Conference 2010: Summary

Couldn’t get to conference? Here's a quick and easy summary.

Booksellers are suffering in the current recovery-from-recession phase, but speakers at Booksellers Conference last weekend projected a confident future. Yes, e-books will impact on trade – but ABA’s Len Vlahos showed how they can work for independent booksellers.

The Read will cover the key speakers in detail over following issues, but right now here’s the conference in a capsule:

Nation-building with books
Nation-building with books was John Allen’s keynote address. The charismatic speaker urged that we change our attitudes as a country and seek to become more prosperous, look out more to the rest of the world and take more risks. “If you are not growing, you are going backwards,” warned Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s CEO. In particular, he’d like to see our authors write with an international rather than local stage in mind.

The Impact of digitisation on American booksellers
Len Vlahos traced the development of e-books to a fundamental change in human behavior. Young people are now ‘digital natives’ and this is one of the drivers to have books available digitally, as music has been for some time. But lessons have to be learned from the music industry so there is not the fallout in store closure experienced by record stores. Five percent of all books in the US during 2009 were supplied as digital downloads and this is expected to double to 10 percent in 2010.

The hope on the horizon: a digital distribution model being worked on with publishers by the ABA where booksellers can sell over the counter digital downloads (or via individual store websites) which will be then delivered by the publisher and with a profit model of 30 percent of the sale price going to the retailer. (Vlahos’ address was recorded and will be available online shortly, as well as in a longer feature in The Read).

And that, plus the Independent Booksellers Forum, was all before lunch!

Introducing e-books to retailing in the NZ market
REDgroup’s Peter Kalan talked about the Kobo e-reader introduction, and how it sold even faster than the ambitious expectations, despite a relatively high price. The top ten title downloads were different from top ten in store sellers – people buy more sex and romance online! Formats like children’s, cooking and travel books are likely to have a healthy life in hard copy form for some time to come, Kalan noted.

How will the printed book survive the digital onslaught?
Astra Print managing director Steve Messenger drew on recent American travel, his chain retail experience and MBA background for a sharply observed look at changing demand in book retail and the sustainability (or lack thereof) of an industry that spends millions on freight returning books to be scrapped. He noted retailers were the point of discovery for book buyers, but ease of fulfillment would become increasingly important.

Working with Social Media
Working with Social Media was a panel of Len Vlahos, TheNile founder Mark Taylor and local e-industry expert Martin Taylor. Their message was “wherever your customers take you – whether it is Twitter or Facebook – that is where you need to be.” But they noted these were not marketing tools but ‘relationship’ tools, particularly useful for promotion events to hundreds of people at low cost. “You don’t take any action - you don’t score any goals,” summed up soccer enthusiast Vlahos.

Building a relationship with your publisher
“We are all in the same waka,” said Random House’s Karen Ferns leading into a session about bookseller/publisher relationships with Time Out’s Wendy Tighe-Umbers and Blenheim Bookworld’s Charlene Scott. She was referring to the challenges of the upcoming GST rise, but the parallel goes further: there’s not a hierarchy in the book trade, just different segments she says. Ferns suggested booksellers make more use of reps’ expertise “They are a business coach for free” and for booksellers to be open with their reps. In response, the booksellers asked for reps to be empowered to make deals for extra discount for large orders or SOR terms for promotions, as taking the time to deal with Head Office can mean many opportunities get lost.

Nielsen BookScan update
Half a million Kiwis buy a book once a month or more frequently; 952,000  buy a book several times a year and a further 499,000 buy at least one book a year: these were heartening statistics presented by Ka Meechan from Nielsen Panorama data. Her BookScan update gave the widest picture yet of NZ book buying performance, as year on year data is now possible, as are international comparisons. For book sale value year to date, NZ is only 0.9 percent down on 2009; (Australia 4.4 and UK 1.2).

So what will the bookshop of tomorrow look like?
The witty Noel Murphy (NZ Book Council) spoke of ‘techtonic plates shifting’ on a panel about bookselling in the future. But he noted the rise of localism which fits well with bookshops which are already part of their community. “There will continue to be writing and book reading – and you are the book geeks,” he observed. Uber panelist Len Vlahos was quite clear on the subject: “I have no idea what the bookshop of the future will look like, but to get there booksellers will have to be nimble, well informed, proactive and able to move quickly. Bricks and mortar stores have to deliver quickly to complete with online booksellers.” Jo McColl was steadfastly upbeat. “Books now have never looked more gorgeous. We are an open market and can source anything our customers want. They also value the individual encounter in bookshops.”

Stephen Daisley in conversation with Lincoln Gould
A conference wouldn’t be complete without an author, and this year’s guest was expat Kiwi debut novelist Stephen Daisley, whose novel Traitor is receiving acclaim. Lincoln Gould (Ohakune raised) interviewed Daisley (Raetihi) about the novel … and what went on after closing time at Daisley’s father’s pub.

NZ Book Month Industry Forum
The rocket launch took place at the last conference session (otherwise known as the NZ Book Month Industry Forum.) Kevin Chapman, Rob Smith and Hamish Wright unveiled audacious plans for a revamped Book Month in March, the initiative of the Book Trade Liaison Committee. Smith, Wright and Peter Kalan are bookseller representatives, with Chapman, Tony Fisk and Sam Elworthy from publishers. March was chosen as the promotion month as it was clear an October Book Month would not have much visibility against the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The provocative campaign catch line of ‘reading books keeps your kids out of prison’ was a suggestion, not reality, of the impact they want to make. Another positive driver for moving books is a $5 off (any book over $10) voucher campaign. The cost of honouring the widely distributed vouchers will be shared 50/50 by publishers and booksellers. As conference goers absorbed the shock and negotiated the negatives (March is financial end of year for many), the buzz grew. If bookselling is a battle, this promotion will give the industry fire power.

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