Cheshire CW1 2PW
DAVID GRAYLING FINE SPORTING BOOKS
VERDUN HOUSE, MAIN STREET, SHAP, PENRITH, Cumbria CA10 3NG
Fireside Bookshop
Fireside Bookshop, 21 Victoria Street , Windermere, Cumbria LA23 1AB
First Used Books
69 Kingsway, Vancouver, Other V5T 3J1
Henry Wilson Books
61 Main Street, Sedbergh, Cumbria LA10 5AB
Innoworking
Quaintways, Marine Rd, Hoylake, Merseyside Ch47 2as
Lakeland village hall books
2 Timber Hill, Broughton in Furness, Cumbria LA20 6HX
Market Place Books (Cockermouth)
Market Place Books, 30 Market Place, Cockermouth, Cumbria CA13 9NG
Nantwich Bookshop
46 High St.,, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 5AS
News from Nowhere Bookshop
96 Bold St, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 4HY
pritchards
13, Moor Ln.,, Crosby, Liverpool, Merseyside L23 2SE
Talisman Books
42 Town St, Marple Bridge, Stockport, Cheshire SK65AA
The Warrington Book Loft
The Warrington Book Loft, Quadrant House, Church Street, Warrington, Cheshire WA1 2TF
Tomes of Buxton
Pictures and Books at teh High Peak Gard, Hope Road, Bamford, Derbyshire S33 0AL
Westwood Books
Long Lane, Sedbergh, Cumbria LA10 5AH
Barter Books
Alnwick Station, Alnwick, Northumberland NE66 2NP
Chevin Books
Unit One, Bay Horse Court, Otley, West Yorkshire LS21 1SB
Cygnet Books
86 main Street, Swanland, East Riding of Yorkshire HU14 3QR
DAVID SPENCELEY BOOKS
75, Harley Drive, LEEDS, West Yorkshire LS13 4QY
East Riding Books
13 Westland Road, Kirkella, East Riding of Yorkshire HU10 7PH
Garforth Bookshop
15 Main Street, Garfrorth, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS24 1DS
Hoppers(Malton)Ltd
48/56 Market Place, Malton, North Yorkshire YO17 7LW
Peter M Thornber: Bookseller
3 School Hill, SETTLE, North Yorkshire BD24 9HB
Rickaro Books
17 High Street, Horbury, Wakefield, West Yorkshire WF4 5AB
Solaris Books
Flat 4, 13 Lockwood Street, Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire YO25 6RU
Swaledale Museum
Swaledale Museum, The Green, Reeth, Richmondshire, North Yorkshire DL11 6QT
The Book Case
29 Market Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire HX7 6EU
The Orchard Bookshop
347b Wakefield Rd, Denby Dale, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire HD88RT
Aye-Aye Books
350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, Lanarkshire G2 3JD
Biblocafe Ltd
262 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, Lanarkshire G3 6NE
Deeside Books
18-20 Bridge street, Ballater, Aberdeenshire AB35 5QP
East Neuk Books
East Neuk Books, 5-7 Rodger Street, Anstruther, Fife KY10 3DU
Elvis Shakespeare Ltd
347 Leith Walk, Edinburgh, Midlothian EH68SD
Jane jones books
The old shop, Dinnet, Aboyne, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire Ab34 5 jy
Loch Croispol Bookshop, Restaurant & Gallery
2 Balnakeil, Durness, Sutherland IV27 4PT
masons of melrose
9 market square, melrose, Roxburghshire td69pq
Second Edition
Second Edition, 9 Howard St, Edinburgh, Midlothian EH3 5JP
Sweet Words
14 Atholl Street, Dunkeld, Perthshire PH8 0AR
Bailey Hill Bookshop
Fore Street, Castle Cary, Somerset BA7 7BG
Bath Old Books
9c Margarets Buildings, Brock St, Bath, Somerset BA1 2LP
Bishopston Books
259 Gloucester Rd, Bishopston, Bristol, Bristol BS7 8NY
Bookmark Children's Books
Fortnight, Wick Down, Broad Hinton, Swindon, Wiltshire SN4 9NR
Brendon Books
Brendon Books, Old Brewery Buildings, Bath Place, Taunton, Somerset TA1 4ER
Bristol Books Bristol
Champion House, Moorend Road, Hambrook, Bristol, Bristol BS16 1SP
Ellwood Books
truffles, bunny lane, Sherfield English, Hampshire SO51 6FU
Grahame Thornton Bookseller
Monghyr House, Spring Lane, Longburton, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 5NZ
Herb Tandree Philosophy Books
Fromehall Mill, Blk 2, Rm 9, Lodgemore Lane, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 3EH
Hunting Raven Books Ltd
10 Cheap Street, Frome, Somerset BA11 1BN
March House Books
38 Old Station Gardens, Henstridge, Somerset BA8 0PU
Newlyn Books
Newlyn Books, 9 The Old Posthouse, Chapel Street, Penzance, Cornwall tr184aj
paragon books
38 high street, sidmouth, Devon EX10 8EJ
Peter Goodden Books Ltd.
7 Clarendon Villas, Widcombe Hill, Bath, Somerset BA2 6AG
R and R Books
R and R Books, Nelson Street, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 2HL
Steven Ferdinando
The Old Vicarage, Queen Camel, Nr Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7NG
The Book Shop
14 South Street, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3NQ
The Book Shop
100 High Street, Crediton, Devon EX17 3LF
The Bookshelf
96 Fore Street, Saltash, Cornwall PL12 6JW
The Sanctuary Bookshop
65 Broad St, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7 3QF
Trilogy Group
43 Selkirk Street, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL52 2HJ
Words Etcetera
Words Etcetera, 2 Cornhill, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1BA
Broad Street Book Centre
6 Broad Street, Hay on Wye, Brecknockshire HR3 5DB
Hancock & Monks
6 Broad Street, Hay-on-Wye, Brecknockshire HR3 5DB
Llyfrau Ystwyth Books
7, Princess St, Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire SY23 1DX
Marijana Dworski
Unit 9,, Broadaxe Business Park, Presteigne, Radnorshire LD8 2LA
Outcast Books
15A Broad Street, Hay-on-Wye, Powys HR3 5DB
Alan Hanna's Bookshop
270 Rathmines Rd Lr, Rathmines, Other Dublin 6
Alan Prim
6 south Main Street, Youghal, Co.Cork, Other .
doolin dinghy books
fisher street, doolin,
Newcastle West Bookstore Ltd
Market Yard, Newcastle West, Other N/A
The Blessington Book Store
Main St, Blessington, Other 0000
Tower Books
13 Hawthorn Ave.,, Inniscarra View Estate,, Ballincollig,, Other 00-353-21-






