Brave Bookselling

On one side of the pond the ABA (American Booksellers Association) proudly proclaimed that some 44 new independent bookstores opened for business in 2013 and that 10 of these were in the technology state of California. In addition they also announce that 14 stores were bought by new owners. On the other side of the pond the BA (Booksellers Association of UK and Ireland) announced that the number of independent bookstore had dropped below 1000 to 987 and that in less than 10 years they had dropped by around a third from 1,535 in 2005 to today’s figure.

Both markets have lost major bookchains and now only one recognised national bookchain, but both face the same threat from technology, the internet and price discounting. Is the US showing signs of recovery or learning to adapt and change? So is it a case of the glass half full in the US versus the glass half empty in the UK?

The UK has some challenges from the subsidised charity shops and in particular Oxfam’s Bookstore, but these don’t sell new books, they sell used books, but they do enjoy rent and business rates advantage over the bookstores. The bookshops also face growing and targeted competition from supermarkets who stock a narrow range of highly attractive titles at deep discount. They face going competition from newspapers and others who sell off page reviews and have them distributed by the same wholesalers who support the bookshops. The High Streets continue to show signs of slow decline and have lost out to out of town stores and destination malls.

There are however many bookshop success stories and many who have embraced a wider remit than just books and coffee. There are some like Richard Booth’s Bookshop in Hay on Wye whose owner Elizabeth Haycox also has a café, a cinema and even facilitates weddings, but it is a unique location and an unusual lady.

However, in the main the independent bookshops we read about are sellers of only limited front list titles, which are displayed on the sale or return ‘safe’ model. The offer still has to compete with those that they will always find it hard to compete with in a price conscious and virtual internet shelf marketplace. Few have ventured into the bargain market, let alone the used and antiquarian ones and in essence they remain one trick ponies and increasingly vulnerable. Many sell on Amazon, eBay and other marketplaces but this is hardly a sustainable model and one where they have control over the margin.

Earlier this year we wrote about the sales boom that the Strand bookstore in New York run by Fred Bass has experienced over the festive period. Fred sells new, old, used, rare and even review copies. He does distinguish between any and sees only books and customers who want books, but he too has a vibrant and highly profitable merchandising offer selling his branded products and accommodates many filming shoots in the store. To top that the Strand building he owns is prime Manhattan real estate.

Government, local councils can make life easier for bookshops, but so can the industry. Do the publishers really do enough to help make this channel viable, or are they now too preoccupied chasing the high volume, low margin business or even in giving books away to promote reading. Have they forgotten the shop window that the bookshops give them, or has their view and disposal towards the traditional book retail channel been tainted by the demands made by the chains?

If Bookstores are to survive they must change and adapt. They must embrace all books and in doing so take some risks. They must widen their appeal and offer complimentary services and goods and they must start to see the glass half full and not half empty.

The Mysterious Bookshop Finds A Survival Answer?

Sometimes we miss news, or items, which at the time didn't make our radar.

Today we come across one such story, which at a time when many bookshops are struggling to see the way ahead, may well offer some food for thought.

Driven by the realism of the book market for independent bookshops, Otto Penzler woke in the middle of the night and had an idea. Otto thought that if he asked some of his author friends to write a profile of their series characters, he could then print them and give them away with a book purchase as a special souvenir.

Otto is the owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York, which specialises in crime, mysteries and thrillers. This idea wasn’t his first and he had previously commissioned an original story from one of his author friends each Christmas. The story had to be set during Christmas, have an element of mystery and be part set at the Mysterious  Bookshop. He would then print the story and give it as thanks to his customers at Christmas.

He produced the new profiles in collector sets of 100, all signed by the author and as they say, the rest is history.

The initiative helped sustain the business and years after its initiation it still worked. He went on to publish the profiles as a collection, with Little Brown in US and Quercus in the UK.  ‘The Lineup’, featured character profiles from authors such as; Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith.

Even if this is old news, it is still relevant news and gives us all food for thought.

