Two big news items today in Quill and Quire.

Random House Canada has started selling books directly to consumers off its website and Indigo Books & Music (including Chapters and Coles) has started stocking self-published authors.

Why are these two things important?

Canadian publishers have been slow to enter the ecommerce game because booksellers see it as a betrayal. Traditionally publishers have sold titles to booksellers who then sell books to readers. Booksellers are the middleman in this model, and when publishers start selling directly to consumers it cuts them out.

In order to have a healthy industry, I believe publishers do need to support booksellers. At the same time, booksellers need to get with the program. Books are the #2 online purchase (travel is #1). Online booksales account for 1-5% of a publisher’s total sales.

On the one hand it’s big potatoes, on the other it’s not.

The trend I see is this: people are migrating online to discover new titles, they are no longer wandering into a store and looking for advice from the bookseller. The display tables and staff picks still work, but people are also using the internet to qualify book suggestions. For example, my friend recommends a book to me at a party. I think it sounds interesting. Instead of going to a bookstore, finding it on the shelf (when it may not be in stock), or talking to the bookseller, I google the title. I look at the author website or the publisher site or I look at Amazon. If I do decide to buy the book, I go into the store. This is how it works now. But booksellers aren’t supporting their websites, are doing little to capture the interest of their local community, and are losing the opportunity to draw people into their stores or to purchase titles from them online. This is why publishers are stepping into that space.

Indigo selling self-published authors.

This is interesting because the self-publishing market is expanding rapidly. There are lots of people out there with book ideas, publishers are slow to react in terms of turn-around time on a book, and publishers are highly selective in what they want to publish. Indigo stocking these titles is a huge step forward because as I mentioned above online book sales are still relatively small in Canada, in-store placement goes a long way. The interesting twist in this story is that Indigo is stocking self-published authors who have signed a deal with iUniverse: Americaís ìleader in supported self-publishing.î American, eh?

The suggestion is that Canadian authors using iUniverse will be the ones stocked in Indigo, but I wonder why Indigo isn’t supporting a Canadian company like Trafford instead of an American company. Perhaps more Canadians use iUniverse?

More likely, iUniverse has authors who are willing to pay a couple thousand dollars to get their books into Indigo–into Indigo and onto a display table. In traditional publishing, publishers pay for placement. It’s like a grocery store: end caps on the aisles, key placement at the front of a store, etc. If iUniverse can generate the funds from self-published authors, they can take a percentage of that and pass the rest over to Indigo as placement dollars. A good deal for both companies. I suspect that Trafford doesn’t see themselves in that game, but iUniverse is willing to capitalize on the relationship with a Canadian chain, which then sets the stage (if it isn’t already the case) and makes them look like a good partner to US chain stores (Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc.)–much bigger dollars.

I don’t know enough about it to comment further, but I think it’s an interesting story to watch. If anyone has more details, fill me in.

Yesterday the CBC reported that it will cancel Canada Now and restore one-hour local news shows.

I remember being angry that local news shows were cancelled, but then I lived in Vancouver and Gloria and Ian were local hosts I was familiar with and Canada Now easily integrated itself into my expectations of a news program. That’s clearly not how the rest of Canada felt, according to CBC audience surveys. So they’ve reverted to local programming.

The other interesting addition to the story is that CBC will solicity public input:

Quote: Vancouver will also be the first CBC news bureau to pioneer “civic journalism,” in which citizens can upload video or images of news events to the CBC.

Details are vague but it seems like an interesting and progressive move.

I heart public broadcasting.

DavidCrow.ca has a posting for Indigo.ca. They are looking for an AJaX and UI developer. Indigo is really pushing to compete with Amazon.ca and they’ve made a number of internal changes to move in that direction. As a book reviewer, they’ve improved the reader review section of Indigo.ca quite a bit.

There are a lot of very smart people who work at Indigo. I think, like any big organization, there’s some red tape and the typical hazards of employment, but if you like Toronto, like books, and know your stuff, check out the posting.

Quote: From the job posting:

A book store? Hardly an inspiring place for an ambitious web technologist? Nothing could be further from the truthÖ

Weíre Indigo Books & Music, Canadaís largest booksí retail chain and also one of North Americaís leading eCommerce web sites, situated right in the heart of Torontoís downtown entertainment district. Our online business is expanding rapidly and we urgently need outstanding, creative individuals to help us achieve our goals.

Everythingís going digital these days and so are we. Do you want to be part of this new wave of leading edge technology? Do you want to build the next-generation of beautiful, dynamic user interfaces that can also scale for millions of users? Are you someone for whom every pixel really does matter?

We love Web Standards (no table-based layout dinosaurs here, thank you) and weíre proud of our designs, constantly updating our User Experience to stay ahead of the competition. Therefore a true passion for user interface design & development will be essential.

There are big, beautiful snowflakes falling outside my window and I can’t take a photo because James and my camera are in Squamish.

Thank goodness for Flickr.

Giles Slade, author of Made to Break, who I’ve talked about more than once, was on the cover of the Richmond Review on November 18.

To see his mug and interview, check out this link.

There’s also a tie-in to our boil-water news:

Quote: Tap water the grandchildren of his generation drink might be poisonous. Chalk it up to a disposable culture.

ÔøΩThis is going to make Walkerton look like kidsÔøΩ stuff. This is a continental issue, the Americans dump this stuff into their water, thereÔøΩs no fence to keep it out of our water.ÔøΩ

SladeÔøΩs book, Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, zeroes in on repetitive consumption and how the United States changed consumerism.

For a creative use of breakable stuff, check out “iPod iBreak” on Magpie and Cake.

The Penguins have arrived!

Check out the latest animation feature from Warner Bros., Happy Feet.

Who cares what the storyline is. Savion Glover does the tapping for the lead penguin, Baby Mumbles.

Opens today.