Verbal Magazine

Book to the Future

My mother always says there is nothing like the smell of a new book.

There is an excitement about choosing, opening and soaking up the newness of its pages - filled with adventure and information that introduces you to a wider world. It’s something I inherited, and it’s not only with books, first it was records and then the compact disc came along.

But when music became downloadable I struggled with the concept. How, why, would anyone snub a nice new CD and its art work for something that you can’t touch or explore? But as technology advanced and music became so readily available online, the opportunity to find whatever you wanted within seconds became too great a temptation. I succumbed because in times of change we all eventually follow the paths of technology. And whether we like it or not, digital sales are on the increase and physical sales are steadily falling. So, unfortunately for some, the future of music in the physical form may well be in specialist shops for nostalgic buyers and second generation DJs refusing to swap their CDs for a laptop.

When it comes to books however, it’s hard to imagine that anything could replace the hardback or paperback. But when Derry’s only remaining independent bookstore, Bookworm, recently announced its closure after 30 years, should we have been alarmed? Owner, Peter McKenzie says that it’s not just his shop that has suffered, and it is predicted that by the year 2012 there will be no independent book shops left.

So what is going on? Is the book in decline or is it simply the method of selling that has changed? In relation to independent book shops, some blame the collapse of the Net Book Agreement (NBA) in 1996. The NBA was implemented in 1900 by the Booksellers Association, The Society of Authors, and The Publishers Association for booksellers who were threatened by cut-price selling of popular books, by those intent on capturing the market for themselves. This meant that if a book was designated ‘net’ by a publisher, the bookseller received a discount, but had to sell it at the agreed price. The penalty for underselling was that the publisher refused to sell the offending bookseller any further stock.

The collapse of the agreement, according to Peter, made it an open season for all, including Supermarkets.
‘The larger the chain the bigger the discount available to them, so it’s very easy for them to negotiate 70-75% discounts. This made it a very uneven playing field and very difficult for us to compete with.’ he says.

But if books are cheaper than ever then surely no matter where they are sold people must still be buying them? ‘Yes, but what are they selling and what is being bought? There is an infatuation with celebrity culture
which has led to an increase in celebrity publishing,’ says Peter.
Publisher Mark Booth seems to agree, in a recent article he wrote ‘It is because supermarkets lead the way that Katie Price’s volume of memoirs, Jordan: A Whole New World, sold more copies in hardback than any other autobiography published outside the Christmas (2007) season and Peter Kay’s The Sound of Laughter was the best-selling autobiography ever in hardback.’
This may be true, however books relating to all kinds of (non-celebrity) subjects are still selling well and the majority of these seem to be bought on the internet. Take for example The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, which topped the Amazon online charts, or Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine which has continued to climb the ranks. In January this year the BBC reported that more books are sold online than any other product, and Amazon reported that on their busiest day last year customers ordered more than 5.4 million items, 62.5% of which were books.

So for now at least, books sales appear to be healthy, even if the future of independent stores looks glum. But the thirst for knowledge is very much alive; you only have to read the countless Blogs that are a staple diet of readers and writers around the world to see that, and although Peter McKenzie has felt the pinch he is optimistic:

‘You have to see it as an opportunity, we have already shifted some of the business to internet sales, and we are working on software for stores that will enable you to access book reviews that should help you decide what to buy, instead of opting for recommendations by celebrity book clubs such as Richard and Judy’s. People need to think for themselves, there is an awful lot of being led by the nose.’

By and large then, books are as popular as ever; yes times have changed, and yes the Internet is taking over. However for those of us who love the actual physical nature of a book, there is a very real threat that goes by the name of ‘Kindle’. Launched by Amazon, the Kindle is a new wireless reading device. It is the size of a paperback and you can store up to two hundred books on it, a bit like an MP3 player for books. Although it is already an advanced piece of technology, detractors argue it will never catch on, the screen is never as easy to read as paper, and the page turning facility is too awkward, but you know these things always get ironed out, and before you know it everyone will have one. Remember what we said about the mobile phone. ‘It’ll never catch on’, has been proven wrong before. If the unthinkable happens and these things take off I, for one, will miss the sturdiness of a paperback which - as someone pointed out in last month’s magazine - doesn’t break when dropped. Long live the book!

back to top