A minute?s silence for Margaret Mahy followed the welcome of Hamish Wright, Booksellers New Zealand?s chair, to the 2012 Conference. Cracking the pace from the start were two inspirational addresses, the first from NZ Listener editor Pamela Stirling followed by Business NZ?s Phil O?Reilly.
Pamela (pictured below at Conference) took a wide-ranging and thoughtful review of what the current changes in society ? the aging of our population increasing the importance of reading as a leisure activity paired with the internet about to go to warp speed.
She began by telling the audience how envied their lifestyles were? ?I can?t begin to tell you how many people I?ve interviewed in my career ?politicians, business people, actors? who?ve confided that their dream job would actually be to own a bookstore ? often in a place like Nelson.?
Continuing, she said that print journalists and booksellers, each find their roles at the beginning of the 21st century undergoing fundamental challenges. ?We?re at the forefront of the massive changes wrought by the internet ? the most disruptive technology the world has ever known.
?Google?s extraordinary value as a company is derived simply from helping people find information. Because there is so much of the stuff, the main constraint is not access ? but relevance.
?Helping people make sense of all that information is one of the roles of well-edited books. It?s the same with magazines like the Listener ? it is our job to provide analysis and understanding and to connect the dots for people.?
About e-books, Pamela?s view is that the arrival of digitally-enhanced content opens up a whole new world of interactive, visual and-text-based learning and reading entertainment. ?The simple, indisputable, fact is that the eBook is a better product for delivering enhanced and flexible content than a print book.
?While this may not be good news for booksellers, it is good for reading,? she says as the average reader of e books has read 24 books in the past 12 months, compared with an average of 15 books by non e-book readers. ?It is hard to believe that Kiwis will resist such a powerful international behaviour shift.?
She gave an insightful comparison to the social changes which followed the invention of the Gutenberg printing press centuries back, and the likely consequences of future change brought about by the internet.
?We at the Listener have always tried to do our bit to sponsor reading. We are very proud to be partners with Booksellers New Zealand in our national online book club - this at a time when so many in the New Zealand media have downgraded their coverage and often simply churn syndicated reviews from overseas. The Listener places a great value on providing a New Zealand perspective ? that is a fundamental part of what it is to be a culture.
?The Book Club section of our website is already attracting nearly 3000 unique visitors a month. We?re sure that our commitment to books and reading has helped keep our circulation and readership steady in the last few years.? The Listener readership is now at the 300,000 mark, she said.
?This is not simply a good year for the Listener, according to my thesaurus it?s an exceptional, incredible, marvellous, outstanding, phenomenal, remarkable, sensational and stunning year. And we wish the same kind of year to all New Zealand booksellers.?
The World Economy through a New Zealand Lens
Phil O?Reilly, Chief Executive of BusinessNZ, took the conference audience through a brisk over view of the world economy, New Zealand?s place in it, a look at our prospects in the near future... and revealed his inner bibliophile identity.
Yes, he admits to being a ?book sniffer? with a particular weakness for hard cover first editions, leather binding and books signed by authors. His particular interests are military and contemporary history. He contends ?You can?t sniff a kindle.?
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Then it is off on a bustling exploration of the current world situation. Europe is ?crap, awful? with the UK in recession, France embracing ?austerity spending? and Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Crete ?fallen over.?
The ?pockets of good stuff? in O?Reilly-speak are that quality UK manufacturing is rediscovering markets in Asia and South America, that Germany has an effectively devalued currency, and the Nordic countries are doing well.
And back here? ?New Zealand?s economic base is stable, and we have growing recognition as exporters. The New Zealand brand has integrity as we are the least corrupt country in the world. It is larger and more complex than just green and clean. I was told in South America ?I love the place, I love the people.?
?Books have a part in this... they tell our story.?
However the current New Zealand preoccupation with paying down debt is affecting parts of the economy, says O?Reilly.
In manufacturing, New Zealand was the first country into recession, Phil pointed out, using a timeline that placed it as Feb 08 ? April 09. After that followed a period of ?grumpy growth,? with potentially renewed consumer confidence, though very price conscious.
Our services sector is bigger than manufacturing and did not suffer quite such a big dip.
We are now in a period of cautious growth, focussing on innovation, capital markets, natural resources, human capital, infrastructure and export. We need to be outliers, as we are the smallest developed economy on earth and the furthest away from markets.
O?Reilly spoke of research and development, suggesting the New Zealand?s niche was to develop new products from existing research.
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IMAGE: Conference delegates listening to sessions.
