Goodbye Dato' Cama

Guess it was bound to happen one day. Dato' Zarir Cama, CEO of HSBC Malaysia, will be leaving Kuala Lumpur to take up his next (more senior) posting in London next month. Never thought I would ever feel sad at the departure of a corporate CEO - not quite endearing a specie in my book. But sad I do feel, like everyone else involved in Arts and Literature in the city, at the departure of Dato' Cama, or Zed to all who knew him.

Other corporate bodies have been involved in the arts too, but one cannot help feeling that they were merely trying to impress the overlords, or responding to some form of arm-twisting. But none have been like Zed, who appeared to simply love the arts and literature, who was willing to get down to the ground, who was equally comfortable with presidents and prime ministers as he was with grungy artist types. Perhaps it was a well-calculated corporate strategy. But so what? That is exactly the point, isn't it? Can anyone talk about the Arts in Kuala Lumpur without simultaneously thinking of HSBC?

HSBC sponsored the printing of Silverfish New Writing 5 and 6. Now these two books which carry the bank's logo are going to be around for the next ten, if not twenty years, during which period anyone who picks up the books to read, or borrows them or browses a library will see that logo. Newspapers last for a day, magazines for a week, bill boards a bit longer. But books are forever, and at a fraction of the cost at that. Corporations do underestimate the power of the arts and literature as a corporate strategy.

I asked Zed once how he got into literature. He laughed and said that the question should be how he got into banking. He said he was a Literature graduate and that he majored in TS Eliot. I was shocked into submission. He said TS Eliot had also been a banker, as did PG Wodehouse. Come to think of it, our own Wong Phui Nam was a banker too. Looks like there is something more to be said for bean counters.

Farewell, Zed. Thank you for being a friend of Arts and Literature in Malaysia. Thank you for being our friend. Your four years and seven months in this country has left an indelible mark. (Seems like he's been around forever, doesn't it?) We are sure HSBC for the Arts will continue from where you left off.

And, welcome to Malaysia Ms Irene M Dorner, CEO of HSBC Malaysia.

Wither Malaysian book industry

I was in Singapore on Monday, having lunch with some book industry people when the conversation inevitably turned to, surprise, books. What the hell is going on in Malaysia? Some said there is a warehouse sale every month. Others said there is one almost every other week. There are warehouse sales in Singapore but not like this.

The consensus was that whatever is happening does not bode well for the industry. But it is the industry that is doing it to itself! They are all eating from the same bowl what? And the bowl is only so big (or small).

As described by one of the book dealers during the lunch, "Warehouse sales are like steroid injections." How true. They solve the short-term problem of cash flow ... but the long-term side effects are less predictable. He said, "They can net about 200,000 in a warehouse sale, which will take them three months to make at the shops." I cannot be certain about that, but warehouse sales are about cash flow, or the lack of it. Warehouse sales used to be held once or twice a year for getting rid of old stock, a reasonably healthy situation. "Raman, what do you want me to do with all that old stock?" one CEO of a major book-chain said. True. No one is arguing with that. What the industry is grumbling about is that there is one practically every month (or, according to some, more often even than that), with brand new books being offered at huge discounts as loss leaders to attract customers, and with remaindered books brought in pallet-loads from Singapore, Australia, the UK and the US (in a practice known as dumping which is, probably, illegal in those countries). More than one book buyer has confessed that she would rather wait for the next sale. Besides once they have used up their budget for the month ...

From the conversation around the table one can see that the industry is jittery, very jittery. They know that this cannot go on, yet they are powerless and clueless to stop it. Everyone is accusing the others of spoiling the market. Meanwhile, they all join in the cannibal feast, oblivious of (or blinkering out) the potentially disastrous long-term effects. There could be a spectacular meltdown. (Singapore saw a relatively minor correction in 2000/2001, and in more recent times, Borders has had to exit the UK, unable to take the heat, and Waterstones is also, reportedly, consolidating.) One thing is for sure, Malaysian businesses don't learn from history, and they think it is only the 'other guy' who will fall. But all it takes is for one player to collapse, millions of ringgit worth of books will be returned to the distributors, dumping will take place every where, retail will slump, and ... There are only so many tom yam soup shops that can be set up in any city.

