The UK vs Australian job market.

One thing I found out today is that no matter what country you are in there are still people trying to take advantage of you. Today I worked at a cafe for a trial, in a beach side town in the next suburb over. From 10am to 12:30pm I made coffees, sandwiches, shakes, smoothies, cleaned tables, dishes, work surfaces and generally made myself useful with the potential hope of getting the job. At the end of all this the manager offers me a wage that I later find out does not even meet minimal wages over here and most likely because he presumes that I do not know. It doesn't leave a nice taste in your mouth.
So, after spending what was left of my afternoon trawling the internet to see what other options I might have. One thing I noticed was the abundance of jobs, anything and everything. Within about an hour I managed to send off about six resumes, not bad when I think about the weeks I would spend searching for jobs, in store and online, and would be lucky enough to hand in a a couple. Doubly not bad when I am a student, looking for part time work, flexible hours and something within retail and/or bar/restaurant work.
This got me musing on post-university jobs and the chances of getting work in the industry I would like back in the UK. With the way into the workplace now being more and more reliant on internships and work experience, and yet less and less companies offering such opportunities it's rapidly become a vicious circle that's only added to with the overall lack of jobs but multitudes of graduates. For example, of the 30 or so friends and relatives I know who graduated in May 2010, only two have found jobs in the workplace related to their degrees. The rest are back to retail, bar and restaurant work and anything else in between. Interestingly from my online searching both the UK and Australian government are reporting the same statistics for graduates going into the workplace, at about 85-90%. However, none of them state what this employment is or whether it is actually related to their degree. With more people being encouraged to go to university and a degree almost vital to getting anywhere, it's hard to understand what the point is if the jobs aren't there once you finish.
Despite the fact that there are problems world wide with finding employment for graduates, for Australia the percentage of people out of work is 5.1, for the UK it's 7.2. On top of this Australia is advertising for immigrants, particularly immigrants with degrees in specific roles, such as teachers and doctors. This poses an interesting problem for the Australian government because as a result of it's advertising it is pulling in graduates from all over the globe desperate to work and in many cases work less hours for a considerably better wage.  Which begs the question, why even bother to try and get work in the UK when Australia wants you? Even if the statistics are skewed, it's a very persuasive case when there's a country that's offering you everything your home country can't.
So, despite my first job experience in this country being a bitter one, it's going to be interesting to see what opportunities present themselves over the next few months.

REDgroup administration and the rise of indie's.

REDgroup has just announced “voluntary administration” here in Australia, quoting among many reasons the rise of internet sales and the price competition. What I did not realise when coming over here is how inflated the cost of books is. The family I live with bought a paperback copy of Conn Iggulden’s Fields of Rome novel, usually priced at £7.99 in the UK. From a Borders store in Melbourne it cost them $25 (about £15). This is due to the fact that the Federal Government in Australia has put a Copyright Act on books which effectively prevents the importation of legally copyrighted books from other countries. Instead it creates a closed market in Australia and although there have been various booksellers, bookshops and readers who have called to change this law (which similarly applied to CD’s in Australia, but was overturned in 1998 causing a dramatic drop in their prices) for books it does not seem to have happened. It is no wonder more people are shopping online here than ever before. Even if they buy a book online at the UK price it’s still cheaper than the Australian price.

Tony Nash, chief executive of Australian online bookseller Booktopia, reckons that the collapse of the REDgroup chain presents an opportunity for the independent bookstores of Australia. Like in England, independents are thriving whereas the chain bookstores are being crippled by costs, a loss of individuality and poor staff. Nash goes on to argue that even the difference in Australian in store book pricing when compared to online deals will be cancelled out by the fact that Australian’s want local, independent stores. The movement of the customer towards individuality, personality and difference is happening worldwide. You only have to look at the Book Hive in Norwich which won the Telegraph’s Best Independent Bookstore in Britain prize, despite having two Waterstone’s branches only down the road, to see how people are fed up with the monotony of chain bookstores. Their cost cutting, stock reductions, uninspiring identical displays and staff who are required to meet certain quotas, ask specific questions and push the customer into extra sales makes people disinclined to visit when they have a local, independent, varied, friendly and vastly knowledgeable store perhaps only next door. What these chain bookstores do not seem to realise is that people want to see individuality, they want to see a different collection, a varied display and a little creativity throughout, and it does not matter how many deals they offer, unless they can catch onto the mindset of the independent bookstore they are not going to survive in such a competitive market.

Aspects of The Books Hive, Norwich.

