Online bookselling pitfalls to avoid.

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After The Mail on Sunday alerted WHSmith to the appalling content freely available on its website last week, executives took the unprecedented decision to take the whole site offline while the explicit ebooks were removed from sale.

‘We will tighten our processes to ensure that this error can never happen again and sincerely apologise to our customers for any offence caused,’ the company said in a statement.

The dailymail.co.uk has a full debrief of the situation in this article including how the content made its way onto the WH Smith site as well as other major online retailers without being noticed. It is an interesting read, if slightly nauseating. Bookstores, especially online ones, need to remember that they have a responsibility to vet their offerings and maintain the good reputation of booksellers worldwide.

Richard Stephenson’s article on DBW is far more readable, less sensationalist and offers some way to finding a solution in the form of 3 simple censorship rules and safeguards that can be built into the site.

A look at the most interesting bookshops in the world

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Booksellers around the world are turning to destination “tourism” to lure customers to their stores, and here is an interesting collection of bookshops who have perhaps, ahem, really taken the concept to heart. We love the passion and love for books that drives people to create spaces like these, and from a bookshop on a boat, to a dominican church turned into a holy bookselling grail, and a funky children’s bookshop in Beijing – have a look at these and feel inspired.

The Poplar Kids Republic Bookstore in Beijing looks a little like it may have been created by Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka (no chocolate, though).

Located on an actual canal boat, usually moored in Lichfield, Staffordshire, it’s intended to encourage a ‘less hurried and harried lifestyle’ – in effect, slow bookselling.

Selexyz Dominicanen is a bookshop housed in a thirteenth-century Dominican church – used, in its previous incarnation, as an indoor bike pound.

 

See the entire post on the Wheeler Centre Australia’s website.

 

National Poetry Day in the UK

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Today, the 3rd October, is National Poetry Day in the UK. This morning on Radio 4’s “Today” programme, the Prince of Wales read Dylan Thomas’ poem “Fern Hill”. Events are taking place at Wordsworth’s home Dove Cottage in the Lake District, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford,and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, as well as dozens of other locations. The theme of this year’s event is Water, Water Everywhere. Do visit the website, you could get lost in there for the rest of the day.

A new app featuring poetry readings from actors Helena Bonham Carter and Tom Hiddleston has been released to mark National Poetry Day in the UK today (3rd October).

The Love Book App (£1.99) features actors reading famous pieces of writing on the subject of love, including works by Shakespeare and Tennyson.

Gregory Leadbetter has posted a lovely piece for the Bookseller on the use and function of poetry. It is well worth a read.

The first National Poetry Day was held in 1994, established by William Sieghart and supported by the Forward Arts Foundation.

Who wants to go to Paris?

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PASA has requested an expression of interest for a local trade publisher of children’s books to accompany the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) delegation to participate in the Montrieul Children and Youth Book Fair in Paris from 27 November to 2 December 2013. In addition, the SABDC also wants a South African children’s illustrator/cartoonist included in the delegation.

Email pasa@publishsa.co.za by close of business tomorrow, 3 October 2013, for the attention of Rowena Unthank. “As a local trade publisher of children’s books please write a letter of motivation indicating why PASA should select your entity to accompany the delegation to Paris. It is important that your letter of motivation takes into cognisance the requirements expressed in the email below: that you attend as an industry representative, have sound knowledge of South African publishing and must have some experience in exporting and trading rights.”

PASA will select the successful candidate to accompany the delegation.

Innovations that encourage a nation of readers

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Paperight: Print-on-demand around every corner

The real challenge of bookselling in South Africa is that about 45 million people are not buying books according to Arthur Attwell, founder and CEO of Paperight. Outside of the schoolbooks they might receive, most South Africans simply can’t buy books of their own. Even if they could, it’s unlikely that they’d have a flourishing bookshop around the corner from where they live. So they photocopy, borrow, or just go without.

Several exciting projects are trying to change that by delivering books to people’s phones, or by making e-readers cheap. For instance, over 200 000 young people use Siyavula’s Mxit portal to revise science and maths. Tens of thousands read fiction from FunDza, also on Mxit. Non-profit Worldreader has been giving out Kindles to rural school children for years, and now distributes books for free to their mobile phones in several African and Asian countries (most recently three South African schools have benefitted from this program – for more information see www.sabooksellers.com).

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67 minutes of reading

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Marked across the world on 18 July each year, Mandela Day aims to inspire people to take action to change the world for the better and, in doing so, to build a global movement for good. There were a number of initiatives focussed on educating children through reading and book donations thanks to the 67 minutes of Reading to Children Campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the importance of parents reading books to their children and assisting in spreading a culture of reading in South Africa. According to a survey conducted by the South African Book Development Council, 5% of parents read books to their children and this plays a major role in the low reading statistics recorded by the Council, which indicate that only 14% of South Africans are considered regular book readers.

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The sport of reading

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The Kids Lit Quiz has been called the Olympic games of reading, the pub quiz without the beer and the sport of reading. What the authors, headmasters and headmistresses and general audience who came to witness the event were not prepared for, was the incredible buzz – an atmosphere that no one would have ordinarily linked to the usually solitary pursuit of reading.

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Overstock? SA Booksellers offers a solution

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It is at this time of year, when booksellers are looking at ordering for the following year, that stock is taken of books that have perhaps not moved as one thought they would. Perhaps too many were ordered, perhaps a lecturer changed his recommended reading list, or perhaps a course was discontinued. Thanks to these and other industry idiosyncrasies, booksellers are often left with overstock of books that they have not sold. The bigger chains have the capacity to interchange these books between their shops, however, the smaller independent booksellers are not left with many options. Books that come from local publishers cannot always be returned and those that come from overseas are very expensive to send back.

This is why we developed a Book Swap Site on www.sabooksellers.com for our members.

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South African Publications Network

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In a constant effort to bring SA Booksellers’ members and readers of Bookmark up to date information that is both relevant and valuable, we’re proud to announce that from the September issue, Bookmark will be working with South African data supplier, SAPnet (South African Publications Network) to bring you quarterly “Top Best Sellers” Reports for the General Trade, as well as updates and informative snippets about their services to the book industry.

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Web Analytics

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In retail marketing, it is important to observe what customers actually do in your shop, including finding out what it is they are looking for, how easily they were able to find those items, whether they finally bought those items. With these observations and other information that you collate, you can intelligently tweak your retail space so that more customers fulfil your business goals. These tweaks (optimisations) include making adjustments to your advertising, shop layout, product placement and use of promotional material such as shelf wobblers and signage.

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