Doom and gloom

It's official. The final six Borders stores in Australia will close in the coming weeks. It's a sad day for the hundreds of people who will lose their jobs and for all the people who won't have bookshops close to them anymore. We could go on...and on...and on...about the reasons Borders went under. I'm definitely on the side that believes that the failure was due to poor management rather than any fault of the publishing industry.

I'd like to think that the gap in the market that Borders will leave will result in eager booklovers opening independents in areas now bereft of books, or even Dymocks rising to the occasion. But I doubt it. People are feeling so depressed at the moment! Books are dying! Amazon is going to rule the world! Well, I refuse to join this crowd of depressmos! Sure, the book industry is changing and Borders going under is going to make things tough for a while. But there are still amazing books being written; talented editors guiding these books;  proofreaders making sure these books are as error free as possible;  designers coming up with frankly gorgeous covers; and booksellers reading and then hand-selling these books! And so many more people making the book industry in Australia a delightful place to work in and buy spiffing reading material. As long as the demand for books is there, there will be an industry to answer that demand. It just might not look the same as it used to. Things have changed a lot since Allen Lane went on his train journey and identified a need for affordable paperbacks.

And there are things that need to change in the publishing industry. Changes that our forests will thank us for in the end. I know, I know, most books use paper from specially grown trees. But the pulping of thousands of books a year isn't the greatest thing ever. So it's going to be a time of change. Every industry needs to change. Can you imagine if the computer industry refused to leave the 80s? Moving away from that pretty appalling comparison, I guess what I'm trying to say is have faith in books...but more important than that, keep buying. If you can't afford them, I feel it is my duty to remind you about Australia's spectacular library system.