August

In August 2009 this blog was born. I was reading The Ask and the Answer.

On this day in 2010 I was singing along to Darren Hanlon's latest (at the time) album.

Around this time in 2011 I was reading Yellowcake and enjoying some MWF sunshine.

In 2012 I  was being brief (though excited) about books, and keen to hear The Futureheads' acapella album, RANT.

August last year... who knows, really... But I had been to see Joan Baez (has it really been a year?!) and was soon to muse on the cost of books.

Skipping to the present day...

AUGUST 2014

Four months (almost to the day) after being retrenched from my in-house editor job, I am cheerfully living the #rockstarfreelancelifestyle, editing picture books for Little Hare and proofreading whatever comes my way.

I have also returned to my original career as a children's bookseller! I like to think of it as working at the coal face. Excitingly, this includes visiting local primary schools...

And there's time to read.

The protag has already eaten at least one "simple meal".

I loved it. In spite of this cynical review.

Some pop-lit-psych as an entree to understanding literacy.

And the end of August is bringing SPRING to Melbourne. It's (starting to be) T-shirt Weather!

buying books

Them there books sure are 'spensive these days. Sigh. If I had a dollar for every time someone said this to me...*

And I know. It's true. $30ish dollars for a trade paperback adult novel isn't a small amount of money. $30 is my share of the kitty in my sharehouse for a whole week. It's just over four days travel on your MYKI. Around 3 pints of beer - and don't try to tell me you've never dropped that in one evening without even thinking twice about it. 

Purchased and borrowed from a variety of sources.

Books cost a lot. We're such a teeny tiny market in this country, we just can't compare with America or even the UK. Things just cost more here. I'm sure that if we lived in the States my housemates and I could buy way more stuff with our $30 each a week.

I totally get the allure of Amazon and the Book Depository. But try to understand that they are basically the devil. How can we expect to have a local publishing industry if people continue to send their money to companies that don't even pay tax in Australia?

Mark Rubbo, the managing director of Readings, in a recent interview with the Design Files said: '...the huge share that online booksellers, especially the overseas ones, have is another challenge. It galls me that these monkeys don’t have to collect GST – they rip the guts out of local publishing and bookselling and on top of that they avoid paying tax.'

If you love Australian books, support them with your money. Buy books. Make a point of buying locally. If you want to buy books online, try Bookworld. It's not as good as buying from a real shop, but it's easy and quick, they offer some sweet discounts.

Perhaps aim to buy one book from a local independent bookshop each month. This is my rule, though usually I end up buying more and have to sacrifice something else - usually credit card repayments. Then source your other reads elsewhere if you want, especially if you're a voracious reader or poor  (or both). Libraries, secondhand bookshops, Bookworld, the Little Library ... or maybe work for a publishing house so you can get copies of some books (for me: Wild Awake) to keep for your own. Better yet - buy kids' and YA books - they're cheaper!

Maybe you love reading so much you want to be a book blogger. Publishers will probably be quite happy to send you books to read and review - and there's a vibrant YA blogging community in Aus, with readers from all over the world.

I just ask one thing. Bloggers, when offering your readers the option to click through and buy the book, consider not linking to those devilish sites mentioned above. You're in the business of selling books too, by recommending them. When you've been able to read a book for free, make sure you do right by its publisher, and especially its author.

Oh so many great Australian books!

There's so little money in books and publishing. Let's just make sure we put it in the right places in order to keep all the good stuff coming back in return.

*(I could buy so many more books) 

Discussing post-war US literature...

On my to-read bedside table pile

First of all, love is a joint experience between two persons — but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved. There are the lover and the beloved, but these two come from different countries. Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all the stored-up love which had lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto. And somehow every lover knows this. He feels in his soul that his love is a solitary thing. He comes to know a new, strange loneliness and it is this knowledge which makes him suffer. So there is only one thing for the lover to do. He must house his love within himself as best he can; he must create for himself a whole new inward world — a world intense and strange, complete in himself. Let it be added here that this lover about whom we speak need not necessarily be a young man saving for a wedding ring — this lover can be man, woman, child, or indeed any human creature on this earth.

Now, the beloved can also be of any description. The most outlandish people can be the stimulus for love. A man may be a doddering great-grandfather and still love only a strange girl he saw in the streets of Cheehaw one afternoon two decades past. The preacher may love a fallen woman. The beloved may be treacherous, greasy-headed, and given to evil habits. Yes, and the lover may see this as clearly as anyone else — but that does not affect the evolution of his love one whit. A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp. A good man may be the stimulus for a love both violent and debased, or a jabbering madman may bring about in the soul of someone a tender and simple idyll. Therefore, the value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself.

