Sale of books down by 30%

Author Khairul Anuar (right) pitching hard to drum up sales for his book ‘Harta Rampasan Perang’. Booksellers and authors will have to put in more effort to reach their audience.

BOOK sales have taken a downward slide over the past year, said players in the book industry.

Among factors they blamed for this are budget slashes in the education sector, fall of the ringgit and consumers who are tightening their belts.

Malaysian Book Industry Chamber (MBIC) deputy president Keith Thong, who is also University Book Store managing director, said sales had dropped by about 30%, based on reports from its members.

The first factor, according to Thong, had affected government-funded university and state libraries.

“This is terrible because it’s going to affect the development of skilled labour.

(Clockwise from left) Cheah, Thong, Arief and Sim at KLIBF held at MEAPS this year say book sales have been sliding for the past one year. 

“A university library has to keep reference material up-to-date so that students can do proper research. If reference books are not updated, the students will not be able to progress,” said Thong.

He added that the bulk of library purchases accounted for as much as 30% of the industry.

Currently, sales to the sector was described as ‘‘tough’’ due to the lack of purchasing power.

“From what we know, the spending budget for school libraries was cut by 20% last year. This year, it’s cut by an additional 20%,” said Thong.

He also suggested that book publishers look for opportunities in foreign markets and to be more selective with new titles as well as have more attractive advertising and promotion campaigns.

Malaysian Book Publishers Association (MABOPA) deputy president Arief Hakim Sani Rahmat said industry players who had been buoyed by a good run in 2014 were faced with a rude shock last year.

Arief, who is also managing director of PTS Media Group, a publishing company, said expectations to top the RM30mil sales figure in 2014 were dashed when his company could only manage to touch RM22mil sales last year.

“I don’t foresee an improvement this year either,” he said.

To survive this ‘‘bleak winter’’, industry players like Arief and Thong have resorted to freezing salary increments, bonuses and new recruitments.

“We are under tremendous strain because staff morale is low. If we continue like this, we may well lose our workforce,” they said.

Pustaka Union general manager and MBA council Cheah Leong Kit said for now, a salesman in Kedah would be happy if he could sell RM300 worth of books to a school library.

Indie publisher Fixi owner Amir Muhammad said the chances of his company publishing new English titles would be very unlikely unless they can find a market in the UK.

Due to the ringgit slide, his company will also postpone the purchase of overseas book titles this year.

A reflection of the weakened spending by consumers was also seen at the recent KL International Book Fair (KLIBF) that took place in the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MEAPS) this month.

KLIBF exhibitor DuBook Press owner Lucius Maximus said when the fair was held at the Putra World Trade Centre last year, he barely had time to talk (much less breathe) to visitors due to the overwhelming crowd.

There was still a crowd at MEAPS this year but one that had considerably shrunk in numbers affecting the sales volume.

Not every player in the industry has a sad story to tell. Some are still optimistic that things would get better while others told a happy story.

Pustaka Sata manager and member of Association of Booksellers and Stationery of Sabah Jeanluh Shim said the best thing to do was to keep a cool head.

“Sales may be slow this year. But we are optimistic it will pick up by 2017,” said Shim.

Shim, a school book wholesaler, reported a drop of 15% in sales just for her Chinese school clients this year.

Maple Comics publisher Amir Hafizi and industry newbie was one with a happy story to tell.

Having started his two-man company with five titles last year, his company hit a small jackpot with Zainorazwan Zainal’s Komik Ronyok which sold 1,000 copies in just 10 days during the fair - a record as far as the independent publisher is concerned.