Effectively this worldwide change is showing that the market must change. Where people were happy to buy from any store, they are now much more conscious of who they are supporting and what that means for their money. When you buy a book from an independent and you see that their next display is even more fantastic than the previous months, or that they have a new event, a new member of staff, or an increased section, you can visibly see the change that your purchase makes. You buy a book from a chain and their display is still just a range of posters and a poor stack of books that is repeated in every store, that the stock has not varied at all and if anything has got smaller and that the staff are just as driven by head office protocol; it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. Chains have presumed that because they have the market share they in effect demand your custom, but this is rapidly not becoming the case, customers are now going out of their way to buy from independents, especially in Australia where there is a much vaster range of independents when compared to England.

I do feel sorry for the staff of chain bookstores, and there are many, who try within the confines of their job to provide the personal service that people want and are sadly being made redundant in huge numbers worldwide. However, there are enough staff working at these stores who do not care about their service to put customers off and turn them away. From experience I know how hard it is to meet the requirements that a head office puts on their staff (a head office that is built up of people who have never worked on the shop floor, have no idea what customers actually want and little desire to leave the confines of their office in order to find out). From how they are to approach a customer, creating “yes answer” questions that is meant to inspire a sale, to placing the book in their hands, recreating a “sale effect” and then offering them a range of deals in a last minute attempt to create one extra purchase, it is all thought out for shop floor staff in order to try and make the most money from the customer. You are only expected to create a rapport or a conversation if it leads to a sale, and it is very hard to want to serve people when you know that should the sale not happen, your customer service is called into question because you have not followed the prescribed protocol.

As a result I am in two minds as to the increasing fall of chain bookstores. Witnessing the effects of the multitudes of redundancies it is not a nice scenario; however the rise of independent bookstores cannot be a bad thing. I think that chains will survive as long as they realise now what the customer wants and change accordingly. Let staff chat to customers about books, whether a sale is on the cards or not, and increase the range, as opposed to going into increasingly overpriced gift ideas, DVDs and toys that repeatedly do not sell and are returned in vast quantities. If they allow some freedom within their branches who knows what the results may be, and independents know enough of what their advantages are not to let the chains gain such control over the market share again. 

First Impressions.

I had my induction on Friday, typical scenario of  a general talk followed by a subject specific talk, a cringe worthy "meet your neighbor" request and a free packed lunch. Now, this being my third such talk they do get a bit boring, especially when you know that the next week is still orientation so you are just going to go through all the same things again then. In order to prevent this talk from getting too exciting I pulled out my copy of Sherlock Holmes and waited for it to end so that I could do a little exploring myself.
This was the best part of the day; after all the talks being able to actually look around the campus. Simply put: it's stunning. The old part is like Oxford University, with courtyards, vaulted ceilings and generally beautiful architecture. Very Hogwart's! Then melded into this is a range of modern buildings, with glass and metal frameworks, expressionist art and amazingly futuristic environmentalism. Sounds horrible doesn't it? But it's not, there are so many greens, courtyards, reading corners and hidden coffee shops which work to bring it all together. It is the most well thought out, beautiful and practical campus I have ever seen. Hard to believe that it's a city university and only a 10 minute tram ride from the center of Melbourne.

The photo really do not do it justice. I will get some better ones soon so you can really see how it looks. 

Australia and Jonathan Maberry.

Well, I have finally made it to Australia. After 24 hours of travelling what can I tell you? Thanks to my plane being late leaving Heathrow I had to literally run across Dubai airport in about 30 minutes, going from Arrivals to gate 228. And yes, there are over 300 departure gates. What little of Dubai airport I got to see was amazing, the airport was structurally very well thought out and completely modern. Having heard a few horror stories from people who have been through Dubai I encountered none of this and was very impressed. I wished I could have spent a little longer there but what can you do. As for Emirates, not wholly convinced by their "award winning food", but plenty of leg room and to top it all I got a spare seat next to me so I could spread out that little bit more.
Stupidly I only took one book in my hand luggage, which was "Rot and Ruin" by Jonathan Maberry that I received from the Simon and Schuster event a few weeks ago. If I'm honest I am a bit of a zombie/post apocalypse addict so when I saw this novel I nabbed it straight away. I read Maberry's "Patient Zero" when that first came out and got through it in about a day it was so gripping and personally I think "Rot and Ruin" topped "Patient Zero" by miles. Brilliantly written, in a zombie world, Maberry goes into the problems that can occur when the law that is left encourages the killing of zombies and turns a blind eye to the disappearances of humans, putting it down to being eaten. Narrated by the 15 year old Benny, his view of the world changes around him as those he views as the heroes of the new world rapidly degenerate into something else. This book was such a page turner I read it all on my first 6 hour leg of the journey and found myself itching for more. As a YA book it is exactly as Maberry says in his interview below, that it not what he expected it to be and it definitely won't be what you expect to read.