Books on Film

When my wife’s Bibliophile book business started its YouTube video reviews some two years ago, we all questioned whether the effort would be worth the reward. Some 500 videos later, we know the answer and like its library of over 100K unique and individual book reviews, the effort was worth the reward.

Imagine being show an expensive art book by the person who bought the stock, not on ‘sale or return’, but firm and hearing them enthuse about what turned their head. The bonus is that you don’t get a head shot of a person, but get to see inside the book at the pages and the look and feel of the book itself. The real bonus comes with the price!

Many of the 3,500 books Bibliophile stocks are out of print, remaindered, or are on offer at a great price, but the information about them elsewhere is often poor, hard to find and that is probably why Bibliophile can offer them. Bibliophile unlock these gems and ensure their customers can see both inside the covers and understands their value.

So why do we still have the dry jacket and blurb from publishers? Why is the poor source of information, duly copied and offered on to consumers by many online retailers today? In some genres it may work but in many it’s just not good enough today and we have to find new ways to show off the book, describe it and sell it. It is about engagement with customers not throwing scraps over the wall and crossing one’s fingers.

Today music is being increasingly discovered, sampled and enjoyed via YouTube and in due course is becoming two dimensional. So why do we still have the same dour book promotion?

Some publishers are spending more to create promotional videos and glossy advertising of their ‘best sellers’, but surely in the age of the YouTube and the DIY video, it makes more sense to do it for all titles and create ‘more for less’ than merely pamper and spend on the few that would be hits anyway.

Learning From The Best POP-UP Bookshop Experience

Merely handing over the business to the digitally enlightened is not the answer, just as pretending digital will not happen was not the answer. We spend far too much time trying to disintermediate and disrupt and maybe not enough realising time that the present can have a place in the future.

Having spent a week last month, preparing and manning the Bibliophile stand at the Queen’s Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace, I was encouraged by the power of the physical book. There are only two booksellers with a perstigious Royal Warrant and being the only one selected to be on show in the expansive palace gardens, was a great honour for my wife’s 30 year old business Bibliophile.

The demographic that flooded in over the four days was perfect, forty plus, AB and heavy readers. Many of the 60,000 attendees were drawn to the Bibliophile stand by their love of books, the draw offer for the Taschen wonderful ‘Majesty’ tome, the author signings from Sandi Toksvig and Max Arthur and of course the bargain prices!

Many stated that they had Kindles and Tablets, but that although they may read fiction on them, they still preferred physical books. It’s hard to envisage digital ebooks, as we know them today, replacing many of the works we had on offer. From high end art and architecture to history, war and military and children’s pop up books, the physical book still remains today. It is also hard to see how digital can replace the joy that so many had in meeting Sandi and Max and the reciprocal joy they had in engaging with their fans.

There was Freddie, who as a 9 year old, engaged instantly with the DC Comics and Beano tomes on offer. During the concert break he even came back with his parents to talk to our comic and film expert, Steve, on the Green Lantern and other heroes.

There was Marion who was not content with raiding the shelves once and came back for seconds. She said that it was easy to spent hundreds of pounds on books at 50% off and with free delivery. When she came back again for a third time, she had to admit she was a book addict and long may we continue to feed that lovely and rewarding habit.

Learning that physical and digital can complement each other and that the often neglected short form can be rejuvenated in the digital age, is what books are about. We have to rebalance the market, the organisations and relationships with it, the focus of certain genres, the way we do business but in doing so we must listen and move with the marketplace itself.

Are Bookchains Merely Shuffling Deckchairs on the Titanic?

Change is demanding and be forced on companies by a declining or changing marketplace, or may be proactively adopted by others adopting a change of direction and strategy. What is guaranteed is that markets do not stand still and the only thing that is certain is change itself.

In the 80s the dramatic reduction of the price of North Sea Oil forced changes on all operators. The company I worked for shed over 40% of its staff in just months and the cuts were swift and decisive. The first tranche was based on the selection of ‘passengers, prisoners and wounded’ and frankly we knee who they were and we hardly missed them. The second tranche was based on what they called ‘arms and legs’. It was about identifying the non-core skills, in some cases non-essential departments and projects which just didn’t work at the new low market price. The focus allowed the company to remain focused and deliver.

