The company behind bookstores Borders and Angus and Robertson is in a lot of financial trouble at the moment. While they’ve been granted a slight stay of execution, they’re in administration, and things aren’t looking good. But given that Borders is the driving force behind eBook and eReader sales in Australia, what will happen to the budding electronic book market should RedGroup go completely under?
According to Jason Davis, the man behind Australian eBook site BookBee, Kobo will come to the rescue. “Canadian-based ebook vendor Kobo pretty much are ebooks in Australia – at least in terms of local ebookstores. Kobo powers REDgroup’s ebook offerings – Borders and A&R in Australia and Whitcoulls in New Zealand. They also do the publishing deals with the local publishers, so they would be in a position to step in very quickly should the REDgroup brands wink out of existence here. Really, the only thing that the local companies bring to the partnership is the local digitising and computer infrastructure to run the site,” Davis told us.
Of course, Kobo may be the biggest player, but they aren’t the only option out there. Dymocks actually launched eBooks in Australia back in 2007, but aren’t playing the same game as Kobo and Amazon are. This opens the door for startups to enter the market, according to Davis.
“The playing field has never been more level, that’s why small local collectives like SPUNC can start selling ebooks – the barrier to entry is low.” Davis said. But the catch is that the chances of a new company rising up to dominate in the potential ashes of Borders is incredibly low. “I don’t think a new player can dominate here, because the market is global now,” Davis said. “That’s what a lot of publishers aren’t grasping yet. Geographic copyright and restrictions are only stifling the sales of ebooks, not protecting them. Global players will continue to dominate the ebook market here, no matter what happens with REDgroup.”
Which brings us to the Amazon question. Will the US online book giant be aggressive in taking advantage of the demise of Borders, should RedGroup be unable to dig themselves out of their financial hole? Davis think yes.
“I would expect a local Amazon store by the end of the year, and definitely an Amazon Android tablet (there’s already an Amazon distribution centre in New Zealand). Hardware sales will be fine, especially with Amazon dominating the market with low cost, great ereaders. The Kobo ereader was OK, but hardware is not Kobo’s strong suit. Only Amazon can really complete with the ultra-cheap Chinese clones.”
So while we sit back and wait for the RedGroup administrators do their best to try and salvage what they can from wreck that is Borders and Angus & Robertson, there’s a window of opportunity for both local and global companies to take advantage of the situation, and potentially turn the market into a massive success locally.
Cameron
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 2:21 PMThe biggest loss will be the retail offerings of eBook readers. The one thing the Kobo had going for it was you could walk into a Borders store and touch and try a Kobo reader (and shortly walk out again because of how shite it was), but anyway, those that actually did like it could then buy with confidence knowing what they are getting, which is one of the bigger complaints about getting a Kindle, people just have no idea what they’re getting as it’s nothing more then a picture on their screen. I’ve noticed the new Myer Melbourne has a few eBook readers for sale there that you can try out, but those are mainly the overpriced Sony ones so I don’t think that’s really doing a lot to help the eBook industry here in Ausland.
James French
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 5:54 PMI agree completely with Cameron. I’m purchasing a Kindle at the moment, and although I’ve read the reviews and have a pretty good idea what I am letting myself in for, it still is a leap of faith. And the Kobo was/is shite!
nicky
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 2:23 PM1. “Geographic copyright and restrictions are only stifling the sales of ebooks, not protecting them”
2. “and potentially turn the market into a massive success locally.”
unless the first is dealt with, the second will never happen
i have over 300 ebooks on my ereader and i have yet to pay for one…geographic copyright (i.e. Australia waits 3 months before they can get a newly published book) necessitated me getting my ebooks from alternative sources and i don’t see that changing now
Daniel T
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 2:37 PMHas anyone approached Google for comment on their book store coming to Australia at any stage? Also is iBooks available in Australia yet?
BenDTU
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 2:41 PMIt is – but the range is somewhat ‘meh’ atm.
That being said if book retailers are disappearing maybe more publishers will jump on board.
Brad Thurkettle
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 4:20 PMiBooks has an Australia. When it launched it didn’t have any local publishers so only had public domain books.
It now has about 6 AU Publishers
http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2010/11/17902/
Strange it wasn’t mentioned in the article as obviously Apple has big retail presence through its own stores and major retailers with the iPad.
Chris Sandifer
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 2:58 PMThe funny thing about this debate is that I purchase kindle books for my iPad and iPhone all the time from here in Australia. No waiting for 90 days for an Aussie publisher to sort out their printing times and marking the price up 300%. (I tell you what the authors don’t see any of the markup price)
Yes Australia has parallel import laws based on some silly idea that high book prices are good for the local publish market, but amazon is going to eat their lunch without ever setting foot in australia (if they have a presence here they would be subject to Aussie publishing laws).
An ebook publisher based here will lose to more affordable alternative (amazon) or bit-torrented ebooks. If the publishers don’t realize that the market is global and the demand is immediate people will get their books for free…
Namarrgon
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 3:10 PMThe problem is entirely artificial. These are *eBooks* we’re discussing, so it’s trivial to download them from any company with an internet presence – if they haven’t got exclusive contracts with local distributors preventing that (i.e. everyone except Amazon).