 

Amazon and B&N Continue to Redefine Their Roles

It is clear that the publishing marketplace is going through radical changes with new entrants, the rise of author power and existing players all scrambling for a place in this new world order.

Today ‘Pubit’ was announced by US Barnes & Noble. ‘Pubit’ provides independent publishers and self-publishing authors with the opportunity to distribute their digital titles through Barnes & Noble.com and the Barnes & Noble eBookstore. They claim to have yet another ‘simple and competitive’ royalty model and compensation process. The content will be in epub format and rendered with Adobe’s DRM protection and onto many computing, mobile and eBook reading devices.

So Barnes & Noble are going after the small publishers and self publishing market and follow the lead forged by the likes of Amazon. There is clear an opportunity to attract those many authors who feel disenfranchised by the traditional publishing and reward model. Resellers such as Amazon and B&N can offer higher rewards and access to an established channel.

Amazon also announced today a further step into the publishing territory with its new imprint AmazonCrossing. The imprint will offer English language translations of foreign language books. It’s a potentially smart move which offers clients both print and digital formats. The first title will be Tierno Monénembo's award-winning novel, "The King of Kahel," which was originally published in France in 2008 and was the winner of the French literary prize, the prix Renaudot. It will be released for the first time in English in November and begs the question why it was missed by others.

A global player, such as Amazon, is in a great position to pick out foreign winners, acquire the rights, translate the work and in doing so cut out the traditional publisher. They can promote it and offer it straight to market through multiple channels and to a very wide and diverse audience. Picking foreign winners is always difficult, but getting the readers to recommend them and then having the sales data to validate them is an interesting and logical twist.

For many authors, to be selected and promoted by Amazon to the English language global audience may be similar to winning a literary prize.

