Bookmark September Newsletter
Read the articles below, or read the newsletter online here
SA Book Awards
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary, the winners of this year’s SA Book Awards were announced on 1 October as part of a special virtual Ceremony hosted by SABA, sponsored by Nielsen Book and supported by PASA. Over the last 20 years the awards have recognised books written and published in South Africa, as voted for by South African booksellers, and recent winners have included Sam Beckbessinger, Jacques Pauw and Sally Andrew.
Very interesting times
The Education Sector
Hentie Gericke
The academic year won’t push into 2021. The school year for grades R to
11 will complete on 15 December 2020 with a short break between 26 and 30 October. The new terms are Term 3: 24 August – 23 October and Term 4: 2 November – 15 December.
Matric exams will also be concluded by 15 December, the department said, with marking expected to be done by 22 January 2021, and the results released on 23 February 2021.
The new school year will commence on 25 January 2021 for teachers – and for pupils a few days later.
In the Eastern Cape, Mary Bothma reports: “Schools with own funding are requesting quotations for budget purposes since August, and we find that they are careful and cost sensitive in what they are ordering. We find that some schools are opting to replenish textbooks although they had introduced tablets which they are phasing in”.
In Gauteng, Johnny Koster reports: Covid-19 made everything slow, confused and late. Schools can’t be visited. Booksellers make use of emails and phone calls to schools.
In KwaZulu-Natal Guru Redhi references the “new normal” and that Booksellers have sadly expressed like most industries, they are in survival mode and one can only hope that as the economy gradually opens up, turnover and profitability would improve.
In the Western Cape online ordering has gone live from 1 June – 12 June 2020 for the ordering of Top Up CAPS textbooks for grades 1 – 12 for 2021. Alternatively the school can still continue to order their textbooks from their booksellers should they not order online within the stipulated timeframe.
While scholars may be under pressure to not loose this academic year, very interesting times lie ahead since this pandemic has clearly demonstrated how vulnerable our education system is.
Lean times
The Trade Sector
Grattan Kirk
The South African reading population is both ageing and reducing. However, there are opportunities for local authors and exciting prospects in new emerging market readers including children.
Covid-19 has had a massively negative impact on the general trade. The estimated General Trade book market (excluding study guides and dictionaries etc) is R1 billion down 23% from R1.3 billion in 2019, while the total book market is estimated to be R1.2 billion (R1.6 billion in 2019).
SABA’s intervention (in particular SABA President Melvin Kaabwe) with Government in reopening book stores gave a much-needed lifeline, and inadvertently “expanded” the definition of what an “educational” book was! The major disruption to the supplier chain from publishers during lockdown was but one of many challenges at that time. Strangely, in lockdown level 1, the theft syndicates seem to have gone to ground – although our bookselling members know to be on high alert at all times.
Top-selling books include The 5am Club, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Grown Ups, Call of the Raven, Manage Your Money Like A F*cking Grown Up, while backlist performed surprisingly well.
The footfall through malls was also impacted, and booksellers have negotiated hard to manage their rent. For most, sadly, the levers are either rent or people, so many have had to reduce staff as well, while online business was massively up.
The pipeline for Christmas – November, December and January – is looking very hopeful for some measure of recovery from some very lean times.
Strange times
The Digital Sector
Melvin Kaabwe
When lockdown restrictions were eased after SABA engagements with Government, fewer customers flocked to Bookstores than to Liquor retailers! Strange times indeed!
Online sales of physical books are continuing to grow but less rapidly, and likely peaked in August. The sale of e-books was higher than usual across Academic and General by ±20%. Some publishers offered materials for free as a social response to the pandemic. Smaller stores and independents adjusted their websites for e-commerce and acquired social media shopping carts for acquiring orders and as payment gateways and they used local courier services or even their own cars to deliver putting further pressure on their margins. Exclusive Books’ delivery was through UberEats reflecting that customers requesting delivery is up to 40% higher than for the same period the previous year for the chains.
