Eliminate the negative

I fear I have been rather negative over the state of publishing and I apologise for this.

However, this interview with Tim Waterstone is a potted history of how we have ended up where we are. Reading this I realised why noone will be able to replicate what he did setting up the Waterstone's bookshops.

The answer is in this section of the interview

Books, we're constantly being told, have no future. Waterstone disagrees. Certainly, the abolition of the Net Book Agreement, which ensured books had to sell at cover price and could not be discounted in supermarkets, has made trading challenging. Waterstone was strongly in favour of the agreement and doubts he could have got his shops off the ground without it.

"WH Smith had by far the biggest market share. We could open a store right beside them and they couldn't cut prices against us. They had to compete on stock and staff and everything else. And I knew they couldn't. We were very good booksellers and people not being able to cut prices against us meant we were able to triumph because we were better at it than everybody else.

"Would the industry like the agreement back? None of them would say yes publicly but there wouldn't be a single person in publishing or bookselling who wouldn't say yes please. It was a safer, easier industry and I think the consumer was better served too."

Anyone out there got any good ideas?