The age-ranging debate is certainly an interesting one

I just can't see that age-banding on the backs of books will actually persuade people who don't buy books (for children) to go out and buy them.

From another English commenter:

From my years of sales experience at Walker Books I found all level of age banding on shelves, displays, removable stickers simply did not achieve a great result. The majority of booksellers in the large stores would run a mile to avoid 'that messy kids section'!

Which left me feeling that my sense that booksellers often undercook the kids section was absolutely right.

age ranging

I liked this age-ranging quote from Alan Garner:

Books are not shoes. They are not shirts. They have no sell-by, nor read-by dates. Their content is a unique creative interaction between text and reader. The evidence of my correspondence files going back nearly half a century show an age span of more than sixty years of people willing to engage and re-engage with the same titles. Whoever devised age banding knows how to sell detergents.

Statistics from a somewhat comparable country

Here's some snapshot Canadian publishing statistics from Statistics Canada.

From 2005 to 2006 operating revenues dropped 1.2% after a 3.2% in 2005. Expenses were up almost 1% and added all together the profit was down to 10.3% from 12.1%.

So up a little, down a little - just statistical noise for me.

The more interesting bit was that the export of books was up - and the Canadians seem to have been working hard on this, harder than the Australians and it seems to be paying off.

And even more interesting: while household were spending less on books, magazines and periodicals the trend has been for quite a bit more on books (average household spending on books rose from $86 in 1998 to $111 in 2005).

top publishers

The top 7 publishers in the world by 2007 revenue are:

1 Thomson

2 Pearson

3 Bertelsman

4 Reed Elsevier

5 Wolters Kluwer

6 Hachette Livre

7 Planeta + Editis

which to me shows the strength of educational (i.e. non-trade) publishing

Greenwash

There's a lot of greenwash slopping around (including a bit among publishers - the best contribution would in some cases just not to publish that unnecessary bit of consumer flummery that no-one really benefits from). The best example of greenwashing I've come across recently is the Marbig Enviro Box - just the same old cardboard box - it's just as recyclable as the Strong Archive Box and the Super Strong Archive Box, which are also in the Marbig lines,, and made from just as much recycled board (100%) -  but excitingly it's been given a new environmental friendly name.

back to paper

I had a drink with my an illustrator friend the other night, down at the Builder's Arms. He announced that having been down the electronic route but he'd returned to paper. He'd found that the micromovements of electronic rendering on a tablet could place an strain on very specific muscles in the arm. I've always associated muscle damage to Herculean physical efforts involving big weights - the thought of tiny little repetitious movements doing damage was a surprise.

He added that he was enjoying painting on paper, especially enjoying the textural feel of bristles crossing paper, the resistance the paper gave to a brush full of paint - and also, even more importantly, the little accidents that happen on paper that change the path of an illustration, which don't happen when working electronically.

I would like to quote from our forthcoming Monsieur Rat (August): "Even when you are sure of where you are going , you can still stumble and change direction."

I'm wonder how much of a back-to-paper trend there is. We doing more scan now than we were doing say a year ago.

PS

"Storyliners are the true heroes of any soap" quote from a Facebook group, quoted in the Green Guide.

state of Australian TV writng

When cleaning up my office I came across an old "Green Guide" article about television writers - along the unsung-heroes line. I was interested in it enough to tear it out and save it for later, and later is now. First some interesting facts and figures: of the 600 full members of the Australian Writers Guild 190 are in Melbourne but only 25-30 would consider themselves in full-time employment as writers. [conclusion: the full-time writer in any industry is a lucky bird] "If you've written 6 hours of television in a year you've had a good year," according to Jacqueline Woodman, the Guild's director. She goes on to say:
"You have to be prepared to be what's called a jobbing writer. If you want to be an artiste then you won't get work all the tim. If you only want to work on your own ideas then there's no way you can make a full-time living as a writer. You have to be prepared to write other people's ideas as well to pay the bills. That's also how you learn and hone your craft.
That's one of the big mistakes amateurs make, only wanting to work on their script or their life story or their one big idea. The ones who make a living have done all sorts."

And apparently the local industry here is healthier than it has been for sometime and Peter Gawler, Underbelly writer, is seeing a shift towards scripts with an Australian voice.  He says, "We do have our own style of telling stories in this country.  I don't think we are terribly good at high concepts. We're much better at a form of social realism the refects the Australian no-bullshit no-fuss approach." I wonder whether that is reflected in our literature, especially our children's literature. 

Woodside

But Woodside is also the nation’s largest single-location polluter: it emits at least 12,000 tonnes of nitric oxides and 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, among many other pollutants.

Australian Rock Art Research Association

remit is the business buzz word of the moment?

… and with a definition somewhat more and somewhat less than its previous meaning. Here's but one example I came across recently: "comprises four divisions with different publishing remits" It's come to mean something like a brief or scope or terms of reference, though it is vague and self-important while sounding very technical and precise. Maybe its a word favoured by remittance "men"?

Age-ranging on the back of children's books

There's been much discussion about age-ranging on the backs of children's book, both here and in the UK, where the suggestion has originated.

Here's a link and here.
and the lovely Emma of Snowbooks has this to say.