(Strangely, call it wishful thinking if you like, I think the independent niche player, especially those who add value in various ways, who have their loyal band of customers/clients, and who differentiate their products and services, will probably survive provided they stop moping and are quick off their feet. The big chains, for the large part, all sell the exactly same stuff with only superficial - and often sad- attempts at differentiation.)

The customer is obviously happy with the situation, and why not? Cheap books. Enjoy it while it lasts. I believe the next sale will be coming your way soon.

The death of the publisher?

In his story Turning the Page, Jonathan Heawood writes in The Guardian blog: "People used to worry about the death of the author. Now they worry about the demise of the publishers, agents, booksellers and other middlemen who convey books from writers to their readers. These middlemen -- poor souls -- are being placed under considerable pressure in the newly globalised literary economy." The story further reports a debate (with no one offering a readers point-of-view) in with literary agents, publishers and retailers defend their turf and their positions in the food chain. Some of it is quite funny. I mean like publishers claiming "that the brand value of a great publisher is the key to their gatekeeping facility." Seriously. How? By swallowing up all competition? By establishing virtual monopolies? With buckshot publishing? By flooding the market with crap?

Is the book in no danger of being declared obsolete? Again? In the sixties and seventies, debates raged worldwide on the effects of television on reading and books. In the eighties and the nineties the villains were the computer and the internet. Yet more books are published and read today than anytime in history.

Fingers are now being pointed at the likes of Amazon or Google who are uploading millions of searchable texts online. Bloggers, print-on-demand and e-books also stand accused of subverting the art of reading and the cherished 'book'.

One can see how online searchable text, while being a boon to the researcher, will give some publishers a severe migraine. Firstly, why pay for something when you can get it for free. And secondly, let's face it; it is much easier to look for stuff with searchable text than skim and scan a tome. The education and academic market has been dominated by a handful of publishers, a virtual "education market mafia", for too long, and one would think not too many people will be shedding tears on their account over fears of their possible demise.

Bloggers threatening books? Not likely. Some blogs provide news and comments - sometimes alternative (but not necessarily accurate) view points to those expressed in the mainstream newspapers, some are no different from magazine, tabloid, or coffeeshop gossips and some are merely personal ego trips to be taken with a pinch of salt or, better still, ignored. One fails to see how these affect the publishing industry.

The current state of publish-on-demand is no different from vanity publishing. Vanity publishing existed before the computer. Remember Minerva? Now, with the advent of the internet "anyone can publish" and, sadly many who shouldn't, do. The future, of course, is wide open. Say a 'big name' writer - say Margaret Atwood - and publisher decide to go POD, and sell directly to the consumer. Costs could go down (or not). Agents will still feature somewhere. We suppose the retailer will lose a little in the equation. But will he really? The bookshop is the author's storefront, and far more books, except for the next Harry Potter, are bought on impulse whilst browsing through a good bookshop than any other merchandise (barring, maybe, dresses and shoes). So can the author and the publisher survive without the storefront? Nope, POD doesn't look like the death knell of the industry either. Not right now at any rate. On the other hand it looks like a brand new opportunity.


Ditto the ebook.


So is this the end of publishing as we know it? One thinks not. The Guardian story says that Stephen Page of Faber admitted during one of the debates that "these discussions have something of the air of a phoney war." A bit difficult to cry for HarperCollins and Random House, one should think, now that they - poor souls - are facing competition from even bigger online mafia ... I mean monopolies. Maybe one day the digital era will level the playing field enough for books to become objects of value again instead of commodities.

Full report: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonathan_heawood/2007/04/authors_of_their_own_death.html