Whilst the publishing market cosies up to Apple and booksellers align to Google some resellers continue to redefine their role and relationships and refuse to be pigeon holed.

A Cacophony of Digital Noise

Today's digital book world must be confusing for consumers and resellers and let’s face it most people! It is as if the world can only talk about digital books and yet we find ourselves still firmly routed in a physical book world.

How many bases must a ebook reseller and publishers cover today? They may want to have an iPhone app, obviously will need to cover the eink ‘lookie likeies’ that are mostly crowded around Adobe’s ACS4 DRM service, then there is the kindle fortress. Lets not forget Google Editions, the 'restricted' but open world of the iPad, we mustn’t forget Android and then there’s Blio. We are still in the world of DRM and secure files. We still are download focused with online waiting patiently in the wings. We still have not addressed the challenges and opportunities of libraryworld? We almost forgot that publishers are going digitally direct and finally we have the increasingly challenging self publishing world of the likes of Scribd and Lulu.

Take the relatively short look at the digital world of US Bookseller Barnes & Noble. First they thought Barnes & Noble.com would crush Amazon.com, they then caved in and handed their Internet business over to them, then they reversed that and came back as themselves. Then the current ebook wave hit them and they acquired Fictionwise, when some said that they should have probably bought Stanza. They went for their own device, the Nook, then after the euphoria, started to grapple with its challenges. They became device agnostic one day and introduced Samsung the next. Now they boldly plan to release bookstore and e-reading software for the iPad with an application that would compete with Apple's own iBookstore.The new Barnes & Noble, iPad-specific version of the software has been designed specifically for the iPad and Amazon has yet to announce its iPad plans.

We read about millions of digital titles, many of which are public domain and have dubious merit, but they make the numbers look good even if you can't find the latest release! Some say that we are still in the school yard and bragging days of ‘my repository is bigger than yours’. Some question whether size actually matters over substance.

The noise levels are certainly increasing with big resellers and publishers appearing to be slugging it out on what appears to be every digital platform. Meanwhile Gorillas, such as Google, Amazon and Apple, are demanding their way. New hardware devices, like rabbits on a Spring day, pop up everywhere and everyday.

What about the physical book reseller? What should they do today and is their digital future beyond their grasp? We still believe in what we wrote nearly four years ago in our Brave New World report. However, has the market responded, or has it adopted the same response it did when the Internet first appeared and said ‘not today thank you.’ Bookselling is bookselling be it physical, digital, antiquarian, remainders. Readers are by their nature eclectic both in their taste and how they read.

Only offering one solution, be it digital or physical, will not work.Sitting on the fence just increases the potential of getting splitters where you don’t want them. However, digital moves may result in expensive lessons. Resellers need direction and leadership and to draw on their publishing relationships. That is often difficult as consumers are dazzled in the glare of the digital headlights, publishers try to do it themselves and the cacophony of digital noise grows.

Redrawing Borders Part 2

In the first part of ‘Redrawing the Borders’ we described the changing landscape and the polarisation that is happening across the market. In this article we will look at the vertical, author power and the freeconomy

Vertical. We recognise that book buyers are eclectic by nature and although they will have strong preferences on some genre they are bibliophile by nature. However there is logic in verticals and the argument that focus counts. Be it romance, poetry, crime there will always be that vertical opportunity for both publishers and retailers.

For retailers it’s often about establishing the niche and getting the selection to match that from a broad range of publishers and then augmenting that with other complimentary products and offers. With publishers its about getting the best content packaged right. The interesting issue is that the vertical publisher needs as broad a target market as possible in order to maximise sales, but needs to establish brand empathy with the genre without finding themselves ‘typecast’ in the horizontal offer. For example Do you find Wordsworth, Penguin, OUP classics side by side under classics, literature, fiction or by themselves in the corner? Should Mills and Boon be stocked apart form others or fully interspersed within the shelf? What other offers would you expect alongside crime (deerstalker hats, CSI crime kits, videos, Colombo raincoats)?

Whatever we think vertical segmentation is growing as everyone realises it’s an opportunity to differentiate the offer from the pack. We look at those who have gone belly up in the UK retail market over the last few years; Woolworths, Zavvi, Flop, Borders, none of them where exactly vertical in their focus.