It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. Almost everyone wants to be the lover. And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being beloved is intolerable to many. The beloved fears and hates the lover, and with the best of reasons. For the lover is forever trying to strip bare his beloved. The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved, even if this experience can cause him only pain.

~ The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Carson McCullers (1953)

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) was the very best book we studied in my undergrad literature subject American Liberals and Moderns - and it was in exalted company of Faulkners and Fitzgeralds and Hemingways and Steinbecks - because Carson McCullers writes simply, beautifully and about such curious people: the outsiders, the misfits, the weirdos. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe tells of what happens to Miss Amelia Evans when her hunchbacked cousin comes to town. This short story is enthralling and unnerving, with such an excellent turn of phrase to place the reader right into this Southern, small-town setting. Pitch-perfect dialogue, the way she writes the characters' mannerisms and the almost confessional feel she's given the narrative. She is a wonderful writer.

I found this one at Barwon Booksellers in Queenscliff, along with McCullers' Member of the Wedding and Monica Dickens' The House at World's End. The Messinger Bird by Rosanna Hawkes I got at The Hill of Content (Melbourne), Town Life in Australia (about colonial life in Australia and published in 1883) by Richard Twopeny snatched up at Red Wheelbarrow Books in Brunswick and Louisa May Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Girl at the Mill Markets, Geelong.

lately ...

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is in town, where I've ...

• had MANY chuckles watching Television's Lawrence Leung talk about fan fiction, Colin Firth and being a slender, effeminate Asian man (in joke, go see the show)
• had fewer chuckles, but still a good time, watching Sophie Miller
• had an absolute hoot and ball watching Kate McLennan as she told us all about the year she spent living back with her parents. One of the best shows of the festival, surely!

I have trundled off to Readings bookstore in Carlton twice in the past week to grab a copy of The FitzOsbornes at War but they don't have it. A POX ON THEM! I SHALL NEVER STRAY FROM THE SUN BOOKSHOP EVER, EVER AGAIN.

Then, out of town this weekend at the musical love-fest that was Fishypalooza, I basked in this:

And patted these:

ch-ch-ch-changes

Five years ago I started working at The Sun Bookshop in Yarraville. My heart was grieving for the little town I had just left in France's south west, but the fabulous women (and, later, man) of the Sun took me in and helped me make Melbourne my home once more.



They supported me through the HELLISH HELL that was my Honours year and let me take off ten weeks to go gadding about the world when I felt the urge in 2008 (well, there was a wedding I just HAD to go to, people to travel with and terrible coffee to drink) and then moved things around for me when I decided to go back to study once more. During my years there we opened the Younger Sun and I was allowed to make it my baby - a children's bookshop to play in! What more could a girl ask for?! Well, there were good times and bad.

But they were nearly always the best of times.

With plenty to read, and Saturday dancing.

And people who let me sell them my absolute favourites.

But then late last year I had the enormous good fortune to interview for and then, amazingly, get a job in children's publishing. And it was way too good a chance to pass up. So I packed my little bag, bought the team a new stapler and some teacups, wrote a list of very strict instructions on how to treat my baby (which I hope they just gaily threw out and started doing things their own way) and made my way to Richmond* where I now spend my days with a new amazing bunch of women (and one man) who are 'totes awesome' and awfully good at their jobs. I love it already.

But change isn't easy. I miss my bookshop job. I have to change the way I blog around here. Richmond isn't quite as nice as Yarraville, or at least not as ville-esque. And I still miss that village in France, so I guess it doesn't go away. But I know it's all going to be something like an adventure**!

*technically still Northside. Though its Southside mentality is unnerving.
**apparently I am an eternal optimist. What?? I might not find the next Harry Potter in the slush pile? Phooey!***
***ok, KH. i probably won't...

national bookshop day

tomorrow you go to a bookshop. go directly to a bookshop.* do not pass go, do not collect $200.
national bookshop day. it's all part of making sure people remember how incredibly wonderful bookshops are and the job they do within the community. it's about sticking it to the man. you know that scene at the end of empire records? it's going to be pretty much exactly like that.**

the sun bookshop and the younger sun are having a 10am story time with our favourite local (man) william mcinnes for the kidlets and their swooning mums (and dads) and then at 1pm we are launching the rerelease of our favourite local (woman) kerry greenwood's novel medea.

we we we so excited, we so excited.***

and hannah's been making the shop all clean for you.

*though if you detour or deviate in the direction of coffee you will most likely be forgiven. especially if you bring me one. a skinny latte, thanks.

**it will probably be absolutely nothing like that. but awesome nonetheless.

***forgive me for THAT!

A New (Digital) World Order

Adjusting to the New Digital World Order

There was supposed to be a fancy video link and Skype session about digital books and bookselling but due to technical difficulties* we had a panel of industry professionals talking about this topic instead. And it was good.


