As many of you know, Amazon recently announced its intention to place a physical footprint in Canada by applying to the Department of Canadian Heritage to ‘open a new Canadian business’.

Since then both independent and chain booksellers have made loud protests against the global giant further increasing its Canadian presence.

Publisher’s Weekly reported:

Heather Reisman, CEO of Canada’s dominant chain Indigo Books & Music, has said the foreign ownership rules in the book industry need to be clarified. In the past the regulations prevented her company from partnering with the American chain Borders. “Supposing I should decide three years from now that, in order to expand some of my capability, I’d like to partner up with a foreign company,” she told The Globe and Mail newspaper. “I do not want to be disadvantaged.”

The Canadian Booksellers’ Association have also filed an official protest with James Moore, the Minister of Canadian Heritage:

 “The Investment Canada Act requires that foreign investments in the book publishing and distribution sector be compatible with national cultural policies and be of net benefit to Canada and to the Canadian-controlled sector,” argued CBA president Stephen Cribar.

Recently, Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Vice-President of CBA, and manager of Titles at McMaster University, appeared on Midday Markets to further elaborate on CBA’s argument against Amazon.

http://watch.bnn.ca/midday-markets/march-2010/midday-markets-march-12-2010/#clip275654

My view on this whole situation takes a slightly different slant from the present protests. That Heather Riesman at Indigo should object is no surprise. Her enterprise already pretty much has a monopoly in Canada, having shut out indepedent booksellers in Canada quite systematically. She’s trying to protect her turf, and if there’s any altruistic rhetoric about protecting Canadian culture I suspect it’s more of an afterthought, playing second to the, understandably important, issue of remaining profitable. Amazon will threaten that relatively secure economic and market base.

That the independent booksellers are in a furor, equally is of no surprise. They’ve been struggling to survive under the aggressive policies of Indigo for a very long time. Having said that, it must also be stated that, in my experience, most independent booksellers have not been particularly supportive of local authors, particularly independent local authors. Most indepedent booksellers won’t even return phone calls or emails, let alone consider hosting a signing or even taking a few books on consignment.

Indigo, on the other hand, has been extremely supportive, at least in my experience. Right from the time I released my first tentative publication, long before Five Rivers Publishing came into existence, the managers at most of the Indigo chain stores offered to host signings, take books on consignment, and now that Five Rivers Publishing has established a vendor account with the giant, those events occur on a regular basis, seamlessly, profitably and with great professionalism. Five Rivers’ books are even stocked in a few stores across Canada.

To date only one independent bookseller has ever hosted a Five Rivers event, although that will change this month with the Espresso signing occurring at the University of Waterloo which will be simulcast at McMaster.
That the independent booksellers will suffer when Amazon makes a physical presence in Canada is a given. Their only hope is to do as many of the university bookstores are doing, look to the Espresso Book Machine, evolve into a cultural centre that involves itself with the community both on the local and national scale, through interactive technologies (LongPen, Espresso, and webcasts) which need not be expensive, but certainly will allow them a unique, vibrant and economically profitable opportunity.
It is a brave new world in publishing. To hold tight to the old standards in the publishing world is to perish. To recognize the change, adapt and evolve is to survive, perhaps even flourish.

At least that’s my perspective from this corner of the universe.