cademic publishing and than the price that publishers are selling their proliferation of low-cost online sales
ow-cost online sales will make
bookselling is undergoing
significant change and todays
students have more options
available to them than ever
before. Technology is making the business of
selling textbooks more complicated as ebooks,
illegal downloading and online retailers
create new opportunities and threats for the
traditional campus bookseller. In particular,
the rise of online retailers has enabled a
growing number of tertiary students to focus
their consumer sawy on textbook purchases.
Online bookshops are not new; most
booksellers have heard the phrases 'I'll just get
it online' and 'I saw it on Amazon for cheaper'
more times than they care to remember.
Amazont largest competitor', The Book
Depository, has been making much headway
over the past year and Antipodean sites
such as The Nile and Fishpond are now well
established in the trade market.
\While the Australian dollar remains
strong, consumers will continue to embrace
the bargains online, and offshore retailers will
reap the benefits. Guy Kingston-Bray from
the Science and Technology Books division
of Elsevier Australia points out that online
bookstores based offshore hre able to price in
real-time to take advantage ofcurrent exchange
rates'. International online booksellers also have
the advantage over local sellers in that they
don'r have to contend wirh a pricing sysrem
conringent on agenry agreements. imporrarion
regulations and the Australian tax system.
Of the online retailers, The Book
Depository in particular has become a hot topic
among campus boolsellers and many believe
it poses the biggest threat to local academic
book sales-quite simply, by undercutting
campus booksellers on price. In some cases,
online retailers are selling textboola for less
textbooks to campus boolahops for, making it
impossible to compete.
David McMahon from the JCU Bookshop
sums up The Book Depository as 'cheaper
than our buy price, with lree freighr and John
Gaspar from the Co-Op Bookshop observes
that the website 'went viral this year' and
that 'people were talking about them on all
our campuses'. \7orryingly, there have even
been reports of lecturers sending students
directly to The Book Depository, with some
bookshops choosing not to order in certain
titles rather than run the risk of being stuck
with expensive stock.
Mark Halliday from the UNS.X/ Bookshop
highlights rwo main problems with the
populariw oFThe Book Depository: it causes
consumers to question the value of books in
Australia and it has an impact on the qualiry
ofservice that campus bookshops can provide
to students. Michael Ti.r1ly of Lippincott
-Williams
& \Tilkins agrees: 'when someone is
selling at a loss to gain market share it devalues
our content'.
Industry sources have highlighted the
willingness by The Book Depository to run at
a loss in order to obtain market share, but there
is also speculation that rhe parenr companies
of multinational publishers are providing a
greater discount to The Book Depositorf in
order to increase their own market share. ]t
is easy to see the benefit lor UK publishers:
send bulk stock to a locai warehouse and
let someone else do the rest. An exrended
discount also provides some competition lor
the all-powerful Amazon-the online go-to
for cheap and used books.
Ifparent companies are indeed undercuning
their local subsidiaries, and continue to do so,
then in the long term it could spell disaster
for Australian academic publishing. The
local publishing representatives appear less
successfirl, no matter how well they market a
book or how many textbook adoptions they
secure. Inadequate sales within Australia will
translate to a decrease in local representation,
resulting in less communication with lecturers,
fewer resources being made available to lecturers
and, thus, fewer textbook adoptions. Michael
Tully predicts serious potential consequences:
'job losses across the industry, less investment
lrom parent companies and less competition in
the market as booksellers close'.
Some publishers are already attempting
to tackle the issue. Oxford University
Press Australia and Lippincott rVilliams
& \Wilkins have dramatically reduced the
retail prices across a range of key academic
titles, some up to 50 per cent. \,X/hile Oxford
declined to comment on the reductions,
Lippincott \Tilliams & \Tilkins' Michael
Ti-rlly says that this year the company has
'cor.rducted a complete review of our pricing
and redefined "the market" to include online
providers from overseas', trying to balance
the needs of the corporation, the customer
and the bookseller.
lVhile academic booksellers and publishing
represenrarives see online competjtion as
x lsal 6h1sx1-6ne online retailer even has a
dedicated textbook page and offers textbook ;W
buybacks-there are definite benefits to
being a bricls and mortar campus bookseller
that cannot be replicated online. The "6@,8=-:..- -.
Co-op Bookshops John Gaspar sees online
comperirion as a risk. but also an opporruniry:
'lve have an enofmous advantage with our
:+:;:,,-:,...
locations, relationships and knowledge, and
m
if we, booksellers and publishers, review
and improve our service levels, supply times
and pricing models, we will keep our existing
sales and also win new ones'.
 lt N