The Kindle is a solid option (though you are unfortunately buying sight-unseen), and at about $139 + <$40 shipping it's a lot cheaper than any local offerings. Then there's tablets, which are popular for reading, and smartphones (my personal choice) with a variety of reading apps.
DJ
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 5:36 PMWell you can buy directly from the publisher off their websites.
psy
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 7:09 PMWell considering their prices are much higher than Amazons pricing, they can go to hell.
I’m happy enough to purchase from Amazon with a much larger range and even cheaper prices. If they want to complain about supporting Australian business, well how about supporting Australian residents first and making prices fair.
Todd
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 9:29 PMThere was actually a bit of hoo-ha in the Australian book industry a couple of weeks ago about a new Australian online bookstore called Booku.com coming online to fill the gap that Borders and A&R will be leaving behind.
Megan
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 7:47 PMI won’t be missing Borders or A&R from the ebook scene – I have bought from both of them and have had bad experiences with both. Purchased four ebooks in one transaction, three downloaded fine and the other didn’t – took two weeks and about four emails to get any response out of them, no attempt to fix the issue, then just refunded the cost. Appalling customer service. Yes, I got a refund, but I wanted the ebook!
I have already purchased from the new booku site and found it good – it has some titles that I had been trying to get [legally] in Australia for some time, and prices were much better than I’d been seeing at Borders etc.
I have a Sony Reader, and love it. Only issues are… [legal] access to ebooks in Australia, and the ridiculous prices!
PnPBookseller
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 10:37 PM“the barrier to entry is low”
What a crock of bullshit. Jason had no idea what he is talking about when it comes to delivering a content rich eBook commerce site in Australia
Martin Neumann
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 10:39 PM“Geographic copyright and restrictions are only stifling the sales of ebooks, not protecting them”
This really needs to be sorted out as a number one priority. And I don’t see much happening in Canberra and local publishers (who wish to keep pbooks prices way too high) and save the Australian publishing industry – it’s over, the game’s been one: it’s a global (ebook) world we’re in now. Get with the times and give Aussies some real alternatives.
Amazon can – and really should – look at entering the AU market properly: they’ve already got the goods – the Kindle at a very decent price and a back-end that’s been 10+ years in the making.
My 2 cents… :-)
Stew
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 10:55 PMI less than three my Sony PRS-650. Best purchase in a long while. Can’t stand reading a backlit LCD for extended periods of time.
If the eBooks were cheaper, I’d have a lot less… *ahem*… “free” content on my reader. When a paperback costs as much as a digital download you know there’s something wrong with the system.
Kat at Book Thingo
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 12:08 AMKobo isn’t the only player in the Australian market. ebooks.com has been around for a while and booku.com was recently launched. Booku uses Overdrive, as do public libraries. JB Hi-Fi has been selling various brands of ebook readers and Myer sells the Sony Reader.
Anecdotally, I’ve only ever seen one other (random) person with a Sony Reader. Random ebook devices on the bus have mostly been iPhones or Kindles. At work it’s Kindles and iPads.
Among romance readers I know, the Reader and Kindle are the most popular, followed by cheaper no-name brands. These readers buy books a lot. They mostly buy from overseas ebook stores or direct from publishers. I’m not sure how much of this market is captured when people look at the numbers for the Australian market.
It’s too bad independent bookshops seem to be having trouble finding ebook partners as I’ve heard a few of them express interest in offering ebooks to customers and frustration in their inability to do so.
Based on my (admittedly limited) understanding, copyright is a legal framework so until the legal issue is addressed, geographic restrictions will remain a problem. There’s also restrictions in the contract between authors and publishers to consider.
What surprises me most is that there aren’t more Australian epublishers popping up. (By that I mean pure epublishing, rather than extensions of existing print publishers.) I’d love to see local epubs emerging, especially in genre fiction and niche markets.
Andrew Siers
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 12:16 AMReally if they disappeared, who cares, it means nothing to me anyway, I have my international Kindle set to access the US book store so I get a huge catalog, releases nearly day and date with physical books, and (mostly) identical prices. The 3G Kindle is the best e-ink display on the market anyway, and is the cheapest. I really wonder why you would go for any other option if you purchase your books legally.
At the prices they charged (on digitsl books no less!) no wonder they went bust.
David
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 2:02 AMThe problem with ebooks here in Australia is the lack of choice. I remember trying to purchase 10 books shortly after I got the iPad and none were available in Australia due to stupid geographic restrictions. I could buy the books in paper version, just not electronically.
Since all 10 were available in the USA, I sourced them in a not-quite-so-legit way and have not bothered to buy ebooks from Australian sources since.
Greg
Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 4:31 PMUhh, everyone will keep using a Kindle just as they are today?
Chaps
Friday, March 25, 2011 at 5:10 PMTrouble is that if I already have a library of ePub books, then the Kindle is not the product for me.. I thought the days of proprietary formats and DRM were over.
In fact, I was thinking of buying a couple of Kobo’s to store on the shelf just in case..