While we create innovative people with the power to dream and the power to imagine and to speak the truth ? all associated with reading ? he says 14 per cent of 15 ? 24 year olds and 18 percent of the 20 -24 age group are not in employment, education or training. ?We cannot afford to waste this talent. There?s a bunch of work needed to do in literacy, numeracy and creating vocational pathways.? His organisation is working with government to achieve this - ?a massive opportunity for booksellers?.
?Books and ideas are necessary for an innovative growing economy, not just for business but for a successful society,? O?Reilly concluded.
The Bookshop ? dinosaur or phoenix?
So are we a dying industry, crushed by the online juggernaut of e retailing, or an essential part of an educated and literate society? In what ways should we change or adapt? How do we hold on to core values?
The panel were booksellers Mark Rubbo of Readings in Melbourne, Michael O?Driscoll of Cook the Books, publishers Melanie Laville-Moore of Allen & Unwin and Kevin Chapman of Hachette, all kept somewhat in line by chair Carole Beu.
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IMAGE: Carole Beu introduces her session.
The impressive presentation of Mark Rubbo, who is clearly reinventing Readings bookshops as a 21st Century model, was heartening and inspiring.
He began with the negatives of today?s book retail market: flat retail, fierce competition in the market and the effects of a Australia?s 10 percent GST, growth of the ebook; price deflation of books; competitive online bookselling and ?agnostic? customers with no particular loyalties.
Readings tackled this in various ways: closing an unprofitable store; increasing investment in their website and administration of the site; growing the online marketing database; investing in the Readings Foundation; developing a media partnership with Fairfax; originating a profitable model for their book clubs; and being the first independent to offer ebooks via Book.ish.
They also adapted their business, with management opening a wider flow of information; adding skills; building systems and controls; budgeting and reducing debt; making the events programme more profitable; shifting marketing to be more online and increasing productivity.
Their monthly newsletter with a circulation of 15,000 is inserted in The Age twice a year for Mothers and Fathers Days promotion; postage is making this too expensive, so they are trying to convert customers to their enews ? now 33,000 subscribers. They also do a music enews and childrens enews.
Price and special offers are important, says Mark, as is their Christmas catalogue. They have recently opened a small store in Melbourne University?s Brain Centre and do pop-up shops in the State Library for exhibitions.
For Melanie Laville-Moore of Allen & Unwin (pictured right), current trading conditions are the most difficult she has seen in 19 years in the book industry. Publishers and booksellers alike have to adapt to ebooks ? and so far the technology still makes it difficult to offer ebooks in stores, but she recommends stores to introduce this as soon as practicable.
The world is now a global market with customers expecting the simultaneous release of titles in all markets, yet publishers are having to print at the last minute once customer orders are known. A&U are adding more design content to create desire for books in the market.
Bookshops are changing and evolving; they should be about community involvement.
Michael O?Driscoll, co owner of with Felicity O?Driscoll of Auckland?s Cook the Books, has a background in business and consulting. But he wryly admits that the bookshop ?doesn?t make money at this time? and ?had to lean on suppliers? last year ? but on the upside increased sales 25 per cent last month.
The voice of doom and gloom then speculated there would be ?Blood on the floor, ceilings and walls of bookshops.? At which point fire drill sirens went off in the hotel conference room!
Michael says we have to educate the community that bookstores matter.
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IMAGE: Kevin Chapman speaks at conference, Mark Ruboo looks on.
Hachette?s Kevin Chapman drew on the differences between the music industry going digital and the same situation in books. Despite the different delivery systems of music, you still hear music the same way whether it is off vinyl, tape or other technology. The reading experience of ebooks off a computer or reader is completely different, Kevin says.
He went on to question the belief that ereading was the way of the future for children having difficulty with reading skills.
That said, he believes it is critical for booksellers to offer ebooks so customers don?t have the excuse of buying elsewhere, ?You?ve got to offer the entire package.?
He went on to say that booksellers have to stop ?dissing the product?, recounting stores whose owners or staff told customers they did not really want the ?poorly written? Fifty Shades of Grey. ?Rampant intellectual snobbery, and why drive your customer into the arms of a non judgemental internet site,? says Kevin.
?We should really go full out to embrace technology as a transforming experience and get out of our own way,? he concluded.
Book Value, Volume statistics: Not the Good News
You probably already know this, but Ka Meechan provided figures which reinforce what booksellers are experiencing: book sales volume lower is lower than it has been over the past three years with sales for the year to date at 2.89 million books (down from 3.04 million in 2011) and at $68.8m, book sales value is even lower ? 8.1 percent down on 2011.
