The study has identified a range of development issues for New Zealand-owned publishers of educational and trade books. There are five themes that stand out amongst these.
The New Zealand book publishing industry is characterised by a large number of micro businesses. There is no point in attempting to assist the growth of the majority of these, as they have no serious growth prospects. In many cases their proprietors have no real interest in growth. A small proportion of them, however, are the seeds of potentially much more substantial businesses.
Attempts to select candidates for targeted assistance would be mistaken as there is no clear basis for determining the likelihood of future success. More effective would be to allow them to self-select by providing opportunities for participation in development initiatives (such as marketing workshops). Those unable to benefit from assistance will soon drop out, provided the assistance is in kind, not cash.
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The topic, above all, where assistance is needed is marketing, especially for export. For most smaller publishers a lack of marketing capability is the prime deficiency blocking their ability to export and at least give their products a chance of commercial success (recognising that marketing is much more than just selling).
Overcoming this problem requires a two-prong approach that combines practical assistance in market intelligence with training in export marketing. The training process needs to recognise that the only person in the business able to benefit from the training is likely to be the owner/manager. These people are usually under severe pressure of time and energy. Consequently the training needs to be compact and with a strong practical orientation.
As far as possible it should be provided by people with successful experience in exporting, and not by academics. One possible channel is through a series of seminars/workshops held at relatively well-spaced intervals, with a strong practical orientation. The potential for the development of targeted internet-based resources should also be considered (more general marketing education courses already exist but publishers do not attend them as those with growth prospects are too busy).
The New Zealand publishers who have commercially succeeded in export markets have all broken through with a narrowly focused product range. The generalists, and especially the publishers of literature, struggle to survive unless they have support from either a large institution, such as a university, or a large company with most of its income coming from another operation, such as distributing imported books.
Commercial success depends on volume, not quality. The two are not inherently antithetical, but volume is a lot easier to achieve with products aimed at a mass-market.
New Zealand’s one runaway publishing success story is in children’s literacy. This is grounded on 100 years of world-class success in this field. Ironically, the New Zealand publisher which created this success is no longer either New Zealand-owned or a publisher. Attempts by several publishers to generalise this success into older age groups and other subject areas have made only limited headway as yet, but seem worth persisting with and supporting. Even larger publishers are struggling to make a success of expanding their range in this way.
The experience of children’s literacy is an example of a general rule: success needs to be demonstrated in the home market before attempting to export. On occasion it is possible to export on the basis of the prior success at home of others, as Sunshine Books has done. Publishers in almost any other subject area need to demonstrate success the hard way – doing it themselves.
Reports are listed by date, by title, or on the relevant sector page.
Reports are available in PDF format. Download the Adobe Acrobat reader >>
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