Book Trade Stuff

The printing industry is trading through its 'worst conditions for 20 years', according to a survey by the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF), (via The Bookseller), with almost 90% of printers operating below capacity and 10% lossmaking.
BPIF corporate affairs director Andrew Brown said: 'The vast majority of firms surveyed said that conditions would either remain the same (44%) or worsen (42%). You have to go back to 1999 for the last time that more printers predicted deterioration than improvement during the spring.'
I suppose there's a hint of optimism there - things were worse in 1999 and the industry came out of that period, clearly.

Meanwhile, I'd not heard of scribd.com before. This Guardian piece explains all but, essentially, people are uploading illegal copies of books for people to download and read.
In one sense, it's not too much of a problem for publishers of our size, or our authors - it's more of an issue for JK Rowling, where there's enormous worldwide demand for her work.
(Indeed, dodgy copies of Harry Potter books have been on the site.)
But if everyone can download Harry Potter free, who's going to buy it from Waterstone's? And if no-one's buying Harry Potter at Waterstone's, are Waterstone's staying in business? And without Waterstone's...

Posted by Sam