All figures are year-to-date at this point, so increased sales numbers and higher cost books could improve the situation before year end.
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Ka, Managing Director Asia Pacific for Nielsen Book Services (pictured above), is a master of succinct analysis of book trade figures. But she had little of comfort to impart, except that the USA is down -9.7 percent of volume and Australia lower again at -15.4 percent volume. New Zealand and the UK are down just -5 percent and -5.2 percent respectively.
The New Zealand panel comprises Paper Plus, Warehouse, K Mart, Dymocks, LS Travel Retail, independent and specialist bookshops, plus internet retailers.
Of the top 10 titles in New Zealand, eight have an RRP less than $25 and eight are also titles from the two trilogies ? Annabel Langbein?s Free Range in the City and Jodi Picoult?s Lone Wolf are at seven and eight on the list.
The Indies Top 10 had five trilogy titles but also includes Emily Perkins? The Forrests, Treats from Little and Friday, The Hare with Amber Eyes, Bring up the Bodies and Before I Go to Sleep. ?
Categories showing growth are Romance and Sci Fi / Fantasy and YA fiction.
Year on year New Zealand published titles showed a drop in volume of -15.3 percent and in value of -15.1 percent.
Nielsen also calculated the market share of overseas versus NZ published titles in three categories:
- Fiction: International 97%, NZ 3%
- Non fiction: International 68%, NZ 32%
- Children?s: International 85%, NZ 15%
But putting this in context, New Zealand published titles still account for 16% of the market?s volume and 20% of its value.
Booksellers elect new directors (link to the story)
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IMAGE: Conference is always a great time to catch up and share experiences with others in the trade.
Ebook retailing ? Aussie experience shared
At the moment, the bookseller?s return on selling an ebook is around $1 - $2, conference attenders were told. So are they a profit opportunity for booksellers or just a service to customers?
While it may seem like the latter at the moment, Australian independents Readings? Mark Rubbo and Pages & Pages? Jon Page have boldly entered the fray and shared their experiences along with THORPE-Bowker?s Gary Pengelly and Kobo?s Malcolm Neil in a session chaired by Hamish Wright.
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IMAGE: Jon Page answers a question during his panel about ebooks.
Questions from the floor also highlighted the exclusive relationships of some ereaders with suppliers ? for example, Kindle formats retailed by Amazon.
Jon Page said Pages & Pages had been supplying ebooks for nine months. Like any brand new business staff had a lot to learn, and having just one person conversant with ebooks is not sufficient for a long hours retail operation. All staff were given ereaders. There is a central place for the eservice kiosk and ebooks can be downloaded on the spot.
Help for customers in store with ereaders is the ?crucial edge? the bookshop has. Nevertheless, ebooks took around six months to impact on customers. Disposable? novels are the main category supplied.
Ebook availability is incorporated on the store?s shelf talkers and there are dedicated emailers for ebooks ? Jon now sends these out around 8.30 pm and often gets immediate responses.
Jon?s store uses publishers/suppliers who provide agency priced books. He would like to see DRM removed from ebooks.
?You have to be in the ebook game, it is a format you need to offer. Amazon may be 18 months ahead of you in the game, but bookstores must take on the fight.? The store uses ReadCloud.
Gary Pengelly said that THORPE-Bowker?s TitlePage was developed in association with Australian Booksellers Association. It uses Copia and the website will be able to be branded under the retailers name and cover print books as well. They expect to have 12 Australian booksellers up in September, but there are still delivery issues re New Zealand.
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IMAGE: Listening to a panel at conference.
Mark Rubbo uses Book.ish as Readings? e book supplier. He believes ebooks essential to a full service bookshop. Pricing is difficult, but Foal?s Bread a recent book award winner by author Gillian Mears, is retailing and being accepted at a $10 price point for the ebook. And he looks forward to new ereader devices being ?democratic?.
Malcolm Neil said Kobo offered three devices and was concentrating on content acquisition for the Australian and New Zealand markets.
To Doris Mousdale?s statement from the floor that a $1 profit was not going to do it for her shop, Mark Rubbo commented that print books were still their bread and butter, and Malcolm Neil said that going digital was unavoidable and the customer was better to be engaged by a bookstore than go elsewhere.
Article written by Jillian Ewart, writer for The Read.
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Source: http://www.booksellers.co.nz/book-news/conference-looks-business-bookselling
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