Shops under pressure
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A report into the performance of bookshops in Australia by industry researcher IbisWorld confirms what most people would probably know – that shops have been doing it tough and things are going to remain tricky. Revenue has declined at an annualised 8.3 per cent in the five years to the end of this financial year and IbisWorld puts the blame on "lower book prices, tough competition from online retailers and external operators, and a shift in consumer reading habits from print books to e-books". Industry revenue is predicted to dip by 5.9 per cent this year to $2 billion and operations are being hit by trends in spending, consumer sentiment, the IT and telecommunications adoption rate and demand for online shopping.
Celebrating the reading experience
Corrie Perkin opened My Bookshop five years ago in Hawksburn and didn't expect to be opening another one. But despite the tough retail conditions of those years, the GFC and the rise of online shopping, that's exactly what she is doing next month. Her original shop is very much a "traditional" one; but she has taken on board ideas, initiatives, and experiments that she will use in making her Toorak shop – only one kilometre up the road from the first – what people want from a 21st-century bookshop. "It will be dedicated to the reading experience and the mantra will be 'reading's not a hobby, it's a way of life'." Perkin says the aim is to make sure everything in the shop – a cafe, events and exhibition space, free Wi-Fi – contributes to the reading experience.
Patterson's money and mouth
Whatever you think about James Patterson's multi-bestselling titles (300-million plus to date), you have to give credit to the man for his commitment to and championing of the book industry – not just the Patterson book industry – and being generous with his money. Mind you, he does make about $US90 million ($115 million) a year and even after he's paid his several co-writers there must a fair whack left over. He's just announced a $250,000 donation to America's school libraries after doing something similar in Britain and he has long campaigned for the US government to take some sort of action in the face of closing bookshops and consolidation of publishers. In September 2013 he said he would give $1 million to independent bookshops in the US to help them and he attacked Amazon for not acting in the best interests of either its customers or authors; last July he offered £250,000 ($454,000) to British and Irish independent shops to encourage children to read, and announced he would give every sixth grade student in the New York City public school system a free copy of his Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life. You can see the man in person at the Athenaeum Theatre on May 6. www.wheelercentre.com
20 women get a taste of Bailey's
The Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction (previously the Orange) has unveiled the longlist for this year's £30,000 prize. Twenty novels have been picked out of the 165 entered: Rachel Cusk, Outline; Lissa Evans, Crooked Heart; Patricia Ferguson, Aren't We Sisters?; Xiaolu Guo, I Am China; Samantha Harvey, Dear Thief; Emma Healey, Elizabeth Is Missing; Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven; Grace McCleen, The Offering; Sandra Newman, The Country of Ice Cream Star; Heather O'Neil, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night; Laline Paull, The Bees; Marie Phillips, The Table of Less Valued Knights; Rachel Seiffert, The Walk Home; Kamila Shamsie, A God in Every Stone; Ali Smith, How to be Both; Sara Taylor, The Shore; Anne Tyler, A Spool of Blue Thread; Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests; Jemma Wayne, After Before, and P. P. Wong, The Life of a Banana. The winner will be announced on June 3.