In the analogue world there is a feeling that e-publishing has created a context for books to now have two distinct roles as a beautiful object and as a set of ‘vaporous pixels.’ There is more mention of the Folio Society and they are hailed as creating a golden age for book design. There is also more awareness of the value of the book as something that carries your personality and other more symbolic functions. The Waterstones chief is keen to promote hardbacks and overall there is a lot of positive feeling about the high end of the print market.
In the digital world the suggestion in the previous quarter of that markets will be defined by language not region is beginning to come to fruition as the e-book market becomes more global. This has led to a trend for sales of English language books outside of the traditional English speaking market. Kobo is launched by WHSmiths, offering a new touch screen, colour alternative in the tablet market. They have a large library of books connected to it so it has the potential to be a real contender. There is also a return of the theme of ‘community’ being a desirable aspect to bookselling –this time from a study done with children on e-books. The other main thing that children want from e-books is customization. There is an interesting suggestion to have click-to-buy option in libraries, with a percentage going to the library of any sales. This has some real potential for both parties.
In the market there is an interesting trend in that the sales of cheap classics are doing well in the economic downturn. This is because people can’t afford to go out and are in search for other forms of entertainment. Again Christmas is seen as boom time for e-books with people getting readers as gifts. Piracy continues to be a concern but there is recognition that this is usually due to people not being able to access content. There is also a focus upon recommendations in this quarter. With arguments about how we like to have books recommended - mostly spurred by the launch of company Book2Look who provide this service.
Overall this quarter shows a maturation of digital in the top seller lists. The market is much more serious with publishers now making substantial profits on e-books. The subscription buying model is also being touted as the future, with ‘Unbound’ a crowd-sourcing publisher winning a digital innovation award. The Office of Fair Trading enquiry into Amazons purchase of the Book Depositary has to come to fruition. It has been found that there would be no real difference made to the market but this sale, which is ludicrous as its basically saying that as they already have a monopoly so it won’t make much difference! This of course has been met with pretty extreme anger. Overall this quarter is fairly usual, there are more people joining the digital table and a combination of excitement and trepidation is how the industry is meeting it. I think the main focus on Amazon has somewhat skewed the past couple of quarters so it will be interesting to see a wider range of issues going forward.
