The Damaging Irony of Big Time Bookselling

Foyles is still the acceptable face of bookselling, probably because it is still unlike the predators that are now quietly consuming the book trade throughout the world. Conquering giants now want commissions of 60 per cent or more from publishers and then they ask a sum again to display the titles prominently. They strike bargains that enable them to sell three books for the price of two, like lavatory cleaners in a discount store, and much as they draw crowds to their jangling tills, the trail that they leave behind is of closed shops and hand-to-mouth publishers and unknown but probably good writers that do not have the pull of Dan Brown or Harry Potter. This is the damaging irony of big time bookselling; that it consumes the very trade it is meant to be promoting, and many, many books from small publishers never get to be read by the wider book-reading people. So who stands to gain, who stands to lose in this dog-eat-book world? Remainder books are big business now, big enough to have their own book fairs. Testimony surely to the growing value of shelf space in the bookshops that have to be cleared as quickly as books are being churned up by the big boy publishers.

Following the closure of Borders in Charing Cross Road, Wan Hulaimi (our Awang Goneng) writes a passionate piece about the demise of bookshops thanks to ruthless and ultimately short-sighted business practices. I love his description of the eccentric way Foyles used to operate. It brings back memories of when I used to make a pilgrimage down to London as a teenager, to visit what was felt by many to be the best bookshop in the world. (Pic on right - Charing Cross Road)

Decongestion Charge

Live literature meets web presence meets publication and gives the embattled short story a new lease of life in London.

Just published by Apis Books: Tales of the Decongested, so called because the price of a copy is about the same as a day's decongestion charge (the fee you have to pay to drive in the centre of London).

The book is a collection of pieces written to be read aloud at the famous Foyles bookshop in central London, by a mixture of unpublished and published authors (including Ali Smith!). The objective of the project was to:

... raise the profile of the short story and to discover exciting new talent in London.

The quality of the writing gets a firm thumbs from Guy Dammann on the Guardian Culture Vulture blog, and if you want more information on how the scheme works, it can be found on the Tales of the Decongested website.

Now, I was so interested in the project I must admit (to my shame) that I went along to Amazon and one-clicked it. (Yes, okay, you can borrow it after me.) But the stories are also archived online, so that the cash-strapped and stingy among you don't have to part with your dosh to enjoy them (!) and you can also download some of the stories to capture the flavour of life performance.

Hmmm ... live literature .... meets web presence ... meets publication ... it could be a model worth imitating in a city near you!