On Bookshop Closures By A Bookstore Owner.

With the recent failure of several well known bookstores I thought it would be interesting to get some feedback from someone whose business is in selling books.   Jim Owens is my guest on this blog and since Jim's business is people who buy books, and he is a business owner using new technology to reach customers around the world with his old fashioned service and product, the timing couldn't be better.

Lindy

Bad new travels fast in the bookworld

On the radio today, the major topic was the news that Angus & Robertson and Borders are in the hands of administrators. You do not need to be a mind reader to know this was going to happen.
Australia has forever been at the mercy of the big publishers from the UK & USA having an agreement that artificially limited supply & kept the prices high forcing consumers to pay higher prices for books, these same publishers also saving money by getting books printed offshore. However, that all changed with the advent of the internet, now local book readers and small bookshops to a limited extent can compete with the big guys, until then Australian readers had no way of getting cheap books, always having to pay through the nose for their books, captives of the large publishers. In a truly smart country, everyone needs cheap books.

In the short term

Many people will lose their jobs and some small businesses will go to the wall. If you look around you can see that happening now. Just drive down Hunter street Newcastle or down Pittwater rd Dee Why just to name a few, all you can see is closed shops that fifteen years ago were full of flourishing small businesses but as the Westfield & Marketown and Centro’s gained market share the strip shops lost traffic & ultimately money.

For the future what will happen?

1. We will have to adapt new business models or disappear.
2. Print on demand is growing every day
3. All of the new ibooks, Kindles & other readers will take market share but limited
4. Rare books & 1st editions will always be valuable.
5. Less bookshops in shopping centers as big chains take the place of bookshops.
6. Customers will have to buy books online.

Other factors

One other item worth mentioning is the role that government plays in the book market. From the tree to the bookshelf, government takes taxes from many different sources. When the customer buys a book in Australia, it must be one of the major costs in that purchase. But when you buy a book from overseas its much cheaper. The reason that it’s cheaper is mostly that the Australian government hasn’t got their grubby little hands on all those steps, and the little guy can get a fair deal rare but true. Gerry Harvey can moan and groan about losing market share to the rest of the world but, he didn’t care about knocking out little Australian business entrepreneurs.

How will it affect ozzbooks?

At Lake Macquarie Secondhand Books, we have already felt the effects of this shake up but to an extent our size is an advantage our business is in the growth phase. We don’t have the huge costs associated with running franchise operations and all the inherent difficulties. Our business is able to react daily to our customers needs; it’s not a behemoth slow to react to the needs of new generations of customers. Our business is about finding and supplying books for our customers and friends.

Recommended Reading

A good book to read about book publishers in Australia is a title called Paper Empires by Craig Munro, & Roby Sheahan-Bright,  

Cheers
Jim Owens

Lake Macquarie Secondhand Books
3/33 Advantage Ave
Morisset NSW 2264
Australia

Ph  0249 735 925
Mo 0447 330 911

Lindy Asimus

Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com

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Sea Turtles

Disturbing.

Where are their Government Wildlife Rangers?????

 

Subject: Sea Turtles   Aha, maybe we have just discovered why the sea turtle is going extinct & it is not global warming. !!!!!!!.... World shame - the coast in COSTA RICA                        Please distribute widely.   The turtle eggs are stolen to be sold.  The planet is thankful for the forwarding of this email. NOTHING LIKE A PICTURE TO EXPLAIN AN EXTINCTION

 

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Egyptian Riot Gear

This is still fairly topical and shows some lateral thinking in the use of safety gear.

Your classic 1979 ‘Tribottle’ helmet – a must in any type of combat A late 80’s ‘boxhat’. The bloke next to him doesn’t appear too sure of its effectiveness A renaissance period piece of brickwear teamed with a black and cream scarf. Textbook. Im not sure that tuna sarnie he is about to lob is gonna cause to much destruction. Old skool 80’s broken bin helmet. I personally love the fact he needs to lift it up to see – does he spend the rest of the time walking in to things?? Textbook saucepaning with lifejacket combo. I literally have no idea what this is. And the winner by 100 miles. This bloke is going to war with 2 baguettes strapped to his ears and a ham salad roll sellotaped to his forehead. I’d def wanna be behind him if someone lobs a load of bricks at me.