Author power. We used to call it the slushpile and it was a challenge for many aspiring authors to get past it. It then went to slushpile on demand where authors were lured into the print on demand model supported by many vanity publishing operations. Today we see the slushpile becoming the contentpile, the showcase pile, the shop window for all. Some publishers have started to take this on board and have opened up their own ‘X factor’ websites where the voting public determine the winners from the losers. The winner obviously gets a publishing contract, a ‘Simon Cowell’ mentor and turns from frog to prince overnight!

However some new publishers have started to create a total business based around digital self publishing based not on providing x number of books and a bill but on providing a retail shop window, an aggregated service that promotes and sells digital books. The question of sale is interesting as being published can be far more important than making money to many aspiring authors and having a big shop window even more important. Imagine Google with a self publishing offer tied to a commercial engine or even paying royalties based merely on ad revenues based on hits.

Author power is real, its about realisation that big advances and large sales may be only for the few and shrinking and writing may not be so rewarding for the majority. This significantly impacts the High Street retailer as their offer is effectively squeezed. Should booksellers support and promote aspiring authors and become their patrons?

Freeconomy. Whatever we think and feel about the ‘free’ economy, it’s here and it’s not going away. Free obviously doesn’t always mean free, it may just be free at point of consumpsion and is being paid by another business model. A classic case is Spotify the digital streaming service that is taking Europe by a storm. There model is free and is paid for by advertising, premium service sales which are ad free and by downloads. Will it work? The challenge it has is to convince consumers that music on demand makes more sense than music to own and never play. We think it shifts the consumer mindset to a different place and is spot on. Others are already hot on their heels. Can it apply to books? We would simply ask Google if it could apply to books.

What does this all mean to the high street retailer? The answer is difficult as one is virtual and digital and the other physical. What is clear that as consumers have moved to digital games, video downloads, music streaming, the high street didn’t move with them. As business models shift it hard to see how the High Street moves.

Redrawing Borders Part 1

The news of Borders UK going into administration demonstrates the changes happening in book publishing. It will be bad from many and good for some. In an industry so diverse as publishing, change is inevitable but often difficult. We have seen the supermarket and others take market share and apply limited range focus couple with high discounts. We have seen the chains wander aimlessly into discount wars they can’t win. We have seen the emergence of new entrants who aim to dominate through new models.

So is it bad or merely just change? What will be the outcome and who will emerge tomorrow?

We can no longer separate the physical from the digital worlds. Amazon has proved that people are happy to buy physical books on the Internet. The urban myth that you had to see, smell and feel a book in order to buy in it is broken. This doesn’t mean that only the Internet will survive it merely says that the economies of scale and scope that supported the chain model of yesterday are no longer applicable. Today anyone can sell virtual stock and the new chains are potentially aggregators such as Overdrive, Ingrams and Gardners. However, as they widen that offer to digital they themselves face new entrants who see their models as broken as we see the chains today.

There are only two people who matter in all this extended chain – the author who creates the value and the consumer who pays for it. Everyone in between has to earn their place and add value.

So ignoring today’s fresh battles where are we heading next?

We may not have the answers but we can offer some pointers to watch:

Polarisation. The economics that once penalised the small can now work for them. They increasing don’t have to fight the chains, but players whose offer is significantly different. If one looks at music, gone are the many chains that once populated the High Street. We now have maybe one chain and a small, but healthy, number of local small players. The small players have to focus on their selection, offer and customers. What chains that do survive, now have to now fight virtual giants, new entrants, supermarkets etc. It's interesting times, when the largest digital music seller is iTunes, and the largest physical music seller is Walmart.

This polarisation is not just about retail, it applies right across the publishing value chain. The economics and changes effecting book retail equally apply to book publishing, distribution and every aspect of the value chain as we knew it. Those who believe size matters better look over their shoulders at some of the new entrants. Its technology, aggregation and collaboration that often is the key and publishers aren’t in that space today. This collaborative need is particularly relevant given that we wrote about iMags only yesterday.

Small publishers now have the real opportunity to flourish alongside small bookshops.


Next we will look at the vertical market, author power and the freeconomy

Bookselling in the Digital Age: Part 2

This is the second excerpt of the presentation given to the Swanwick Writers Summer School, 11th August,2009. By my wife Annie Quigley, owner of Biblophile Books. ‘Bookselling In A Digital Age.’