I heard that one bookseller was circulating a petition against it at the ABA conference on the weekend. We (black dog) aren't thrilled about it - short-term gain for long-term loss is our feeling. It may (and there doesn't seem to be that much proof of even this) sell more books now; but at the cost of selling more books later. Also I can't see that research done in the UK has relevance to our quite different market here. Maybe colonialism isn't as dead as it should be.

But Variety had a view on film ratings that's interesting in this context:
"a new twist on the PG-13 rating -- one that strongly cautions not only those under 13 but anyone much above it, too.

more on Fishpond

I've been looking at the fishpond.com.au website, and I've been feeling a little put out.

My reading of what I am seeing is that while fishpond says it is an Australasian bookseller "to be proud of" it is not all that enthusiastic about supporting Australian publishers.

When I looked up Possum Magic today I was first offered on screen the US edition and the other editions mentioned are from the UK but I couldn't find a reference to any of the Scholastic Australia editions. Boo to a Goose has the US edition listed first at a discount and then if you click through you are offered the Australian edition under "Other Editions"at full price. You can buy the UK and US editions of Dragonkeeper and Garden of the Purple Dragon but not the Australasian edition. They're now listing our Red Haze but I think that is because I emailed them that it has been shortlisted in the NZ Post Awards - though I've yet to have a response to that email (and they don't list a phone number and the number I was given by Booksellers NZ gave a "no service" response). There may be some issue with data but as they seem pretty uncontactable, living behind an email "wall", I can't find that out.

Under the "AU Bestsellers" on the fishpond.com.au site today (which I'm assuming is meant to be equivalent to "NZ Bestsellers" on the fishpond.co.nz site) none of the authors are Australian and all of the editions are from the US or UK. On the fishpond.co.nz the top pick of "Fishpond Picks 2008" is the US edition of New Zealand author Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip. The Penguin NZ title is listed elsewhere on the site though.

I'm heading over to New Zealand on Monday and I'm hoping to meet someone from fishpond but I've yet to hear back. I like their passionate claim to be an Australasian bookseller but I'd like to discuss how they are seeing they are fulfilling that, and plans for the future.

This is a cute promotion

better world books

Booktopia and Fishpond

I searched our best-selling Dragonkeeper on both sites and this is what I got.





Booktopia is offering the local edition while Fishpond offers the UK and US editions only (which have to be shipped or flown in). A further search on Booktopia showed that the editions that Fishpond are offering of the Garden of the Purple Dragon and Dragon Moon are more expensive than the editions being offered by Booktopia.

for niche players

"There are a lot of people who like trends that run counter" Demographer, Bernard Salt.

He was actually talking about the rise in V8s (counter to the general shift to smaller, more environmentally friendly cars) as a backlash against everything smaller cars represent. But it struck a chord with me - markets often seem to be going in opposite directions at once. And especially for smaller and niche players in large markets, it's a thought worth bearing in mind I think.

lp

I went to a panel session at the Sydney Writer's Festival yesterday and four out of the five writers on the panel had written for Lonely Planet at some stage. In our small pool, Lonely Planet has had a huge impact on our literary (especially non-fiction) culture by giving opportunities for writers to write and be professionally published.

PS I liked the free events that you could just drop in on - and the speakers outside for those who missed out on a seat inside. It gives a real festival flavour (rather than a sequence of ticketed events).

rent-seeking and coupon-clipping

Henry's latest post is very interesting read.

slang & CJ

'slang is the illegitimate sister of poetry, and if an illegitimate relationship is the nearest
I can get I am content'

C J Dennis

end of the current crop of film independents?

It's interesting reading in Variety about the "independents" having been purchased now being folded into the studio structures. Is this a sign of a cold economic winds? Here's a link

but here's a quote that caught my eye:

"Horn cited the fact that 600 pics get released annually as having made the specialty biz less attractive financially in recent year. He also said that such pics have becomce more likely to screen at multiplexes rather than art-house venues and expressed confidence in Warner's distribution side to ensure that smaller films receive the proper handling.

Horn admitted that the announcement's likely to be interpreted as Warner Bros. getting out of the indie film biz but stressed that it will still acquire and produce specialty pics. He cited the success of such fare as "March of the Penguins," "Before Sunset," "We Don't Live Here Anymore," "La Vie en Rose" and "Snow Angels" as examples of the kinds of projects that Warner will still look to buy and produce."

Do Travel Writers Go to Hell

A fascinating and funny read, even if (or maybe because) Thomas proves himself to be the self-involved and self-indulgent twat that he describes other people saying he is in the first chapters of the book.

And it raised all sorts of interesting issues for a publisher. What's fair return? Emma at our local bookshop made the point that eveybody wants the job of travel writer so you get paid peanuts - and that's just the deal. LP says they pay better than most. But if that is less than needed to get the job properly (as Thomas says) is that smart?

Thomas is perceptive an interesting about the evolutionary cycle of a company, especially a publishing company. He sees it an inevitability the growth from the "raw growing" " "clumsy teenager" of a company "not yet in full command of its newfound size and bulk" that still held it alternative and gutsy persona of its early years"when he wrote a Costa Rican guidebook to them in 2000 to what it has become today.

Maybe LP is now the perfect example of the industrialization of publishing described by Alberto Manguel in the City of Words, this year's CBC (that's Canadian) lectures.

His point about LP's influence on developing parts of the world maybe too much of a good thing echoes what Manguel is saying - the machine is more powerful than the intention of any of the parts.

Anyhow a recommended read from me (adults only).