I introduced the same logical process years later when working in a major retailer we had to cut waste and cost. In fact all companies should review their structure, resources, and skills against market changes on a regular basis.

So we come to a book industry that is experiencing change in every relationship, process and even the product itself! The area we hear most of today is bookstores and bookchains. The likes of Barnes and Noble and Waterstones stand out like giant stone statues in what is a fluid and digital marketplace. It isn’t just about digital content but digital commerce, marketing and networked consumers.

Waterstones has recently shed some management and redefined its organisational model but some would question whether it is moving in the right direction or merely moving deckchairs on the Titanic.

Is the challenge and opportunity at the store management level or the shop floor itself? Reinvigorating bookselling and engaging with customers and driving sales often is not about changing job titles and hoping that leadership can happen from the top.  Perhaps the demographic on the shop floor itself is wrong and changing that has to be a proactive change. I was part of the team that made such an initiative deliver in retail.

Both Waterstones and Barnes and Noble still have too much real estate and resources to change quickly. Both have to rediscover the art of book-handling, book-selling and engagement which is lacking in many stores today. It’s not just a case of having the right selection in the right location, but also having the right engagement and brand perception.

Waterstones may have avoided a digital commitment, or as some would suggested merely handed over their customers naively to Amazon. Barnes and Noble may have bitten more digital technology that they could deliver and taken too long to realise that the Nook market didn’t stop at the Eastern seaboard. But in both cases it isn’t too late to harness the goodwill and brands that remain, but it will take hard decisions such as experienced in the oil industry in the 80s and not just tinkering at the edges. It truly is a daunting task and not one for the old guard or inexperienced.

Branding Is A Daunting Task

Waterstones have proudly unveiled a number of key branding messages aimed at establishing their bookselling credentials on the High Street. Today they took a whole page colour advert in the Saturday Daily Telegraph main paper to promote one of their new brand messages,

‘Even the most ardent reader will never reach the end of a good bookshop.’

The page features a collage of some 36 x 36 book jackets (1296) clearly demonstrating the range on offer and with the new message plastered over them.

The doyen of bookselling, Fred Bass of the Strand in New York proudly claims 18 miles of books and range is something all booksellers are proud of. Sadly Waterstones can’t manage 1296 books without having to resort to duplicating many of the books in the collage. Some are repeated not once but up to 5 times and that is only on those that are visible behind the branding headline!

Perhaps there is a subliminal case of product placement in play. Perhaps the publishers have to pay to get their jackets on the page and some could not resist a multi-buy option.

We could have a great competition identifying the repeats and like some deliberate mistake game see who gets the most placements and which book scores the most repeats. Simon Cowell, Bruno, JK Rowling and others all seem to be featured 4 or 5 times alone!

The devil is always in the detail and although we had great fun circling the repeats it could be seen by some as an insult to readers who may quickly ‘reach the end of a good bookshop.’ 

So How Will Digital Growth Impact Physical Decline?

We all now accept that digital ebooks will continue to grow at speed, but that it is still highly speculative what the rate of growth and market size will be and that this is likely to vary between genre. We agree with Bloomsbury’s CEO Nigel Newton, when he states that physical books will remain and that we will have a mixed market for in the future. The question that we feel is missing in the digital debate is the impact that digital growth will have on the inevitable shrunken physical supply chain. Some may feel that the digital market is supplemental we would suggest that this will not be so and that the current practice of merely pouring physical content into digital containers will lead to a cannibalisation of physical sales.

The publishing supply chain remains finely balanced and somewhat complex. It remains a ‘many to many’ chain trading in many unique products from many sources. The reality is that any cost or inefficiency to one, is born by all within the chain and so the efficiencies that have been driven into the existing physical chain over the last decade could easily unravel as the economies of scale and scope change and numbers become even less predictable.