...So how does the Digital world affect you as authors?

Why does a bookseller need you today?


In today’s digital world the book may be physical but the marketing is going digital in the way that people find it, buy it and value it on the internet.

Yesterday everyone relied on the publisher to promote and market both the book and its creator. Those days are fast disappearing. Marketing and PR budgets are tighter and publishers now will back surefire winners allowing the rest often swim for themselves. Max Arthur, a historian friend tells the story of one publisher (who I shan’t name), setting aside the princely sum of £100 for his book tour budget! What does that tell you about the state of publishing today? I am asking you to consider “Who is the best person to sell the book?”

I quote Ray Hammond again who urges the writer very strongly;
“It’s your business and if you want to make a living you must at least take some responsibility for the selling.”

You may ask “How can I do that?”

First you have to take responsibility for the blurb and the book’s jacket and not just delegate it to a marketing person whom you may never meet. It’s your brand. Remember each key word you choose to describe your work and each description or review is now used by search engines to find and catalogue your books. Today you no longer compete with a shelf of books in a bookstore but millions of titles on a virtual shelf. Can you afford to get this wrong? Can you afford NOT to be involved with the marketing?

Secondly you must become familiar with blogs, websites, podcasts and social networking sites. You may not use them all, but I would urge you, make your choice out of knowledge not out of ignorance. We need those new kinds of feeds to stimulate the book buying market, to provide supplementary information such as biographical details and to encourage a younger generation to take an interest in our work.

Perhaps if you do this correctly, I and Bibliophile may never see your books!

Book tours may be being squeezed and school visits now shrouded with awful government checks and licences but the virtual world exists and a virtual tour is now possible from your armchair.

Thirdly, you must become familiar with your local bookseller and librarian. Work with them at how best to promote yourself and maybe offer to add content to their websites and newsletters or offer readings and signings. Consider how are you going to make fans, and connect with readers…
And last but not least, what are you going to say about yourself, your influences and your methods of writing?

Selling your book certainly doesn’t stop at finding an agent or getting a publisher. That is the very start of an exciting journey. As rights may no longer revert in a digital world, the book may stay in print in perpetuity, its life cycle only over when every opportunity to sell it exhausted.

The digital world offers authors a great deal just as it does booksellers, so let’s make it fun and work together to make success happen. Far from sitting back, we planning to re publish my mother Aileen Armitage’s books in the formats of both Print On Demand and ebooks.As a bookseller I know that these books can be sold and am determined to bring them back into print for a new generation of readers.

Two titles I brought back from obscurity and wrote new Introductions for were The Night Side of London and The Memoirs of An Erotic Bookseller (which is not my autobiography!) But rather than order long print runs, they are published POD.

The POD machine has at last arrived Charing Cross Road in Blackwell’s and can produce a book in 5 minutes bound and ready. I am tempted to invest in one and would do so if more writers’ works become available as digital files for me to select from.
Just before I finish, I would like to regale a wonderful story about the late Bill Smith. Bill also found fame as a publisher and was the last person to be charged and acquitted under the Obscene Publications Act. He had reprinted a book called The Amorous Illustrations of Thomas Rowlandson and discovered that the original erotic watercolours were held at the Queens private Library in Windsor no less! Bill’s defence summary in court was delivered in style, with his thumbs tucked under his imaginary braces, “Me Lud, surely if they’re good enough for Her Majesty, they’re good enough for her subjects!” Case dismissed.

I am such a dyed-in-the wool bookseller that maybe then I shall go back to the old tradition of taking orders then printing individual books for my customers. This was what bookseller/printer did 300 years ago before the profession of “publisher” was invented! In fact the prosperous 18th century booksellers were all large copyright owners.

May I end by reading from one of my favourite books, The Life of Robert Dodsley, “… for the real money lay in ownership of copyrights, not in the retailing… booksellers were the entrepreneurs who purchased rights from authors, and, binding to others, merchandised and finished the product through advertisement and trade distribution.”

What goes around comes may around. Let’s make bookselling fun, and long may the author-bookseller relationship flourish - here’s to our digital future! `

Bookselling in the Digital Age: Part 1

This is the first excerpt of the presentation given to the Swanwick Writers Summer School, 11th August,2009. By my wife Annie Quigley, owner of Biblophile Books. ‘Bookselling In A Digital Age.’

