Waterstones in the UK are starting “The Writer’s Year” - a campaign “celebrating the relationship between the reader and writer”. From publishing guides to writers wanting to get published, to lists of recommended books from established writers, Waterstones is pushing its prominence hard while it builds both high street and online presence.

It’s a way to sell more books, of course, particularly at a time where sales growth over the recent holiday period was not as high as they would have hoped. There has been overall industry growth, but with so many new options vying for a reader’s attention, booksellers have a lot more to compete with these days.

Waterstones’ are extending their online presence through competing on price and delivery directly with Amazon, and moving into the new space of e-books - which seems to be the latest trendy buzzword in the publishing industry.  Online seems to be the growth area with the company quoting 1% of last year’s overall 4% growth coming from online sales, and those sales performing 107% up compared with 2006.

What is worrying for writers - and appears on the surface that Waterstones are not only aware but are trying to address it - is this quote from Waterstones M, Gerry Johnson:

The big books get even bigger and it’s harder to keep the mid-range running

For new and up-coming authors to survive with acceptable sales, booksellers will have to make a concerted effort to avoid the lure of the big bucks and find a way to keep their customers fully aware of the range of reading matter out there. An exaggerated class society within books - where only those lucky enough to be selected for Oprah or Richard & Judy reading lists can survive - will be wholly damaging to the business of writing and publishing as a whole. Waterstones appears to be conscious of the problem so it may be worth keeping a close eye on them during 2008, and hope others wake up to the bigger picture.