Newsletter: April 2007

Greetings from the UK, where on reflection the news over the last few weeks seems to have been a mix of enthusiastic acclaim (in the form of book awards), and a little fear and uncertainty (in the retail sector). Anyway, here's a quick round-up...

Let's start with the positives. The last month has seen the winners of the British Book Awards (known familiarly as the 'Nibbies') announced. In brief, these included Richard Dawkins, author of bestseller The God Delusion, who was honoured as Author of the Year; Ian Rankin, who got Crime Thriller of the Year for The Naming of the Dead; Victoria Hislop, who was named Newcomer of the Year (for her debut The Island); and legal thriller writer John Grisham, who picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award. Check out the full list of winners on the Awards website.

The longlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction was also announced. Again, there are too many to name here, though it didn't escape the media's attention that both the winners of the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Book of the Year Award (Kiran Desai's The Inheritance of Loss and Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves) were, unusually, in the frame. Again, see the site for full details.

Onto the less uplifting news. At least, less uplifting if you're in the old-fashioned business of trying to sell some of these acclaimed books. Firstly, US-owned chain store Borders, who have specialised in selling from warehouse-sized units in out-of-town sites (rather like enormous furniture or DIY outlets), have announced that they're auctioning off their UK business. There was talk of a possible management buy-out, and even of bookselling mogul Tim Waterstone returning to the fray to take over (though it has to be said that his name is mentioned in connection with virtually anything that happens in the world of high street retail), but so far the outlook for Borders fans looks gloomy.

And things are no brighter for independent retailers either. Over the last few weeks the UK's only specialist lesbian and gay bookshop, London's Gay's the Word, announced that unless it came into some serious cash pretty quickly, it was going to have to close. Authors have rallied round, and enthusiasts have been sponsoring shelves in the shop, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.

So, if you add in the fact that Ottakars were bought out by Waterstones, leading to several store closures in an attempt to avoid duplication, it seems all in all that bricks and mortar book retail is in something of a dip at the moment. Nobody, it seems, can compete with the on-line giants like Amazon, and the buy-dirt-cheap-sell-slightly-more-expensively strategy of supermarkets like Tesco.

Let's hope for some more positive news next month!

Susan Tranter

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