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On Honesty and Love

“The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed,
but that he cannot believe anyone else.”
--George Bernard Shaw

"Honesty about everything truly does open the doors to intimacy, love, and dynamic relationships. Without it, we're all just actors on a stage, reading our scripted lines. And to some degree, I think everyone knows we're pretending to be truthful. It's like we're all walking around holding dead chickens in our hands, making deals with each other. “Pretend you don't see my chicken, and I’ll pretend I don't see yours.” It's a scam, but one we're pulling over our own eyes."

http://www.healthyplace.com/relationships/creating-relationships/honesty-is-necessary-in-love/menu-id-1512/

Lindy Asimus

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Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
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Death of Love

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing."

- Anais Nin

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Aztec mask - 3 Faces

Sculpture executed circa 1300 A.D

"The passage of time was one of the main concerns in Mesoamerican society; thus,
many depictions of its passage allude to different aspects of the Mesoamerican view of the cosmos.

The three faces depict three phases in which time and humans are closely related.
The central face is jovial and full of vigor, referring to the time when individuals are during
their most productive years in a society.

By way of contrast, the exterior mask has closed eyes,
alluding to the opposite phase, death.

In between is a period of no less importance,
he state that arrives with experience: old age."

http://www.thecityreview.com/aztec.html

Lindy Asimus

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Lay of the Last Minstrel (Extract)

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.

O Caledonia! stern and, wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band,
That knits me to thy rugged strand!
Still, as I view each well-known scene,
Think what is now, and what hath been,
Seems as, to me of all bereft,
Sole friends thy woods and streams were left;
And thus I love them better still
Even in extremity of ill.
By Yarrow's streams still let me stray,
Though none should guide my feeble way.,
Still feel the breeze down Ettrick break,
Although it chill my wither'd cheek;
Still lay my head by Teviot Stone,
Though there, forgotten and alone,
The Bard may draw his parting groan.

Meaning of unusual words:
pelf=money, wealth
Meet=well fitting
Yarrow, Ettrick, Teviot= rivers in the Scottish Borders

Scottish Poetry Selection
- Lay of the Last Minstrel (Extract)

The "Lay of the Last Minstrel" by Sir Walter Scott was based on an old Border narrative and is full of phrases which have passed into our language - though we often don't realise that it was Scott who penned them. The extract below illustrates this clearly with "O Caledonia, stern and wild", "Breathes there a man with soul so dead" and "Land of the mountain and the flood". They come from Canto Sixth, verses I and II.

This poem and the one next to it Invictus, were poems my mother held dear and would recite.
Must have been the Scot blood in her veins. (Jessup)

Lindy Asimus

Business Coach
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lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
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Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

first published in 1888
in Henley's Book of Verses

At the age of 12, Henley fell victim to tuberculosis of the bone.
 A few years later, the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians
announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly
below the knee. It was amputated when he was 25.
In 1875, he wrote the "Invictus" poem from a hospital bed.
Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led
an active life until his death at the age of 53.

Lindy Asimus

Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com
If you'd like to know more about me, visit

Australia's Marketing Mentor

Contact Me
Actionbites Blog How-To Step-Up In Your Business.

Lindy Asimus

Business Coach
Mobile: 0403 365855
lindyasimus@gmail.com
www.lindyasimus.com
www.designbusinessengineering.com
If you'd like to know more about me, visit

Australia's Marketing Mentor

Contact Me http://www.facebook.com/designbusinessengineering" style="text-decoration: underline;"> http://www.facebook.com/designbusinessengineering" style="text-decoration: underline;">
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