Posted November 25, 2019 15:30:11 The next decade will bring the end of the e-book boom, says the chief executive of the Australian Book Distributors Association.
Peter Brown says the industry is in a unique position to end the digital era, with digital services in many countries now in the hands of booksellers.
“The industry has got to make some decisions in the next decade to make sure we’re really focused on the book,” he said.
‘Very difficult’ to manage A big chunk of the industry’s revenue comes from the sale of books, but it has become difficult to manage and manage those sales. “
I don’t think you can say it’s a bad thing or a good thing, but I think in the future we’re going to need to look at what we’re doing, how we’re running the business and how we think about what we want to do.”
‘Very difficult’ to manage A big chunk of the industry’s revenue comes from the sale of books, but it has become difficult to manage and manage those sales.
This is the case for many of the country’s top publishers.
The Australian Booksellers Association’s chief executive Peter Brown has urged bookseller groups to work together.
“You have to have a very clear message that you are going to be very active in the book market and that you’re going not just for the next five years, but you are also going to build up your brand in the medium term, in the long term,” he told AM.
“So, if you’re a publisher or if you are a bookseller and you are trying to get a book into a reader’s hands, then I think that is a very difficult task, and it’s one that is going to take some time to sort out.”
Publishers will continue to sell digital books and online, but they will also need to work with their retailers to help them make the transition to print.
The digital transition, as we know it, will take years and there are some who think that we are nearing the end.
Mr Brown said the book industry had been struggling to make a decision for years, with a variety of factors weighing on its decision-making.
“A lot of people think that the digital book is the answer, the one thing that will give us a digital platform for distribution, but the reality is, we have been struggling with it for a number of years, because the industry just isn’t that sophisticated,” he explained.
“We need to have an open and honest conversation with our customers, with our retailers and with our stakeholders and we need to start moving towards a digital book business.” “
Read more about the book and e-books sector. “
We need to have an open and honest conversation with our customers, with our retailers and with our stakeholders and we need to start moving towards a digital book business.”
Read more about the book and e-books sector.
Books for sale in Australia: The top 10 ebook sellers Read more The book industry has long had a tough relationship with retailers and booksellors.
In the late 1990s, a major bookseller called Blackstar closed its doors.
It had a massive debt load and was forced to sell books to local bookshops.
“There was a lot of fear in the industry about that, but there were people who were able to step in and say ‘We’re here, we’ve got to sell this book to you, we’re here’,” Mr Brown says.
“What happened was, they were able for a short time to really get into the book business and to sell some of the best books that we’d ever seen, and then they shut down.”
Mr Brown believes the current situation is different now.
“At Blackstar, you had an organisation that was very, very big, but in many ways it was a one-man operation,” he says.
It was the largest independent bookseller in the country and it had some pretty good relationships with the major bookshampers, but Mr Brown argues that there is room for growth in the ebooks market.
“This is a one man organisation, a lot more agile than that, and a lot better positioned to get things done.” “
It’s about more than just a book industry Mr Brown sees the future of the ebook industry as being a lot bigger than just the books. “
This is a one man organisation, a lot more agile than that, and a lot better positioned to get things done.”
It’s about more than just a book industry Mr Brown sees the future of the ebook industry as being a lot bigger than just the books.
“When you look at the book sales in Australia, you look back at the period from 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998, there was this tremendous growth in book sales,” he explains.
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Now, in fact, in 2018,