The Bookseller.com

8th January 2009

Clare Alexander is a literary agent with Aitken Alexander Associates, and ex-president of the Association of Authors’ Agents. She was formerly a publisher at Viking and Macmillan.

Job swap

31.08.07

Is it just my love of narrative, or did various recent news items seem to converge into a single story? First a YouGov poll showed 10% of people in England aged more than 35 aspire to being authors. Next came the news that CreateSpace, part of Amazon, is to launch a books-on-demand self-publishing service, presumably thereby enabling more of those wannabe authors to make it into print. The last chapter in the story was the news that booksellers are concerned that publishers are attempting to sell more books direct to consumers.

It seems that booksellers are turning into publishers, publishers into booksellers and practically everyone thinks they are a writer. But does it all presage the end of publishing as we know it?

I think not. For while Amazon will make yet more books available, without editing or marketing, how many of these books will actually find (or deserve) a readership? A few good writers will bubble to the surface, and that must surely be a good thing, but most will be "published" only in the sense that they will be made available. Issuing a book is not the same thing as publishing a book.

In the meantime publishers may feel that if they can no longer display a wide selection of their books in high street stores, they have little choice but to make some books available directly to consumers through their own websites. But listing a book as available is not selling a book.

The dynamics of the internet mean that there is likely to be more and more choice available and therefore an increasing need for mediation. The fact that every single "Richard and Judy" Book Club choice rises to the top of the bestseller list speaks to people's desire for trusted advocacy, and we don't have to leave that advocacy entirely to television. If supermarkets see books as an area for growth, it suggests that there is nothing wrong with our product. So publishers need to make the right editorial choices to make books look and feel great—and to promote those books in smart and creative ways. Booksellers, on the other hand, need to make the right retail choices, use display effectively, and run varied and exciting offers if they are really to drive sales.

If this story is to have a happy ending then we need to recognise that new technologies and new routes to market may seem to cause some convergence of roles, but we all need to keep doing what we have always done—only better.

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