Academic bookselling – For the resilient

By Mohamed Kharwa.

Like last year 2015–2016 has proved to be another challenging year for academic bookselling in the regions and nationally.

Bookselling was impacted by protest and student strikes on campuses across the country following the #FeesMustFall protests. A struggling economy, the wide range in exchange rates, political uncertainty, global events like Brexit, and global economic downturns have provided a perfect storm that has made the South African business environment a difficult one to grow in.

The protests from late 2015 often turned violent and culminated in government’s decision to make funds available to hold fees at the same levels for 2016. These protests reappeared at the start of 2016 during the peak bookselling period at the beginning of the year. As mentioned in last year’s report “The sales lost at this time are difficult to recover and set a negative tone for the year ahead”. At times over 20 campuses were closed or at risk and one of our members had a number of stores looted during protests.

There has been very little in the way of communication or information from NSFAS on any developments although indications are that the current pilot will be increased to a much wider range of institutions. Some members have expressed concerns that the demand for funding and fee structures will place more pressure on the allowances for textbooks. There have been reports that the centralisation model will ensure funding for books but how this is calculated is not clear.

Like last year “There has been a notable decrease in the number of books purchased” across a range of booksellers. This is a worrying trend as the effect appears to be compounding. Where students do have bursary funds it again appears that they are choosing to spend their funds on devices as opposed to books.

The UNISA tender for official booksellers was determined last year. The profile of members had major changes and surprises. A number of booksellers appointed were not SA Bookseller members and this is a concern as it was a recommendation in the tender.

The closure of On the Dot was and is a major change but appears to be well managed by booksellers despite the disruptions. Efforts by SA Booksellers Association to get feedback from OTD were not successful.

There appears to be a marked shift in the online market and a greater competitiveness reflecting the pressure on booksellers. A number of “non-Academic” booksellers appear to be dipping into the academic market. This diversification is good for competition but potentially damaging as non-specialists in the field can often be caught out with ordering incorrectly and become very disruptive by “cherry picking” high volume titles without concern for long term stability and support for students and institutions.

The dramatic devaluation of the Rand at the end of December was a major blow and concern to publishers and booksellers to pricing for the New Year. The resulting increases in imported titles had the added effect of making the price gap between the textbook and its photocopy dramatic. This is an incentive to students, photocopy shops, lecturers and even institutions to break copyright law.

There have also been reports of textbooks being counterfeited (exact copies) and being sold to students and institutions as original textbooks. SA Booksellers Academic has been working closely with PASA and Publishers, who have in turn been liaising with SAFACT.

The circulation of digital copies, pdf and extracts are also becoming more commonplace and brazen. Students have openly stated that they do not need to purchase some texts as they have accessed textbooks via University portals like myUNISA. Again it is the responsibility of the publishers to enforce this but members are asked to be vigilant, report suspicious activities, or provide evidence of copyright infringement to the academic sector heads and SA Booksellers offices. This information will in turn be passed on to PASA and other publishers.

Academic members have raised concerns about tightening of returns policies which could impact on their willingness to stock titles. This has been addressed with publishers individually to highlight the impact on booksellers and the risk of loss of sales where the booksellers hold much smaller quantities as a result.

Regular teleconferences have been held for academic members from all of the regions to discuss developments and issues of common concern. These teleconferences seem to be the most effective way for members to regularly communicate and keep abreast of industry developments.

We are planning an academic sector workshop at the end of October to early November in Durban. This is intended to bring us together to discuss, share and meet with a range of publishers and suppliers.

The optimism at the end of the 2015 annual report was quickly replaced by concern at the end of 2015. However, academic booksellers have been resilient and austere. We head into another year of uncertainty and risk but hopeful that 2016–17 will be a more positive turning point.