Issue Five
Meaning-of-life type stuff: The Survival of Australian Bookshops (Issue Five teaser)
Trends in Australian book-buying and the future of Australian bookshops will no doubt continue to be a hot topic in 2011. In Issue Five of Kill Your Darlings, released next week, Editor-in-Chief of Bookseller+Publisher magazine, Matthia Dempsey, reflects on her book-buying habits and how they shape the future of bookshops.
It was a hot night and the garden was crowded. The debate taking place across the lawn from me was of the forward-leaning, hand-wielding kind that suggested violent disagreement about Franzen’s Freedom or who is the better Bronte sister (Charlotte, obviously). Before long, one of the participants had smashed his champagne glass against a nearby potted palm and was holding it to his adversary’s throat. The topic: the price of books in Australia.
Okay, that’s not quite how it went down… But there’s no denying discussion of Australian book prices can get heated. And these days there are not a lot of places you can go in the world of books without this particular subject raising its head to distract you from the kind of conversations you imagined having in a space full of writers and publishers – discussions about the books themselves, about writing, politics, identity and expression, morality. You know: meaning-of-life type stuff.
This particular debate, between a small but successful independent Australian publisher reputed for his non-fiction list, and a savvy writer/ reviewer with a position on several book-related boards, was a telling example of the genre. In a nutshell, their argument went something like this – writer/reviewer: books in Australia are too expensive; publisher: no, they’re not.
At the time, I had a sneaking suspicion that I had timed my career in the book industry spectacularly badly: just as the people who should be arguing with passion about anything less mercenary are now debating price-points. But it is clear that at the heart of this discussion (and countless others like it) is in fact a great deal of meaning-of-life type stuff, it’s just that many book lovers don’t know it yet.
So why are Australian book prices such a hot topic right now? The answer is The Book Depository.
9 Responses to Meaning-of-life type stuff: The Survival of Australian Bookshops (Issue Five teaser)
Leave a Reply
Offers
-
Current Issue
Kill Your Darlings, No. 13
April 2013 The Stella Prize
Kill Your Darlings is a proud supporter of The Stella Prize.
9:58 am, March 21, 2011
I have recently placed an order for a book at my local independent bookshop for an Australian novel. From time of requesting this book, as it wasnt readily available on the shelf, was almost four weeks waiting time. I would prefer to support my bookseller but when after a few mouse clicks, reduced price and arrival in my letterbox in just over a week it is no wonder ‘The Book Depository’ is a hot topic.
1:48 pm, March 21, 2011
Why are books so expensive here? Protectionist tariffs, trade regulations, or what? It’s terrible – I can’t afford to buy books locally.
4:10 pm, March 21, 2011
The Book Depository are very competitive with their free shipping offer and prices based on the UK pound. But their free shipping offer will end eventually when the UK government stop offering them free shipping with UK’s Royal Mail for moving their business in to an underprivileged area of Britain. Australia Post will also eventually wake up that they are getting no money for delivering UK Mail parcels in to Australia and it is costing them millions. Plus the exchange rates may not always work in their favour so that will come in to Australians’ book buying decision process. In the meantime, Booktopia started on a budget of $10 per day just 7 years ago. Booktopia.com.au is based in Sydney, employees 42 staff plus 10 casuals and ships 700,000 books per year. Booktopia buys books from local Australian publishers and suppliers as well as fly books in by courier every day of the week from the UK and USA. There are definitely Australian alternatives to buying your books from BD and Amazon. In many cases Booktopia is cheaper and have the stock, especially if they are local Aussie titles. So perhaps the hot topic is about Australian book pricing, Booktopia turns over $16 million per annum, perhaps the answer is not just BD but book buyers are simply changing their buying habits altogether and going online in Australia and abroad. Tony Nash, CEO. Booktopia Pty Ltd
1:46 pm, March 23, 2011
Lots of reasons, especially historically high exchange rates, economies of scale. A destructive culture of discounting in the UK (when supermarkets are your biggest booksellers, it speaks volumes – another celbrity memoir, anyone?)
What else? GST. Higher costs. The ability to source funding to back you while you make big losses for ten years (Amazon) as you drive anyone else out of business.
I find it astonishing that in our wealthy culture, people will complain about the price of books when so many of them are earning more than the authors/publishers/booksellers getting them out there.
3:32 pm, April 8, 2011
Is postage to Australia from Book Depository really free?:
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/01/whats-the-difference-between-hacking-the-book-depository-and-channel-bt/
Complicating matters further is that Amazon.co.uk is now offering free postage to Australia on orders of £25 and more.
4:52 pm, February 14, 2012
You don’t always have to look overseas, Australian book shops offering something a little different, or specialized are always available if you look around. For interest in Military history, you have many alternatives here is Australia including http://www.booksforever.com.au
8:14 am, May 27, 2012
Interesting to read the above comments isn’t the E Book phenomenon also a huge impact on many bookshops?
also the success of Booktopia is surprising…
syd at Booksonwar.com.au
10:06 am, December 26, 2012
Fantastic write-up! I honestly appreciated it. I actually have looked over precisely the same blog site
regarding osteoarthritis. It is most certainly worth looking
into.
1:48 am, January 3, 2013
Great. I agree.