Inside New Zealand’s indie booksellers’ fight against the Amazon effect
Renee Rowland, Booksellers Association manager, says pricing isn’t Bookhub's big selling point, but the connection with local booksellers who are passionate about literature is the big difference from the monolithic stores like Amazon. Photo / supplied
There’s nothing better than whiling away a couple of hours in a decent independent bookshop, ideally one that also doubles as a cafe.
In Wellington, Unity Books is my go-to destination for new books, and I usually make a beeline for the history section in the middle of the store. For secondhand books, I visit to Arty Bees, or Pegasus Books and it’s rare for me to leave without some out-of-print title in my bag.
It’s the same when I travel - I’ll avoid the high street retailers and look for the local indie bookshops, which are the best curators of literature and also beacons of culture in their local communities, offering author signings and talks.
In New Zealand, our indie bookshops proudly shine a light on New Zealand literature. At Unity Books, the local authors’ section is one of the first you encounter on walking through the front door.
I spend hundreds of dollars a year at indie bookstores, but for too long I’ve also guiltily given hundreds more to Amazon, the galactic empire that casts its shadow over Aotearoa’s rebel alliance of indie bookstores all the way from its headquarters in Seattle, Washington.
Every month, I shell out about $25 on an Audible subscription, allowing me to download one new audio book, and choose from a selection of others bundled in with the sub. To be fair, other than the library-run eBook lending schemes, there isn’t really a local match for Audible.
Buying books offshore
Until last year, I also regularly bought books via the superb UK-based website Bookdepository.co.uk. The website had an incredible selection of books, at sharp prices, and offered free shipping to New Zealand. Unfortunately, Amazon bought Book Depository in 2011. Its ardent fans expected it to be shut down, but Book Depository survived more than a decade to finally get the chop last year when Amazon made deep cuts across its business.
Bookdepository’s demise is probably a good thing for our local indie bookstores. A 2021 study commissioned by the book-promoting, not-for-profit Read NZ, found that 35% of New Zealanders bought their books online from overseas websites.
Booksellers, the local association of independent booksellers, which has been around since 1921, is trying to claw back some of that business going offshore, by building a stronger e-commerce presence for its network of booksellers.
About six months ago it launched Bookhub, an online shop window into about 70 bookstores around the country. It features a live inventory of all books for sale in those stores. For instance, searching for John Mulgan’s Man Alone, my favourite New Zealand novel, produced 89 copies across 21 bookstores, each priced at $16.