_1

furtl^Fr concern$ Ebooks, second-l^ond

textbooks ond illegol downloodng
Online retailers are not the only challenge facing campus booksellers. The rise in
ebooks has long been touted as the next big challenge for academic booksellers
and publishers. However, the digital format has not yet caused a massive industry
shift. While interest in trade ebooks is steadily increasing, in the academic market
students generally still prefer print books. When students of one UNSW course
were recently given the option of a hardback textbook or an ebook download for
a much cheaper price, more than half of the class purchased the hardback. QUT
Bookshop's assistant manager Tracey Templeton points out: students cannot resell
an ebook, and the second-hand textbook market is booming, with second-hand
textbook websites becoming more prevalent.
While it is extremely difficult to measure the kue impact that second-hand sales,
texibook rental sites and illegal downloading are having on the industry campuses
are certainly buzzing with aliernative (and often illegal) sources for students to obtain
their textbooks. Anecdotal evidence suggests an increase in illegal downloading
and photocopying, as well as heightened marketing by iextbook renial sites, while
a brief search on the internet reveals a website boasting hundreds of illegal copies
of science textbooks.
There has been considerable criticism from campus booksellers over how the
media industry has handled the issue of illegal downloading, and David McMahon
believes that strategies for dealing with this pressing matter need to be seriously
discussed at the next Australian Campus Booksellers Association conference.

This sort ofresponse can Lre seen across the
irrdustrl \i/hile or-rline letailers cannot beat
a campus loc:rtion and do not have the same
access to laculties ancl Jecturers, bookshops
can compctc on rhe same ground as the online
rcLail.-.. lire Co-ol'Bo,'k.h,'1' l. n,'u uririrtq
postal charges lor orders dclivcrcd rvithin
\rr.rr'.rli..r .rn.l h.r. alro tnrtdr' im[tri,r. menl' tu
its rvebsite, 'making it easier to use our site, and
to use it in diflLrent wavs', says Gasp:rr.
F.nha ncing rvebsite usabiliq- and ver:satil i1v
is an eftictivc w:U' to compete; the UNSW
Bookshop'.s rvebsite has :rlso recently undergonc
a complete relovatiolr. QUT Bookshop olTcrs
lree sl'ripping on orders in the rveeks leading
up to the ne\v semester, supplyinq thousancls
of orders to enthusiastic students, although
assistant manager 'li'acc1'
'lLmplcton still
perceives Thc llook l)epository as the most
significant threat to sales.
C)nline sl-ropping has anothcr pcrccivecl
benefit, :rs Gu1' Kineston-Bra1. points out:
'l)art of thc appeal of online shopping is tbe
pcrccption thar it can be clLricker to order
through them.' In the rvceks leading up to the
strrt of senresrer. llle Nilc sent an e-ner'r.sletter'
tu .ub'.ribcr. Ltrging .tttdcrrL' tu .lre tintc.
moner':rnd ellbrt through rheit rvebsite.
Horver.er, UNS\( Bookshop's M:rrk
Halliclay rvarns that obtajnine textbooks
online is a crse of 'bul'er-bew'are'. \ffhile he
cloesnt r,vish to scare people, he ulges stuclents
to bc carcfirl :rbout what rhev are purchasine
onl irrq. L)liqrr .liH.r.rr t trrrir er'i r i.. or' (1)ur'\c\
u,ill usc :rltcrnativc editions or special-value
paclis th:rt are specific ro that course, ancl
son'retimes lecturers favour older editions
rh:rt have been made exclusivell' available in
a pardcular caurpus bookshop. If a stuclenr
purchases the rvrong eclition, thel'can send it
back to the online retailer br.rt rhis delav couLd
put them behind in their reacling and end up
costing them mole.
The campus bookshop also has the
adr.antage ofoflering ail the necesserr)' course
materials in one place, as u'ell as other services.
JCU Bookshop's Davicl N.{cMahon states that
r'vhilc tl-reir core business is textbooks, they irlso
ser-vicethe campus in the fbrm of unir.elsity
donations and equiq'scholarshigrs, and the salc
of unir.ersiq' insignia clothing. mcmorabili:r
ancl cost-price items such as p:rrking pcrrnits.
Loc:rl academic booksellers ancl publishers
can onlv speculate on the Jcugeviq' of
'll're Book Depositorl's business modcl. It
could sparvn an increase irL onljne acaclemic
boolisellers or perhaps more likelv-it
could be sold once it achieves its desired
marl<et share, pos.siblv to Amazon or GoogJe.
Either r,r.a)., local publishels will be for:ced to
renegoti:rte their price points ol terms of trade
ri.irh bookshops in order ro Letnain viable in
the Australi:rrr market. In the meantime. the
:rc:rdcmic book community needs to continuc
to ir-rnovate. Accorcling to Elso,ier Australi.r.s
(iui' Kingstor-r-l3rar,', thc feeling irr the rn:rrket is
that 'bookstores rv,rnt to expand their olliring
and remain compctitive, but it is c1ilficult to
brorv hor'v ao -"L. tl-rat movc'. C
Poria Lindsal is a ltookseller at []N,lW Bookshop

elosing the Eap in [ducatioll !I

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Titles available online and in print.

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