Most University librarians were under some pressure to provide prescribed and reference materials during the pandemic to address the distance learning and new normal of mixed modalities. Some municipal libraries have highlighted their partnering with e-Library platforms to serve patrons online.
Streaming and rental services providers are uploading more local content. Perlago, a streaming service for books similar to Netflix’s style of all-you-can-eat content for a set monthly fee, is gaining traction.
Independent stores also offered digital vouchers for use online and also for future use to keep customer loyalty during the pandemic. Van Schaik Rewards Programme mobile app was a similar initiative for students.
Virtual bookfairs, book-launches, author interviews and online book clubs are viable alternatives to in-person events during the pandemic and SABA’s e-profile has grown proportionately. @SABooksellers has a following of more than 2 000 on Twitter, which means SABA is an influencer. The digital newsletter and magazine provide further impetus to drive traffic to the SABA website.
In the first round (of three) the SABookseller’s Survey is underway. Members have already begun returning the questionnaires with inputs from SABA, PASA and the SABDC for collation and tabulation by the University of Pretoria Department of Informatics. The objective is to provide trends and insights at an affordable rate for SABA.
SA Booksellers Online Course has had it’s first “graduates” complete all modules this year.
Catching the crest of the wave has necessitated many to think digital but, this has provided some respite from the storm and enabled ongoing business in these strange times.
A novel situation
The Library Sector
Vic Lopich
The library situation nationally is somewhat unclear but there are funds allocated to library services. The Conditional Grant has been reduced from R 1.48 billion to R1.17 billion. Provincial and municipal apportionment towards library purchase will be decided at a later time. In general libraries are struggling with creating protocols that enable them to open and begin servicing their communities but the situation continues to unfold.
Provincial libraries in the Free State, Gauteng, Northwest and Limpopo and the Mangaung, eThekwini and City of Joburg libraries are closed.
Some Provincial, Municipal and University libraries that are closed have been responsive to emails as staff are working from home.
There have been several libraries making enquiries regarding purchasing and the creation of supplier databases so although there is not a lot happening right now it would seem that libraries are slowly coming back to life.
The full impact of reduced budgets around the country will only become clear once libraries start to open and staff are back in their offices.
The novel coronavirus has created an almost sci-fi-sounding scenario that books are put in quarantine before being put back on the shelves for other readers …
A perfect storm
The Academic Sector
Mohamed Kharwa
2020 the year Covid-19 made us shift in the way people learn – from online learning, e-learning to distance learning – while campuses were closed under lockdown.
We have had to shift in the way we do business factoring in the use of hand santitiser, sterilisation, social distancing and masks as well as reduced staff.
The country has been in economic decline before this but now, recession combined with issues around Covid-19 will make education a key target for reduced funding. Additionally, income from taxation has been eroded, putting the economy under even greater stress.
The decision to allow NSFAS students to cash out their allowances for learning material was raised at last year’s conference, but since then we have made presentations, attended conferences and entered the media space to be a voice that is heard. Unfortunately we have not been successful – but we have created awareness and become a voice to be heard.
In terms of the way forward, undoubtedly, there will be further downsizing and scaling back as already seen amongst some of our members. We are going to have to be more agile, innovative and resilient.
But there will be opportunities defined by what happens in the next six months. Rare circumstances combined to create this perfect storm – now is time to navigate a way through.
2020 Children’s prize
Shortlist for SA Book Awards 2020 – Children’s Title
(Fiction and Non-Fiction):
Die Groot Jaco Jacobs Storieboek by Jaco Jacobs
Zackie Mostert by Jaco Jacobs
Yes Yanga! by Refiloe Moahloli
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
The Children’s prize was won by previous winner Trevor Noah for the child adaptation of Born a Crime. On accepting his award Trevor said: “Writing a book was a very scary experience but turning the book into a book specifically for kids was even more scary because children have a very short attention span if your book is boring!” He went on to thank all the kids who read the book, the parents who read the book with their children and the teachers who recommended the book to their students.
SABA Conference and AGM
Please join the 2020 SABA virtual conference and AGM – follow the link to the programme here and the link to register here.
