Today brought the unsurprising news that Waterstone's is up for sale by HMV. Apparently they plan to use the money from the sale to reduce their debt and create a "turnaround plan" for the music stores. If I'm honest I don't think it will matter what or who you sell, sadly HMV is on it's way out as a result of online buying and in store competition. Being forced by the banks to sell in order to pay off debts, HMV seems to be on an ever increasing downward spiral.
Valued at £50m to £70m Waterstone's faces an interesting future. When Borders UK first came up for sale in 2007 it was sole for a mere £20m and struggled in a "declining market", eventually going under. So who knows what's going to happen to Waterstone's. Rumours of Dominic Myers creating a management buyout are rife at the moment, and no doubt Tim Waterstone will try and form some sort of buyout. Personally I love Waterstone's, having worked there on and off for years it's sad to watch it's slow decline. From the closing down of twenty stores to it's sale, hopefully someone will but it out and change it around, however I think they are facing a difficult and rapidly changing market. Whoever buys it needs to realise the potential and instead of wasting time bringing in new agendas, new stock such as DVDs (only to return them six months later because they weren't selling) and overpriced children's toys, they need to focus on what they are about and that is books. They will be taking over a range of staff, the majority of which know their stuff inside and out, and need to realise this potential. Waterstone's needs an ownership that will support staff, accentuate their knowledge and give them credit for it, instead of treating them like imbeciles.
Personally, I don't think that the current management will particularly do that, from my experience of them they seem to struggle to organise the next weeks offers and POS. However, when it's your own company as opposed to someone else's the urge to make in run smoothly, reduce waste and increase profit is probably a lot higher.
I will be reading The Bookseller avidly, waiting for the next installment.
Friday, 25 March 2011
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Poetry.
I will have been here exactly a month tonight and I think I can safely say that I am completely settled in now. Well, I still get lost on campus, but it has its own postcode so it’s pretty huge. I think that’s allowed.
One thing I am surprised with is how much I am enjoying the creative writing class that I was dreading. It’s one of my favourites now. I don’t know if it’s because the tutor is really excited about anything you produce and really encouraging, because it’s a good group of classmates. I don’t know. I am still dreading workshopping however. I realise its constructive criticism and all but it still feels a bit mean analysing someone’s first draft in such a critical way.
One thing I have been musing on is whether or not I want to put the poems I am working on on here as a way of slowly getting myself into workshopping. However, the thought of releasing those few things I have written onto the World Wide Web is not really appealing. Also I don’t want this blog to turn into some kind of precocious poetry collection, or to become yet another “poet” releasing their stuff on the internet in the hope that they might get a fan base. It’s a bit too personal for that. So on one hand I have the thought that it might do me good and if I get criticism it’s not like I know the person if they’ve commented on here and criticism, bad or good, is always interesting to hear. On the other hand however, it’s a big step and seeing as I have trouble reading my pieces to the class I don’t know if I’m up to putting them on here. I would be grateful for any thoughts?
Maybe I should just put them on here after they’ve been marked and I’ve obviously got full marks and multiple commendations!
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
First Week.
Just finished my first week of studies at Melbourne Uni (and yes, I am only on campus three days a week). The only problem now is that I have a little dilemma in that I am enrolled in six subjects, but can only take four. I know I am definitely sticking with the Art/Pornography/Blasphemy/Propaganda class. It's brilliant, studying a range of banned and controversial books along with films and artworks, and throughout this asking the all important question "what is art?" to try and form some sort of definition on what should and should not be censored. After our first tutorial there were already enough arguments to see this class is going to be fun! As for my Creative Writing requirement I attended both the Novels class I was originally enrolled into and a new one called Poetry and Poetics. Although both were good classes, the Poetry one seemed far more accessible, and the Novels tutor put me off when he opened with a gigantic list of things he did not like to read about/irritated him. Now, I realise that everyone has likes and dislikes, but in a university class that's meant to make you write creatively, surely you can't dictate what you do and do not like in order to sway our writing? So, I think that will be one of the classes I will be dropping.
