OPINION
Well now we have Dymocks taking feeds from google along with Booktopia. Kobo will feed Collins book stores rather than just linking to Kobo. It is going to take some time in Australia for the ebook to take hold like in the US. I rarely see people with ebook readers and every time I get a seminar or group together maybe one has an ebook reader.
Amazon continues to dominate in this market and their new Kindle Fire which I have in my hot little hands is very good. It's the power of the brand again and first in the market that...
Not all books are conducive to ebooks or epub format. Amazon has focussed on novels or as John Birmingham puts it "the disposable words". There are no images, charts, tables etc to confuse the reading of plain text. When it comes to novels the Kobo, Kindle, Sony and other similar readers are great. When the reader has control of the font and size images in an ebook will change the appearance. You may find the text some spaces away from the image. Don't worry about that as the publisher has typeset the ebook to a certain font size and if...
I attended an all day symposium on reading. Simon Groth, of if:book Australia, (see http://www.qwc.asn.au/AboutUs/ifbookAustralia.aspx to get an understanding on what they are about.) facilitated a number of guest speakers including author John Birmingham, Dale Spender and many others. The question is what will the reading experience be like in the future as the ebook revolution continues to gather space.
Overall the day was worthwhile. Somethings that were said were ridiculous. For example a QUT speaker tried to tell us how difficult it was for universities to satisfy the poor students of today. How they had to absorb so much more and...
The administration of A&R/Borders and the receivership of Colorado says something about the financial model. Mr Elliott, JB Hi-Fi chairman, commented today that high levels of debt plus the operating debt of retail leases doesn't seem to work.
More store closures were reported for A&R. Many of the A&R and Border stores are in high priced shopping centres. With customers keeping their money in their pockets and saving these stores may continue to suffer. Books are a discretionary spend.
I believe Amazon is taking over $200m out of the Australian economy now and it...
I attended the first administration meeting for A&R and Borders in February. Some financial models just don't work. The question is will it ever work. Clearing if you run a book shop like a supermarket you have to have customers buying every week to make money. Discount your books so much that the customer never knows what a book is worth is a mistake. One comment from a book seller with 40 years experience told the administrators "I thought A&R were selling discount signs not books".
Book stores have to have staff and owners that love books. They have to have...
Over the past few weeks I have been uploading our books on the ipad. Apple is not serious yet as their top 10 books are virtually all $0.99 which means they are the free out of copyright books. The top 10 on the Kindle is pretty much the same as the hard copy versions.
Apple had talked up their 300,000 apps on the ipad. I can't find one useful business application on the ipad. Let's face it so far many people buying an ipad either have no idea what it does or just wants to ...
Following the creditors meeting in Melbourne for the Red Retail Group that owns Angus and Robertson and Borders I questioned how book stores would survive in 2011. It was clear that quality book stores would survive for a very long time to come. What won't survive are book stores who think they are supermarkets or department stores selling to achieve a margin rather than a product that many customers love.
The administrators were quick to remind us that they believe the business is sustainable if they can quickly fix a few problems - ie the non profitable stores particularly those...
I attended a workshop put on by the Federal Government. They are getting printers, publishers, book sellers, distributors, libraries and educators in rooms across Australia looking for opportunities. They expect to report to the Minister in September. What the government will do from there is anyone's guess. Here is a few observations:
1. ebooks will take a high percentage of the market quickly. The brief provided for this meeting was already way out of date and it was prepared a couple of months before.
2. Amazon and Book Depositary's will have the highest market share of the Australian online book market...
I receive google alerts on any comment made about ebooks. What is clear is that most comments add to the hype. Consumers who will make the decision on ebooks and what market share it takes of the book market need to be careful with their choices. Many book stores struggle with high rents and the management of stock levels. Reasonable staff levels are required to maintain some level of customer service.
I wonder how much market share will be required to close all book stores. If we look at the US which I admit is a very different market, Borders went...
Sadly year after year our Premier and her department hands over hundreds of thousands of dollars to those poor interstate authors such as Nobel and Booker winner Coetzee. There's a man who needs more money and encouragement from the Premier. Then you've got Singapore born and Sydney rared Ian Hoskins with his book about Sydney. West Australian Sally Murphy got the gong for the Children's Book award. At least Tasmanian Richard Yaxley saw the light and moved to Queensland.
Hey Madam Premier what is the purpose of the Queensland Literary awards? Why do Queensland taxpayers want to give money to interstate...