L - R: Mark Rubbo (of Readings), Michael Heyward (Text Publishing), Kate Eltham (Queensland Writers Centre and founder of if:book) and Lucie Pepeyan (Collins Booksellers) and Jon Page (Pages & Pages and also president of the ABA).

~~~

Readings has already started selling eBooks on their platform Booki.sh, which launched in February and sales are up and up. It features predominantly local authors and local publishers, mostly from SPUNC, Allen & Unwin recently joined as well and soon other big players will also be a part.

~~~

Online bookselling, on sites such as Booktopia (and the bigger, slightly more despicable ones) is not a comparable experience to shopping in a "bricks and mortar" bookshop, because your search history will influence what you see on the screen and it is highly unlikely you will stumble on something strange and unexpected. Unlike in a bookshop, where you are free to wander and look and enjoy the experience and perhaps a misfiled tome will be just the thing you didn't know you wanted.

However, Kate quickly jumped on this point and suggested that while, yes, these online bookshops are like that, people who are online actually have the whole expanse of the World Wide Web on which to discover things accidentally - or serendipitously.

It's true. One person links to one thing, someone else links to another and BAM! I've found something I didn't even know I was looking for that brings me a lot of joy. For me this week it was this.** And there's even a book on the way!

~~~

Michael Heyward said that the digital book future is "intellectually fascinating but economically absolutely terrifying."

Australia is the only English-speaking region where independent booksellers are strong and influential (yes!). The RedGroup failed because it was, as Michael simply said, a "terrible retailer". He highlighted that we have to improve conversation between retailers and publishers because what we have going on is really worth hanging on to. And so far as Amazon goes, it's a company that isn't Australian, and that doesn't pay GST, and for it to have a stranglehold on book retailing is frightening. The idea of really knowing where your money goes became a very important topic over the course of the conference.

~~~

We must maintain diversity in publishing and it could be hard if retailers and publishers don't innovate now. But if the conference panel are anything to go by, booksellers, publishers, writers...they all have innovation coming out of their wazoos.

So the advent of online bookselling and eBooks has changed everything, but it's not all bad.


*I think this is the kind of irony that 90s indie popstars sing about. Like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.
**Ok, ok, the girl who gets hugged by authors I would like to be hugged by told me to look at it ages ago, but I didn't. Then I found the note saying: "look at this AWESOME site because you will LOVE it." And I thought: yes, I shall discover this for myself.

Aux Armes, Booksellers!

The 2011 ABA conference (we've filled the Hilton On The Park with our raucous bookish enthusiasm) kicked off this morning with a keynote address by Becky Anderson, co-owner of Anderson's Bookshop in Illinois and the President of the American Bookseller's Association.

Becky talked about her family business, still in business five generations on. Initially just a drugstore, they soon started selling books (and other sundries). As such, she rawther hilariously pointed out that she comes from a long line of drug pushers - but that drug pushers are also book lovers.


As she spoke on, it felt like a wonderfully rousing call to arms. Things are changing, no doubt about it. Bookselling "can no longer be business as usual." Bookshops are creaking, groaning and we need new strategies and innovative business practices. We need to start with a clean slate.

Booksellers and publishers need to work together to a common goal. That goal being: sell more books. We need price protection on eBooks, engaged and collaborative booksellers, new and innovative business practices, e-commerce enabled websites. And passion. Lots of passion.

Becky gave us some SCARY FACTS. Such as:

Amazon are calling the big publishers in NYC to lure their best editors away. If they have their own imprints, and their own distribution, they have an enormous industry monopoly. We booksellers (and publishers) need to stand up to those "who treat books as a lost leader" who offer the great deals on books to lure people to buy other things.

But she also gave us some UPLIFITNG STORIES:

Macmillan publishers in the US decided that enough was enough and that Amazon's pricing of $9.99 for an eBook was unacceptably underpriced (highlighting the need for an agency model concerning eBook pricing). When Amazon didn't accept this, the publisher put them on stop - simply ceased to supply their titles to them. A powerful action, Macmillan has since been joined by other major publishers. Rawr!

In America last year, Amazon dominated, with 80% of the eBook market. But this year, after the introduction of Barnes and Noble's Nook, their numbers have dropped down to just over 50%. In Australia we're still at the starting out point when it comes to bookshops and eBooks. Readings has introduced Booki.sh and that is a fabulous start, but we need to enable all stores to access this kind of software (but that's a discussion for another session).

In the UK and Ireland this year World Book Night was a fabulous success and saw a million books given away to strangers in the street and to those who don't have easy access to books, such as those in hospitals and prisons. The US will be joining the party next year with their own World Book Night to take place on Shakespeare's birthday.

