Feature Bookselling in New Zealand A taxing problem


The government is not helping Kiwi bookselllers with taxes that reward e-tailers who trade from outside NZ. Despite that, Roger Tagholm finds a risilient sector that his weathering the storm


ONE ISSUE comes across repeatedly in any discussion with New Zealand publishers and booksellers about the state of their market: the lack of tax—and frequently, freight—paid on printed books bought by consumers from internet sellers, chiefly Amazon and its sister company the Book Depository. It means the playing field, observers say, is about as level as the Southern Alps on South Island where much of “Lord of the Rings” was filmed. Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 15% is levied on printed and digital books sold in NZ, but printed books shipped into the market by overseas suppliers such as the Book Depository and Amazon are not subject to GST. Booksellers frequently mention customers using their smartphones to check online prices, just as they do in the UK and US. Tat said, although the book


market was down 5% for the year to 8th September 2012—from $NZ155.9m (€100.2m) to $NZ147.7m (€95m), according to Nielsen (although this figure excludes Whitcoulls, the largest chain which is not in the Nielsen NZ panel)—the book retail sector is holding its own, with fewer closures than in Australia and independents in particular are proving nimble. Tere are around 650 to 700 shops


selling books in NZ, with most bookstores being mixed category, having stationery and/or gifts as well as books. “In terms of our membership we have around 400 made up of three major corporates— Paper Plus, Whitcoulls and the Warehouse—plus around 120 independents,” says Lincoln Gould, c.e.o. of Booksellers New Zealand. “Te indie membership remains resilient despite the economic situation, which is affecting all retail, and the competition from the Book Depository and Amazon, plus the rise


Whitcoulls, Wellington left and Unity Books’ Auckland shop


of e-books. “Whitcoulls have been linked to


Kobo for about two years and we are expecting most other stores will have the opportunity to sell e-books and e-readers by Christmas this year.” Most books are imported, with only


around 25% being published locally. “It’s a small market,” says Hachette NZ m.d. Kevin Chapman, president of the Publishers Association of New Zealand. “If a book has a NZ-issued ISBN, it is almost certainly created and produced in NZ, so it’s a very clean market from that point of view. We’ve lost very few bookstores and the shops are feeling buoyant for Christmas. Angus & Robertson fell over completely in Australia when the Red Group collapsed, but in NZ the Whitcoulls chain, which the Red Group also owned, was bought by a local family and most of the shops were saved.”


Indie rock and roll Tere are some feisty voices in the independent sector, among them Tilly Lloyd who co-owns Unity Books which has shops in Wellington and Auckland. She probably has the most colourful description of a customer


24 THE BOOKSELLER DAILY AT FRANKFURT | 10 OCTOBER 2012


agenda” Tilly Lloyd, co-owner Unity Books, Wellington


base anywhere in the world: “Suits, post-punks, children, majors, chefs, creatives, leftie old folk, ratbags, musicians, authors, the political/ community scenes, poor people who still buy books.” She says it’s a testing time for


independents, but adds: “We’re advantaged over UK indies by supermarket inactivity, NZ’s comparatively slow uptake in e-books and something like less than 8% online shopping.” But she believes Amazon has a “major colonising agenda” and speaks warmly of a customer who described Jeff Bezos as “an example of a heartbreaking work of staggering greed”. She praises the Indiebound


initiative and says that in Wellingon the indies have advertised and lobbied together in a spirit of co-operation for years. “We cross-


colonising


Amazon has a major


refer customers to each other and it is always good to attend each other’s events. Indiebound makes it easier still; it’s a great political and commercial movement”. Like many observers, she looks


forward to a hybrid future, describing much of the noise on digital as “a lot of hype on a fresh format—e-books won’t eclipse paper until paper isn’t published, and there’s no sign of that lately. Digital won’t eclipse on-street until the streets are reduced to a string of bars, but there’s no sign of that yet. We believe there will be an increase of parallel activity: people reading on all formats and, hopefully, buying from all fronts.” But in common with other indies,


Lloyd is fustrated that customers who could buy online locally “are incentivised to buy offshore by a government that won’t change the import tax”. However, all in all she concludes: “Tere’s some great bookselling here and we’re feeling pretty optimistic. Our indigenous language is Maori and I couldn’t put it better than ‘He Tangata! He Tangata! He Tangata!’ ‘It’s the people! It’s the people! It’s the people!’”


thebookseller.com


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