John's Blog
Wednesday 6th July 2011
My brave, strong, beautiful Dad lost his fight yesterday.
We have arranged a funeral for Monday 11 July at 1pm.
White Lady Chapel, Manly
18 Raglan Street, Manly
Friday 1st July 2011
Its Rebecca here, John's daughter. My Dad is still gravely ill in hospital. Its now been about a month since I've been able to speak to my Dad which is probably the most heartbreaking part. We've been inundated with messages of concern and well wishes from people all over the world. Its such a testament to him that he has so many people worried and deeply upset about what is happening and it makes me even prouder to be his daughter (I didn't think this could be possible). If anybody knows Dad, they know how unique and special he is. He is the most loyal person I've ever met and a truly kind and decent man. I'm 6 months pregnant and if my little boy is half as decent as his grandfather, then he is set for a wonderful life. My husband and I have decided to call him Matthew (Dad's middle name) which I know is something Dad would be thrilled about. We have our fingers crossed that we'll be able to tell Dad this.
In the meantime, one thing that Dad would have been adamant about is us keeping on working! We are definitely doing just that! So with that in mind, Mum (Inga), Di, Stuart and I are working busily away. We're pleased to announce the acquisition of quite a few new publishers to our fabulous mix. These include Anness (Lorenz and Southwater), Metz Press, Lotus Publishing, Cardinal Publishers, Perera-Hussein, Guinea Pig Education and Inner City Books. We are so excited to start receiving this new stock and will keep you informed of all the fabulous titles as we receive them.
Thanks,
Rebecca
Tuesday 7th June 2011
John is currently gravely ill. I am sure everyone will join in wishing him well and a speedy recovery. Will keep you posted. Di Baily.
Thursday, April 28, 2011: Frustrating!
Inga, Bec and I were at an Anzac Day ceremony in Tea Gardens on Monday (it was a pretty moving experience) and there were two guys standing in front on me, with one telling the other what a mess the book trade was in, and he wasn’t going to buy books from bookshops in future – there were better offers elsewhere. I found it difficult to restrain myself, but decided it was neither the time nor the place.
But it did make me think seriously. A high percentage of book businesses in Australia would be classified as Small Business by the Government – we’re in that category, as would be most independent and a lot of franchise stores. And yet, collectively (with all other businesses) we are in fact the biggest employers in the country.
But you can’t help feeling that the Government is ignoring our needs. They are either attacking or pandering to big business. Small business in fact is the most vulnerable of them all, not least when it comes to importation of goods from overseas – something that the book industry relies on very heavily of course.
So, comes the matter of the GST! All of us who import have to pay a GST tax on arrival of goods into the country. Okay that is an input tax credit which we can claim back. But if you import in April you pay that tax immediately, and can’t claim it back until you put in your BAS at the end of June. Can you imagine how much money the Government has available in the interim! Nice cashflow if you can get it.
But it gets worse! You can buy just about anything from overseas on the internet, and provided the value is less than 1000.00, ipso facto, no GST. Do you know I heard on reasonably reliable authority that there are people importing just less than 1000.00 of goods from overseas on a daily basis, and actually stocking stores to sell those goods – no GST. If it is 1000 a day for 365 days, that’s a tax avoidance of 33,000 a year. That might be exaggerating it a little, but it is the principle of the thing.
Say our turnover is 1,000,000 a year, that’s a GST tax payment of 90,000.00. And we’re just a grain of sand on the beach.
Got to be some justice offered to small business – I’m not aware of any major benefits offered to us that are not offered to the rest of the community and in fact, with the growth of online business, and the increased value of the dollar , we’re probably the most vulnerable of all, not forgetting those hardworking dedicated and loyal employees of ours.
Enough.
John
Friday, April 15, 2011: Book Expo America
Next month, May sees Book Expo America, in New York, and our Di Baily and Rebecca Tansey will be there on our behalf. Although undoubtedly the Frankfurt and London Book Fairs are important and we’ve been to them often, I’ve always felt that BEA is the most significant for us, and we’ve attended pretty well every one since we started John Reed Books.
Inga and I have been to Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and New York and have some incredible memories from all of them. Latterly, Di has been going on her own on our behalf, but for the first time she will be joined by Rebecca, who has put in a great deal of preparatory work, lining up appointments, both with our existing suppliers and potential ones. I think it is probably safe to say that this will be the most organised visit to a book fair we’ve ever had, and I know Di and Becky are looking forward to meeting old friends and finding new ones. We wish them safe travelling and a successful result.
John
Monday, March 21, 2011: March Update
Business is still disturbingly slow but we are hanging in there and from now on I’m reasonably confident that it will improve. At least we're managing come up with some wonderful new publishers with some fabulous upcoming titles and we’re quite excited about these. More details soon.
We will again have a presence at Book Expo America in May in New York, with both Di (a bit of a veteran of the fair) and Rebecca (a first time visit). Together I’m sure they will make an unbeatable team, so watch out publishers!
This has nothing to do with the book business as such, but we’ve had rain forecasts in our little area of Tea Gardens for the last month or so, and yet we simply don’t get any even when it is pouring everywhere else. Spoke to Rebecca this morning (she is based in Sydney) and she said it is still absolutely bucketing down there and has done for several days now – we know because we saw it on the TV news last night. A strange world we’re living in at the present time – although the perfect weather for reading a good book - and not on a computer!
John
Thursday, February 24, 2011: REDGROUP
It wasn’t enough that we’ve had so many disasters lately – floods in Queensland, Victoria and parts of NSW, fires in WA, and the awful earthquake in Christchurch. But the news about the Redgroup (Angus and Robertson, Borders and Whitcoulls) has the potential to be devastating for the book trade. You can’t face the possibility of losing some 261 bookshops in Australia and New Zealand without wondering where we’ll be heading next. My only hope is that the administrators and the creditors’ meeting will decide that it is worth trading out of the problem. I gather that the debt is very substantial but with tight management and controls, maybe it can be done.