We need to acknowledge the need to do things differently, we need a new approach and to not be afraid of trying lots of different tactics in order to find the thing that works.

A marvellous start to the conference. Becky is a wonderful speaker and she reminded me why I love bookselling and puffed up my pride a little (or a lot) in regards to my employ, saying: "We are the tastemakers, the loudmouths. We put books on the map."

ABA Conference 2011

Tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday I will be blogging from the ABA Conference "Through the Looking Glass", along with my friend The Cultured Animal. There'll be mucho tweeting happening too - look for the hashtag #ABAconf11.

It's been a tumultuous year for booksellers (a little bit scary if we're honest) and I am anticipating this conference to be extremely interesting and vibrant - a time to hear industry professionals discuss important issues - bookselling in a digital age, social media, eBooks and how to develop community relationships with a view to encourage people to shop local.

Visit the ABA website.
Check out the potential twitter highlights at the Fancy Goods blog.
Click here to read my response to Nick Sherry's remark that bookshops are not long for this world.

caution : bookseller on the warpath

Nick Sherry has given bookshops just five years before they are obsolete.

You probably saw this article, or at least heard about it.

I was enraged, along with my coworkers and the wider bookselling public. While his intention was probably not to be so blunt, and probably didn't quite mean what it sounded like he meant, he should definitely have thought a little more about it before he spoke such dismal words.

Actually, I also think our feelings are hurt. Here's the Minister for Small Businesses practically throwing in the towel for us...and all the while we're also apparently still staring down the barrel of impending ebook doom. Nick Sherry's website says: "Small business is the backbone of the Australian economy. The Australian Government provides assistance ranging from expert advice to grants to help our small businesses succeed." This is not the way to talk to your backbone!

I'm not all that confident in this minister. Not only am I suspicious he hasn't been into a bookshop lately, I also wonder about his ability to lead and advise in a changing economy and a forward-thinking world. In an interview on ABC News 24 Sherry spoke about technology and the way its development is impacting on the way small businesses are run: "It's not something that necessarily I understand in the sense that I use it a great deal, because I don't." Maybe have a look into that one, Nick.

The way we read is changing, and the way some people buy books is changing. But I don't believe real bookshops will disappear. Real bookshops with real books in them, and real people to help customers choose a new read. People like coming into a bookshop - the amount of comments I get daily...oh what a lovely shop and it's so nice to come in and get advice and you are so lucky to work in a bookshop, it's my dream... And that's the other thing: everyone wants to be Bernard Black! And though modern bookselling requires a lot more dedication and sobriety (sadly) than Bernard's version, working in a bookshop is hella fun. I don't want to not be able to do it anymore.

So maybe, dear general public, just go and have a little visit of your local bookshop this weekend. Don't let Nick Sherry's negativity put you off. Meet the staff, have a chat, poke your nose into the Design section (the frankie Spaces book is awesome), or into History (Parisians, by Graham Robb, is in paperback now), or Classics (a Nancy Mitford book would warm your winter blues) or maybe even Young Adult (this list would go on).

Go visit a bookshop today. Otherwise, we booksellers will be sad:


In associated news: The Book Depository is really fortunate because it's subsidised by the British postal service and is able to offer free postage. Lucky bastards.

a bookshop job

i love my job, love working with books and getting to meet customers and talk about books - especially working in the children's shop because kids are always REALLY EXCITED when there's a new book in their favourite series and aren't afraid to show it.

however, i'm not the most patient person in the world and working in retail really really grates sometimes. for example, it's taken A LOT of self-restraint today when i've offered to gift wrap a book for a customer to not scream in their face when they ask: "can you take the price off?" and i know...i know...on principle it's a totally fair question, but when it happens thirty or forty times a day i want to yell WHY WOULD I LEAVE THE PRICE ON, YOU A-HOLE or at the very least respond with a resounding DERRR!!!

and don't get me started on parents with prams (particularly GIANT PRAMS)
or unattended children
or sticky fingers
or coffee spills
or stinky nappies
or twilight fans
or stupid questions (though my friend m takes the cake on this: someone came into her bookshop, looked around then asked "do you sell trumpets?" derr!)

but then sometimes it only five minutes i remember why i love being here: i get a reading copy of the new john green/joanne horniman/patrick ness (can't wait til may!) ; the girls from teen bookclub make my sides ache with laughing as they talk w/o breath about talking pigs, hamish and andy, you tube and occasionally the book itself ; a customer comes in especially to tell me that the book i recommended was a big hit ; jenny comes in and says "where the hell have you been?" like i'm an important bit o' furniture here.

...aaaaand...cut. enough. mi scusi.