So now that I am here what's next? I have my enrollment tomorrow, where I will get my timetable, reading lists etc, and then we will get down to the nitty gritty of writing.

Note to self: trying to get over jet lag in one day is not a good idea.

"Pigeon English" by Stephen Kelman.

So I am currently reading "Pigeon English" by Stephen Kelman and I'm hoping to finish it today (whilst keeping an eye on the rugby) but I can't help but notice the rise of fictional works with children as the eyepiece of violence. From Emma Donoghue's "Room" which was nominated for the Booker Prize last year, to earlier works such as "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy. The presentation of violence, anger and rape in some cases seen through the eyes of "innocents" is oddly jarring. What it gives the reader is a view of the violent truth through the eyes of children who do not fully understand what is going on around them.  As a result the reader is having to doubly interpret what these fictional children are seeing. By not always knowing the truth behind what they are narrating they mistake the actions of others, but still inform the reader that there is something happening. This is perhaps most prominently shown through Lenny, the child narrator in "Cracking India" by Bapsi Sidhwa. The reader is constantly told about Lenny's inability to lie, setting her up as a reliable narrator, but one who does not understand what she is really narrating. As a result the reader has to understand what she is saying to us through her imagination and then interpret it into what we readers know as the truth. For the narrator of "Pigeon English", Harrison is acting as an informal interpreter for the reader, explaining all the various wars, signs and words so that we can understand what he is saying to us, but it also seems at times as is he is providing an explanation for himself. As a boy from Ghana, he is having to work at living in England and understanding the ways of the people around him. Not always successful, he provides enough information so that the reader knows enough of what is going on and we discover the murderer through Harrison's eyes. Sometimes a little slow, I find myself willing Harrison to notice what's really going on. A similar feeling I had when reading "Room" where I just wanted to Jack and to realise the truth of his situation, but I think that is what makes child narrator's so special to novels that are dealing with violent topics. They can see, but to a degree not interpret what they are seeing which makes them amazingly resilient to the outside world, particularly shown through Jack who manages to adapt with surprising quickness as a result of his innocent view of the world.
With a few chapters left of "Pigeon English" I am struggling to get along with Harrison as much as I did with Jack in Donoghue's "Room", but I think the effect is very similar. The resilience of these fictional children at such a young age contrasts their innocence with the brutalities they are presented with. I can see why "Pigeon English" is on the Waterstone's Eleven and has already made such a splash. Definitely one to watch when it is released on the 7th March this year.

Simon and Schuster Blogger Event.

On the3^rd February I was lucky enough to get invited to the Simon and Schuster Blogger Event. This was the second event I had been along to in the last year and it was great to see how it had grown, in both the number of bloggers in attendance and the amount of authors, which had increased as well.

First time I attended this event was in June 2010, where we had a panel of staff from all different departments in Simon and Schuster. It was a good insight into the different workloads, but also it was surprising (and affirming) to see how many of the staff members had come from bookshop backgrounds. This time round we were greeted by a panel of S&S authors from a wide range of genres, backgrounds and countries; Kevin J. Anderson, Sophie McKenzie, Michelle Harrison, Justin Somper, Craig Robertson, Milly Johnson and Helen Warner. It was very interesting to hear them answer the questions from such an intense audience, ranging from general questions like “which book do you wish you had written?”, the most popular answer was Bridget Jones’ Diary, to “are you taking part in any of the protests against the closures of the libraries?” to which Justin Somper showed a resounding interest and obvious angst at the thought of libraries closing. A vast number of the authors in attendance still maintained day jobs, and questions of how and when they find the time to write around such an already demanding schedule showed how much of their lives were a juggling act to some degree or another. The life of the isolated artiste living off his/her works does not seem applicable any more. 

After a thorough quizzing from the various bloggers we all moved into the next room to be greeted by a table of beer, wine and all sorts of lovely cakes and cheeses. Surrounding this were tables of the next few months worth of proofs and recommends, some from all the authors in attendance, as well as those S&S were really excited over. Given bags and told to take what we wanted, it amazes me there isn’t more of a frenzy with so many book lovers in one room, surrounded by free books!

So, what you all want to know: what was I lucky enough to get in my goody bag?

Possibly most exciting for me personally was to meet the range of children’s authors in attendance. Having worked in the children’s department at Waterstone’s it was lovely to be able to put faces to the names, just to have a chat about their plans and obviously get those little hints about what was next for their new novels.

As a fledgling solo blogger I can appreciate how valuable this is for bloggers, not only to meet the authors of some of the big hits of the next few months, but also to get the chance to chat to the S&S staff, see what is going on in such a changing environment. As I am off to Australia in less than a week I can’t wait to get an insight into how/if the publishing industry is different over there and whether this offers an interesting and new insight into such a competitive industry.