As for the historical side that I've tried to incorporate I attended both Colonising History and Historicising the Colonial Past. Both sound pretty identical right? That's what I thought, but apparently not. Colonising History is a broad look at the entire history of Australia and it's colonisation, the effects on it's citizens up to the modern day. Historicising the Colonial Past is directly studying the Indigenous People of Australia and looking at how colonisation has affected them. It's also using both a historical approach and a fictional one, which should be interesting in terms of the oral traditions in the culture and what it means to have their traditional stories written down for outsiders to read. This class is probably going to be what I am going to take, purely because it covers specifically what I want to look at for my dissertation.
My final class is a comparison of Australia and America. I think this class is going to be the most controversial for me purely because in the first lecture the teacher was both useless and came out with some of the most outlandish generalisations I have heard in a long time. From her inability to work out how to plug in a USB to her statements on how "America is qualified by a dream, that means Australia is the nightmare" without anything to back this up I think it's going to be interesting seeing what she comes up with next.
I also had an interesting meeting with the head lecturer of the postgraduate Publishing courses. This was because I had asked whether there was any chance I could take one. One of the convenient factors of being an international student is that most of the uni's are eager to please you, perhaps more eager than your home uni, purely because you are going to be taking their name back to your home uni and telling people whether or not to go there. As a result this meant in America I got to take a graduate class and I figured it was worth a try whilst I was over here. Sadly, it didn't work, but what you don't ask you don't know and I got to have a brilliant meeting with Bryony who told me all about the Australian publishing market, the job buoyancy as a whole, ebooks and ereaders, book prices and basically similarities and differences between the UK and Australia. She also invited me to a series of guest lectures from various heads of different publishers over here, which is only meant to be open to postgrad students so I'm really chuffed with that. So even though I didn't get the class I wanted I still got to meet a very interesting lady who was kind enough to help me out and encourage what I was doing so far. Can't complain at that!
For a first week I think it was one of the more stressful ones, the campus is a lot bigger than expected and going to six classes certainly takes up a lot of your time, but I am settling in a lot more and am starting to really enjoy my time here, even if I am now going to become a poet as opposed to a bestselling novelist!
As for the historical side that I've tried to incorporate I attended both Colonising History and Historicising the Colonial Past. Both sound pretty identical right? That's what I thought, but apparently not. Colonising History is a broad look at the entire history of Australia and it's colonisation, the effects on it's citizens up to the modern day. Historicising the Colonial Past is directly studying the Indigenous People of Australia and looking at how colonisation has affected them. It's also using both a historical approach and a fictional one, which should be interesting in terms of the oral traditions in the culture and what it means to have their traditional stories written down for outsiders to read. This class is probably going to be what I am going to take, purely because it covers specifically what I want to look at for my dissertation.
My final class is a comparison of Australia and America. I think this class is going to be the most controversial for me purely because in the first lecture the teacher was both useless and came out with some of the most outlandish generalisations I have heard in a long time. From her inability to work out how to plug in a USB to her statements on how "America is qualified by a dream, that means Australia is the nightmare" without anything to back this up I think it's going to be interesting seeing what she comes up with next.
I also had an interesting meeting with the head lecturer of the postgraduate Publishing courses. This was because I had asked whether there was any chance I could take one. One of the convenient factors of being an international student is that most of the uni's are eager to please you, perhaps more eager than your home uni, purely because you are going to be taking their name back to your home uni and telling people whether or not to go there. As a result this meant in America I got to take a graduate class and I figured it was worth a try whilst I was over here. Sadly, it didn't work, but what you don't ask you don't know and I got to have a brilliant meeting with Bryony who told me all about the Australian publishing market, the job buoyancy as a whole, ebooks and ereaders, book prices and basically similarities and differences between the UK and Australia. She also invited me to a series of guest lectures from various heads of different publishers over here, which is only meant to be open to postgrad students so I'm really chuffed with that. So even though I didn't get the class I wanted I still got to meet a very interesting lady who was kind enough to help me out and encourage what I was doing so far. Can't complain at that!
For a first week I think it was one of the more stressful ones, the campus is a lot bigger than expected and going to six classes certainly takes up a lot of your time, but I am settling in a lot more and am starting to really enjoy my time here, even if I am now going to become a poet as opposed to a bestselling novelist!
Saturday, 26 February 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, 19 February 2011
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.
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| 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.
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.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
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.
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.
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