I read one opinion that if they go, the independent bookstores will flourish, of which I agree with, but still I think the overall effect will have a major impact on both publishers and booksellers.
Our fingers are crossed, and I can’t help wondering what the 2500 or so staff must be thinking. My thoughts are with them all.
John
Thursday, February 3, 2011: HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Apologies for not blogging (is that the word?) for some time, but December - January are not easy times – I’m sure most of you would agree with that. But I do feel a bit guilty about not mentioning our concerns for our flood-stricken neighbours in Queensland, northern NSW and Victoria. We’ve bled for them, particularly as we’ve had a very unusual dry period here on the NSW coast at the same time!
We’ve also lost contact with some of our valued customers and haven’t been able to deliver to them for some time, although that aspect seems to be better now. Our thanks to our freight people, Australia Post, Toll Ipec and Fastway for all their efforts on our behalf to try and deliver.
We will be terminating an agreement with one of our Canadian children’s book publishers in a few months and they have asked for suggestions as to the disposal of the remaining stock of theirs we have. Doesn’t amount to huge volumes but we have suggested we’d like to donate what we do have to schools and libraries who’ve lost so much. Wouldn’t amount to more than say a carton for each, but if any of you want to nominate recipients who could use this sort of help, we’d be delighted to oblige on behalf of the publishers, and any freight involved would be at our expense.
Please let us know your suggestions.
Cheers
John
Thursday, December 16, 2010: 9 SLEEPS TILL THE BIG DAY! 
It has been most unusual this year leading up until Christmas! Normally, we don’t expect to get orders after about the first week in December, but this year, half way through the month, we’re still getting orders, and good ones too. We’re very happy about this and our grateful thanks to all you faithful customers. We hope you appreciate our fast turnaround of orders, because we believe this is probably the most important aspect of our business – efficient and fast fulfilment of orders and we work pretty hard on it.
So, thank you all, again, for your support throughout the year and may we wish you and your families a peaceful and relaxed Christmas break, and every success for a profitable and fulfilling 2011.
From John, Inga, Di and Rebecca and our reps, Clive (Vic), Nick (and everyone else at Edwards in WA), Russell in SA, Jenny (Qld), and Sharon and Paul in NSW, not forgetting Stuart in the warehouse!
John
Monday, December 6, 2010: CHRISTMAS JUST AROUND THE CORNER
Christmas is almost here (where has the year gone?) and we’re as busy as ever. Although there is still a steady demand for most of our agency titles, the new ones by Australian authors have been attracting a lot of attention.
The Chef and I (from Rachael Bermingham’s stable, of 4 Ingredients fame) by Queenslanders Paul Leete and Vicki Brown has received fantastic media publicity in the past week or so, featuring on Today Tonight on TV – of course it is very topical having outstanding seafood recipes for Christmas.
Ryn and Cordie’s new cookbook is also catching on very fast – the combination of great recipes and Australian wine to go with them has to be a winning formula.
Then our latest, the autobiography of Lydia Lassila, Jump (she won gold for Australia at the Winter Games in Vancouver) has just come in and we’ve been rushing copies out. The publisher, Publishing 101, has done a great production job (lots of colour photos throughout, just like the two cookbooks above) and he is a bit of a whizz with publicity. Lydia is based in Melbourne, the others in Brisbane, and all are available for signing sessions and other promotional activities if you are interested.
And finally, just heard about an updated version of Roger Federer’s story, Quest for Perfection. It is in paperback this time, retail $34.95. We’re flying in some stock, and will have them pre Christmas, so it would pay to get your order in to us soonest, for supply the minute they arrive.
I’ll probably be ordered to do another blog before Christmas, so I’ll refrain from sending festive greetings until then!
John
Thursday, November 25, 2010: BUSY BUSY BUSY
Never a dull moment here these days. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the orders that are still coming in, this late in the year. Still, we maintain our proud aim of a 24 hour turnaround of orders so if you get an order in to us by 11am we’ll have it on the way to you the same day.
The most exciting news is that we’re attracting Australian publishers to our services, notably Ryn and Cordie and their wonderful cookbook In Search of the Perfect Partner – marrying great recipes with Australian wines; and Rachael Bermingham (of 4 Ingredients fame) with an initial three titles, The Chef and I, How to Write Your Own Book and Make It a Bestseller, and Read My Lips; and thirdly Andrew Clark of Publishing 101 has asked us to handle Lydia Lassila’s book – she won Gold for Australia at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver early this year, aerial skiing, a mind boggling sport. All these titles, Australian originated, will sell like hot cakes!
I’ll save it until next week, but I was encouraged to hear Gerry Harvey of Harvey Norman fame is complaining about online buying without having to pay GST. It is a pet hate of mine, too, and I did do a small article about it in the Booksellers newsletter earlier this year. Feel free to contact us if you would like a copy.
John
Friday, November 12, 2010: EXCITING TIMES!
Interesting times for us here at John Reed Books. More and more publishers are asking to use our distribution services, which is most encouraging. I feel this is first and foremost because of our commitment to customer service and the fact that Australian owned, family run businesses are becoming increasingly sought after these days. Way back in my publishing days I remember there were times that customers had to wait weeks for their orders to arrive, and it is good to know that those days are long past. We have enough competition from overseas online suppliers, so service is something at the forefront of our business.
This is just a quick piece today because I still have a lot to do today before I’m able to call it a day and head out in the beautiful Aussie sunshine!
John
Wednesday, October 27, 2010: JOHN'S
ANGELS 