We ask the question of what the potential high level impact may be and what the supply chain may look like if the physical market were to shrink by say 20 to 30%?

Many predict the death of the physical bookstore and for many this is probably their fate if they remain wedded to their current model. The front list ‘sale or return’ model has worked well but is in danger of going past its ‘sell by date’ for many. Other retailers are now creaming off the volume on the big sellers and with their pricing clout are making the High Street a no go area for many. The independents have to wake up and sell old, used, bargain and respect that the cosy days of letting the publishers wallpaper their shelves are going and if a 20 to 30% reduction in physical sales were to occur they will have to find alternative revenues. A  reduction in revenue can be compensated by higher prices, which is highly unlikely, or by a reduction in cost, which in simple terms would mean a shrinkage in physical square footage – less stores. Waterstones are probably focused on reducing their estate by a significant percentage, getting these right and in doing so retaining their viability, but this option doesn’t exist for independents were the decision may be more binary.

A reduction of selling footage on the High Street is not going to be just down to digital but compounded by other retailers such as the supermarkets and the Internet creaming off the best sellers and higher volume sales.

Some will argue that the independents and High Street is doomed and so what. But as the percentage of the physical sales grows across a handful of channels and the overall volume of physical sales reduces, this has to impact and question the distribution and efficiency of the supporting supply chain. Today many will look to compensate any home sales reduction with exports but there is little to believe that this will not also be effected and the strategy may be more tactical than strategic. There is a clear case for greater physical supply chain consolidation and it is hard to envisage the same number of distribution and wholesale operations.  

There is the question of returns. As the physical High Street demand contracts there will be the inevitable increase in consignment errors. The stores will continue to support the low risk returns model which will lead to even more product being shipped around the country with no revenue being generated. The waste is a cost to everyone and will increase as declining sales make some publication’s sale less predictable.

It is fair to assume that you can’t have a significant disruptive impact on one area of the supply chain without the effects also impacting all other areas either in the form of the ripple, or domino effect.

Publishers have many challenges if the physical market were to shrink by 20 to 30%. It’s true that they will still have digital revenues to compensate and to do so at probably better margin and positive impact on their bottomline, but what will this mean to their organisation, processes, and cost structure? It is also true that different publishers will be impacted differently according to their sector coverage and mix of titles, but a 20 to 30% reduction in Physical sales will impact all.

Like any army one has to adapt your resources to fit the battle you are engaged in. The question now is what the organisational impact of not just digital but a contracting physical market will be on publishers?

Rights obviously become even more important but the onus changes with resources need to be deployed to discover and deal with digital infringement, a growing importance of permissions and the obvious greater need to capture, manage and access all rights detail more efficiently.

Marketing and Sales faces change. It is less about filling shelves and spread betting and more about engaging directly with the consumer marketplace. A migration from mass to direct marketing even though the product may be physical or digital. The challenge is whether the sale moves direct or remains through third parties? If the physical market shrinks and consolidates then the need for field sales must also reduce. Perhaps we shall see even more collaboration between competitors to share field sales resource, perhaps we shall publishing outsourcing to call centres to up-sell direct basis. Whatever the mix it will be a mix and it will be interesting to see how not only the large but also the small publisher organises this to balance their digital and physical sales.

Marketing material also stats to change as the physical market declines and consolidates and at the risk of being pillared by the every standards people, maybe the bibliographic and metadata also changes with the remaining clients still requiring more detailed metadata whilst the digital discovery forces more of content itself with secondary promotional materials to be used to engage with the audience.

We could also think about the obvious impact on editorial and production , the author relationship and their royalties, front list, mid list and back list mix and market differences. However,  what is clear is that any significant rebalance of the mix between digital and physical markets is going to have an impact on all and we need to think just as much of what this will mean in the physical world as we do in the digital world.

Unfortunately we somehow doubt that there will be an explosion of publishing conferences on the mixed economy and managing the physical offer in a digital world ….   

