UK Publishing Faces Death, Er, Suicide
So, the talk of the day is about UK publishing imploding.
Read this.
Quote:
"The unromantic truth is that British chain bookselling - with Waterstone's as its battered figurehead - now looks suspiciously like a murder victim who has decided to speed up his demise by committing suicide."
I'm not giving up though. When an industry gets pressed (unlike countries who frequently go to war; think Iran), it gets innovative. Methinks the UK needs Alex Mandossian, hm?
2 comments:
It's a funny world here.
It's incestuous for a start but in terms of chains and in particular the one you mention (I work for them) the constant desperation for one upmanship through Christmas for sales figures continues into late January (prime bookselling time, you shall agree) with the publication of Jordan's second book. Jordan is a huge tabloid celebrity model type person here.
The constant deep discounting is hurting the industry here and devaluing the books at the same time.
"discounting" or better price values levels the playing field. It makes us uncomfortable but in the end it is better for the economy overall.
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