Publishers absorb implications of Borders loss
30.11.09 | Benedicte Page
Hachette UK's deputy chief executive Peter Roche said earlier this afternoon he was still awaiting a response from Borders UK administrators MCR to questions put by him on behalf of the publishing-wide committee established by the Publishers Association to try to find a way for publishers to continue trading with the bookseller.
Meanwhile publishers were absorbing the impact of the chain's seemingly inevitable demise. Penguin General m.d. Joanna Prior said: "It's slightly too early to call but inevitably fewer bookshops ordering our books upfront has implications for our subscriptions, although latterly Borders subscriptions weren't enormous."
A narrowing of the market meant less bookselling expertise, she added: "Borders was another player, more people to become potential champions about a book you are excited about. Our
publishing is about distinctive individual books with great stories which booksellers can recommend to others, and Borders at its best was as good as that as anybody, with staff picks and an individual flavour to the stores.
"We'll lean on Waterstone's ever more but now there are just fewer fiction specialists and history specialists sitting there talking to customers. We have to work even harder with the customers we have left."
CCV publisher Dan Franklin said that as CCV sells "very, very few" books to W H Smith, the Random House company is "now left with just a huge Waterstone's and lots of interesting independents, and it narrows it down."
He added: "It does leave us exposed because if Waterstone's doesn't like a book, that's it, really. Of course you can do extremely well if Daunts likes a book—they can sell a lot, sometimes even more than Waterstone's."
However Scholastic m.d. Elaine McQuade said that while the publisher was "sad" to lose an important customer keen on children's books, the loss of the chain wouldn't change its publishing.
"Borders wasn't big enough to rely on [to make a book on its own]," she said. "We are a lot more reliant on fewer customers and there is a lot of competition out there. However while there may be a duopoly on the high street, there are other channels, including the internet and the supermarkets, and the channels for selling direct to schools such as book fairs and book clubs."
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Comments on this article
By Daddy Long-Legs
CCV-produces the kind of fiction where the principal character is erm, a writer! How imaginative! Byatt, Amis etc. With a hefty advance to boot. Part of the problem in UK publishing, rather than the solution.30 Nov 09 19:02