The Times Are a Changin' for Bookselling

Today we have three stories all of which demonstrate the changes that are reshaping bookselling. Each is a story in its own right and has its own implication, but when viewed collectively, they start to piece together a picture of significant change, potential threat and opportunity.

B&N
Barnes and Noble is again being openly chased by a suitor. Liberty Media has offered $17 per share in cash to acquire control of the company and this is contingent on the participation of founding chairman Leonard Riggio, both in terms of his continuing equity ownership and his continuing role in management. Shares have reacted positively rising some 20% and its clear the market believes this is probably just the opening salvo of bidding for the bookseller and higher offers are likely.

Barnes & Noble has a new ereader announcement planned for the 24th and has established a respectable position and digital market share and has the potential to cross the digital divide that haunts so many booksellers today. However it has to deal with the shrinking physical side of the business at the same time as investing in the digital and has lots of mouths to feed.

Waterstones
UK bookchain Waterstones is finally being sold by HMV to Alexander Mamut's A&NN Group for £53m. No surprises there. The move will see Dominic Myers stay with HMV Group and independent chain Daunt Books MD, James Daunt, become MD of Waterstones. Daunt Books itself will remain as now and run by its existing shop management. Mamut is reported in The Bookseller saying he aims to ‘reposition Waterstone’s as a regional and local community-orientated bookseller’.

The challenges Waterstones face are significant. Plans are one thing but execution is another and recently some would suggest that Waterstones have had plans but little or poor execution. It will be interesting to watch the direction they now take as the current one appears to be going nowhere. Will they downsize both in terms of stores and size and even loose the megastores? Will they adopt a more feminine concept and drop the heavy male and library feel? Will they embrace all books and be a bookseller? Will they be able to retain staff and develop them? Will they make up their mind about digital? A daunting task for Mr Daunt.

Sainsburys
Sainsbury's has just been awarded the accolade as being the "Martina Cole general or chain bookselling company of the year award" by The Bookseller. The award recognises that the supermarket for "reinvigorating book zones, increasing book sales by more than 33% and attracting new book buyers to the market".

We have seen the rise in books within the UK supermarket channel with Asda, Tescos and Sainsburys all giving increased shelf space to books and of course also discounting deeply. Supermarkets will always cherry pick titles that will sell and bestsellers, thrillers, crime, romance, celebrities, children’s and cook books will always be found on their selves at low prices. We have reported on Asda selling books cheaper than greeting cards and probably merchandising them the same way.

The impact of all this on the local independent bookstore is inevitable, with many suffering the same demise to that the off-licence, grocer and butcher did previously. The added twist is that supermarkets also have excellent online stores, which can hold a huge inventory, offer even better pricing and so compete on all fronts.

Sam Jordison writing on the Guardian blog likened the award going to Sainsburys, to awarding awarding a peace prize to Tony Blair.

So have read these the observations on print bookselling and the trade today it begs the question – where next?

It is clear that traditional chains need new direction, but is their model merely broken by their inability to move to everyday low pricing and avoid insane discounting? In expanding the supermarket and niche channels has the trade effectively served notice on its chains?

We believe that booksellers finally have to wake and read what it says over their door and do it. ‘Bookselling’ is about selling books, not just front list on ‘safe’ sale or return terms but all books. Amazon log ago saw this and acquired companies and skills and extended their offer to sell used, rare, audio, etc. They understood that they were selling BOOKS.

Amazon now understands that they can go further up the chain and publish. The likes of Barnes and Noble have long had their own publishing and realised that the definition of bookselling is and should be always open to dispute. As agents, booksellers and self publishing grows then the trade will have to adjust and accommodate. Books after all are books.

It’s ironic that in Gower Street Waterstones already has part of the answer in its fight against supermarkets. However it appears to have not understood it. Merely refurbishing a shop and changing the layout is no longer good enough. Now is the time to return to basics.

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.

