The Bookseller Essay Research Paper The Bookseller free essay sample

The Bookseller Essay, Research Paper The Bookseller # 183 ; Fans of famous person memoirs will hold an unprecedented scope to take from this fall, provided they do non take a firm stand that the stars come merely from the A list. Indeed, the alphabet may non be long plenty to sort some of the memoirists on offer. This genre enjoyed an extraordinary and slightly dismaying roar last twelvemonth. It # 8217 ; s alarming because the books cost a batch of money: progresss in surplus of # 163 ; 500,000 are usual. Nevertheless, a surprisingly high per centum of them did good. Robbie Williams # 8217 ; s Somebody, Someday, which cost Random House # 163 ; 800,000, was a immense success ; as was Victoria Beckham # 8217 ; s Learning To Fly, which cost Penguin even more but which earned back # 163 ; 750,000 merely from a consecutive trade. Pamela Stephenson # 8217 ; s Billy, bought for an unrevealed progress that was surely less than the 1s above, was the biggest hit of all, selling more than 1 million transcripts in hardcove r and now sitting at the top of the charts once more in its paper-back book edition. We will write a custom essay sample on The Bookseller Essay Research Paper The Bookseller or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Even Bruce Forsyth # 8217 ; s and Frank Skinner # 8217 ; s memoirs, which were regarded as letdowns # 8211 ; each sold about 75,000 hardcover transcripts # 8211 ; would hold been seen as successes had their publishing houses non invested irrecoverable sums of money in them. The blue failures were rare ; unluckily for Anthea Turner, everyone found out that she was one of them. Overall, the book industry got off with these gambles. Insiders agreed that publishing houses would be rash to take similar hazards in fall 2002. But it is non in publishing houses # 8217 ; natures to acquire out while they # 8217 ; re in front. Publishers know that these books become immense Sellerss merely if the famous persons are at the top of their professions, have gripping narratives to state, are popular, and are non over-exposed. However, they have splashed out on the followers, non many of whom measure up on all four counts: Roy Keane, Murray Walker, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, Melanie B, Michael Barrymore, Geri Halliwell, Alan Titchmarsh, Ruby Wax, Kate Adie, Nicole and Natalie Appleton, Ulrika Jonsson, Dale Winton, Lulu, and David Essex. Keane and Walker will be best sellers, even if they do non gain back their # 163 ; 1m-plus progresss. Kate Adie will besides be popular, and Alan Titchmarsh is a dependable supplier of hit books. After that, the odds lengthen. These are people who have lost some of their pulling power, and who will not be able to get away – as the biggest stars can – with dull books. We shall have to wait until September to find out if the Appletons’ Together (Michael Joseph) really is a â€Å"brave and honest† â€Å"anti-celebrity† book, and whether Melanie B’s Catch a Fire (Headline) will be, as her publisher promised a trade gathering, â€Å"as outspoken and outrageous as she is†.  · Jeff Bezos, founder of online retailer Amazon, picked the name of his company to suggest the scale of what he would offer: every book in print, and now an expanding range of goods including music, DVDs, electrical goods, computers, home goods, mobile phones, and numerous services. The name has acquired connotations of dominance too. Amazon.co.uk is by far the largest internet bookseller in the UK. The second largest is Amazon.com, the original US site. The media giant Bertelsmann might have been expected to offer a serious challenge; but the Bertelsmann internet bookshop, called Bol, has given up the battle, and is to become a book club. Amazon runs the Waterstone’s site. Ottakar’s has retreated, and Blackwell’s concentrates on the academic market. Only WH Smith, among the large retailers, continues to run a general internet bookshop. It is not surprising that Amazon is telling publishers that its trading terms should reflect its increasing sales. But it is meeting some resistance and, as a result of breakdowns in negotiations, is not at present able to buy books directly from several leading publishers; it has to go to wholesalers instead. Book buyers should not notice any change in service: Amazon can get the books and dispatch them within 24 hours. But the company’s margins may be taking a temporary hit.  · Since suffering an annus horribilis in 1999/2000, when it had expanded too rapidly and when retailing was out of favour in the City, the booksel ling chain Ottakar’s has made a confident recovery. It has posted a decent set of half-yearly results, even showing a sales rise during the notoriously flat World Cup period, and has announced that it is to expand beyond its heartland in market towns to open in large towns and cities. The strategy will result in some interesting competition with Waterstone’s and the expanding Borders chain. · Nicholas Clee is editor of the Bookseller.