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| Jane Seaton | |
Jane Seaton of Beaufort Street Books in the Perth suburb Mount Lawley is the new president of the Australian Booksellers Association. ABA CEO Robbie Egan noted that Seaton "has been on the committee of management for seven years, and has built up her bookshop over the past 11 years."
Also named to the committee were Mark Laurie of South Seas Books in Port Elliot and Joe Rubbo of Readings bookshops, Melbourne. The three booksellers succeed Tim White (Books For Cooks, past president), Leesa Lambert (Neighbourhood Books) and Suzie Bull (Farrells Bookshop). "All three helped me immeasurably in the task of rebuilding the ABA, and Tim has been a trusted ear and a calming voice when I've needed counsel. I will miss them all," Egan wrote.
"It has been a tumultuous 18 months due to Covid and I anticipate we may have at least another 18 months of potential interruptions to our businesses," Seaton observed, adding: "I believe that the strength and quality of Australian fiction and stories is what truly saved us last year. Whilst we know books are essential, our communities of book readers grew particularly in the initial lockdown in March 2020 and continue to be sustained as shown in the Nielsen data presented at the ABA conference last month. Considering this, it is probably understandable that there has been a surge of new membership applications from those looking to open a business in 2021/22. Looks like books are a thing!!!"
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On Monday, flash floods hit several areas of West and South London, caused by nearly three inches of rainfall in just 90 minutes. One of the businesses affected was 43-year-old Al Saqi Bookshop, where the basement was flooded with wastewater, damaging the building on 26 Westbourne Grove and hundreds of books. The bookseller has launched a crowdfunding campaign, hoping to raise £15,000 (about $20,850), which will go toward replacing the ruined stock and proofing the basement against future flood damage.
A family-run, independent bookshop already struggling to recover from months of closure due to Covid-19, Al Saqi was able to re-open full-time only in June. The bookshop is also home to Saqi Books, a leading independent publisher of trade and academic books on the Middle East and North Africa.
"Since first opening our doors almost half a century ago, we have survived wars, smashed windows, death threats, the bombing of our warehouse in Beirut during the 2006 War, and censorship of the books we publish," said bookshop director and Saqi publisher Lynn Gaspard. "It's fair to say that we have had our fair share of tough times. But the challenges of the last 18 months have been unprecedented. A large proportion of our regular customers travel to Saqi annually from overseas--this has been impossible since the start of the pandemic and has resulted in a drop in sales. Further, due to the political and economic crisis in Lebanon, the supply chain has broken down and we haven't been able to order new Arabic books into the shop for over a year. All of which isn't aided by this flood and the resulting loss of our precious stock of books."
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Results from a pandemic book market analysis conducted by the Börsenverein (the German book trade association) shows that "people are reading more during the pandemic. Bookstores and publishers have been able to inspire people to read and supply them with books via creative and digital channels, despite stores being closed for months. Local bookstores in particular have significantly increased their online sales, but overall, they are under heavy economic pressure due to higher handling costs and significant losses in the physical bookstore business." The European & International Booksellers Association's Newsflash reported.
Online business grew by 21% and accounted for approximately a quarter of total sales revenues in the 2020, while business in local bookstores remained the strongest sales channel, yet still recorded losses of 9%. The outlook for 2021 remains uncertain: after the first half of the year, the sales shortfall in the local book trade amounts to 23% compared to 2019. --Robert Gray