…One friend of mine is the professional sci fi writer, speaker and futurologist Ray Hammond.Ray is hired by large corporations to predict technological advances and is now a very well paid and respected consultant. He says: “A book in print is dead. It has to be alive electronically, or it’s dead.”

Ray may talk about the future but lives in the present. He said to me last week at a signing of his books at Bibliophile, “I am thrilled Bibliophile is recycling two of my books and having me here to sign them today. In this way it brings pleasure to readers who may otherwise not find them or could afford them at full price. “

These thoughts demonstrate today’s dilemma for writers. We are at a time of change and the reality is that both digital and physical books will live side by side for many years. Remember, books have to be alive electronically, or they’re dead.

How much will a digital book cost?

Some publishers predict the same price as a paperback. If like me you have an iPhone and use Ereader software like Stanza, you expect to pay a very small sum if anything for an E book.

Ray Hammond makes a living out of predicting future technologies and he say that he expects his books in digital form will be made available for free. In this case, how then are we all make money if it’s free? What Ray is describing is the conflict between extreme views but lets get real, change will not be overnight. I believe the glass is half full, not half empty, and that there are many opportunities for authors in today’s digital world and perhaps being less reliant on publishers is one of those realities.


Self publishing will be huge – and I don’t mean vanity publishing. You will need an understanding of copyright and marketing.

Will the digital revolution impact bookselling? - yes
.
I spoke at an International booksellers conference in South Africa three years ago on this topic and re reading that speech I had said: “I want to sell e-books and audio downloads in the future and therefore have to look for reliable suppliers and select titles at the right price. As soon as I can, I will offer them for sale them alongside physical books.” As I said, that was three years ago and in the meantime, publishers have been slow to announce and commit to a digital publishing programme, particularly in this recession.

We have to recognise digitisation is only just evolving. America’s largest booksellers Barnes & Noble is only just setting up digital store; Waterstones set up their ebook website 12 months ago and Borders UK and Blackwells have only just gone live on ebooks. Wholesaler Gardners can now supply any bookseller with some 100000 new ebooks, so any bookshop can join this scheme.

So we are the start of a journey and there are many conflicts to resolve. The one thing we can be certain of is that the future of bookselling will be quite different from today and I want to be part of it. Like myself, many other booksellers don’t want to lie down and give away our traditional hand selling market to the likes of Amazon, Google, Apple or even Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s and Asda. We want to sell physical and digital – we want to sell books.

Supermarkets today claim 20% of UK book sales, and Amazon another 20%. This was unheard of just 5 years ago. If another 40% of titles are deep discounted by publishers, how are authors going to make money? What percentage is left after the publishers’ costs for you to take as a slice of the pie? You may sell thousands of copies of books into a supermarket, but at what cost?

Here is a little of my life in bookselling.

Publishers send me reps to showcase their titles and in truth, for every 100 books I am shown, I select just one. The criteria I use varies, but I have to make sure its right for my members, be confident I can market it and sell it. I could easily be buying 100 different titles at a time and a minimum of 100 copies of each and if I do my job well, we can oversell and rush back for more stocks. After 25 years of bookselling, I cannot claim to know each of our 100,000 members but they certainly know me and share a discerning taste in literature on which they can rely.

My oldest customer Mr Martin Stern, asked his daughters to arrange to bring him to visit Bibliophile for his special 90th birthday treat. Here we are pouring over his favourite S J Perelman tome!

If I can be brutal here, I recognise that some books fail because the publisher’s blurb was poor or the jacket didn’t represent or sell the content. I endeavour to ensure that every Bibliophile review sells the book. Bookselling is certainly not just down to price!

I am often asked two questions, “What makes a book sell and what are your bestsellers”?

In brief, it is beautifully made art books, conspiracy theories, crime fiction and Signed books which I love to sell and collect, so I regularly organise author visits. By genre, it is predominantly non-fiction - art, history, religion, war, humour and erotica. Not necessarily in that order!

Bibliophile has a vast reservoir of independent book reviews going back 30 years for something like 60,000 titles. With valuable sales figures for each, we can consider re publishing from this rich backlist and knowledge...