Bookselling, Breakers and Runners in Cyprus

2010 appears to be the year for visiting North / South border disputed areas. First, we visited Korea and now Cyprus. Many, especially the displaced, see the North as an illegal state, a province of Turkey. Only some 36 years ago the Turkish army invaded and there followed the truce and the resettlement into Northern Cyprus of some 40,000 Turks. The international community views the North as an illegal state and it is still only recognised by Turkey and Bangladesh. The no man’s land strip divides this beautiful country from East to West and today is still as heavily controlled as ever.


On one day we arranged a trip to cross the military checkpoint border in Nicosia/ Lefkosa to meet friends of Bibliophile, visit the Moufflon Book store and have lunch with the proprietor Ruth Keshishian.



The Moufflon bookstore is a true destination store and reminded us of a small version of New York’s infamous Strand Bookstore. Ruth inherited the business from her father and has continued to maintain a perfect balance of stock and she is a true bookseller. She stocks new, used, rare, bargain books and a wide mix of genre including trade, academic, art etc. There is always something about a real bookstore that you can feel and smell as soon as you enter. The shelves are not merely wallpapered by publishers on the no risk sale of return terms, but individually bought and sold. Ruth also has a book binding and restoration service. In fact, on spotting some Freya Stark works Ruth knew instantly what she paid for them, where she bought them and went on to talk about Freya Stark’s connections with Cyprus. This knowledge wasn’t just restricted to these titles, as she proved many times during the day. She also had a positive thirst for knowledge on digital issues.

Just as Cyprus is divided, everything has two, (or maybe three) names. Maps from the North only show everything with its Turkish name and the south with its Greek or Cypriot name. As a result there is a high demand for maps as anyone travelling between over the divide often needs two to make sense of where they are! Hence they are Ruth’s biggest seller.

While we were there Ruth was collating a significant library of old military, theatrical and other book plates to send to the UK for auction. The Moufflon doesn’t sell plates but Ruth had found herself with some four stacks from rare books which were each piled some 2 foot deep! Apparently ‘breaking’ and selling loose leaf images is, as in many places, is a business in its own right in Cyprus.

The other interesting business in Cyprus is that of ‘runners’ who acquire very old manuscripts and then auctioned them off on EBay over the internet. With very high demand from affluent collectors and the new rich, there apparently is much money to be made in running or selling to order or demand.

The other aspect of Cyprus we discovered was how easy it was to buy counterfeit videos. Often they came in a slither of a wallet and when played slipped in and out of focus, had distorted sound quality and some even flipped occasionally into Turkish, German or even Russian. Occasionally there was a near perfect one! However walk around Kyrenia, (or should that be Girne), and you would see them openly on sale. They say that the North is to become the Las Vegas of the Mediterranean and has huge investment pouring in, but clearly copyright isn’t going to win on these tables.
Finally, Ruth told us about a friend who had brought ten Kindles into Nicosia. They were sold in no time, but the people who bought them merely wanted to be seen with them and not use them to read books!

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

Digitisation Debate Moves Forward

I was pleased be with many leading industry figures this week. Booksellers, wholesalers and publishers gathered to debate the issues raised in the 'Brave New World' report and how the industry can move forward together. The discussion will be disclosed shortly by the BA, along with the resultant actions and I hope that these prove to be decisive and bold steps. The key is obviously action and quick wins and also helping all participate on a level playing field.

The ironic fact was we gathered in Godalming, the 1894 birthplace of the writer Aldous Huxley, who wrote his groundbreaking ‘Brave New World’ in 1932.

In a week when the wholesale world consolidated and Pearson announced their digital content repository strategy, what was clear was that change is happening.

The ABA (American Booksellers Association) has also announced a new Digital Task Force (DTF) who met for the first time on 10th January in New York. The DTF is composed of 10 booksellers and industry professionals and five ABA staff members, and it is charged advising the ABA on developing its digital strategies. Oren Teicher, ABA COO, briefed the team on the Booksellers Association’s ‘Brave New World: Digitisation of Content’ of which the ABA had requested a number of copies for all team members!

By the end of the year 1300 copies of the Brave New world report have been downloaded from the BA site. The report had many contributors and reviewers and was born out of co-operation and has now hopefully provided the springboard for all to move forward together.