DEATH OF THE DESIGN BOOK?
I love nothing better than trawling bookshops and looking at great titles on architecture, art, interior design and photography. There are boutique shops which always have a dedicated area for these styles of books or an actual shop dedicated to design titles, but as we all know what keeps things driving are the chain stores and department stores selling en mass to keep the book industry alive. This is not about the boutique stores as their support to the arts is immense (and I hope this will drive you to seek out boutique book stores after reading this post).
At home I have no less than 150 books in these areas of the arts (hey, maybe I should open my own private library?). I love them for the covers, the photography, the content and the sheer tactile touch of glossy pages and the sound they make as I flick the page. This I cant get from the internet or an ipad.
- These stands were all in the one department store – all cookbooks!
What brought on this post? I went to a well-known department store and two chain store book shops in my area and I was simply floored at what I saw and what I didn’t see: shelf upon shelf and stand upon stand of cookbooks. Recipes of Spain, Italy, Greece and Morocco. Celebrity chefs from Australia, England and America (to name only a few) and celebrities who happen to cook at home, kids ‘easy-to-follow’ how to cook books, spices, ‘adventures while I cook’ and cooking for the great outdoors. I think you are getting the picture. Our love of not only food but cooking shows has spiked the cookbook scene into a publishing frenzy, so much so I spent an hour flicking through books just to try and see what was the magic ingredient to getting so many books on the shelves (yes, ashamedly pun intended). After trying for ten minutes (that is a long time in a book section of a major store) to find any interior book, this was all I found. A handyman shoved in the section they cheekily called Lifestyle. From the picture you can see, if you believe your only way of life is gardening then well of course it was in the right section.
Since the collapse of Borders books I have found the search for interior books to be an organised day out. Not a bad thing as most of the time there are great café’s and other boutique stores around but what it brings up is – where does the ‘no confidence’ in the design book come from? It cant be price as some of the cookbooks I picked up ranged from $20, and upwards to $80 ( even higher for a few). I was once told by a publisher that interior books are so expensive to produce here in Australia that they very rarely reap the costs (I cannot give you ‘confirmed’ figures but a major Australian design book sold less than 5,000 books, the publisher was loathed to do a second book due to sales but were under contract for a sequel) Most glossy cookbooks I flicked through were 50% styling and pictures and quite light on the actual recipes, so it is not major content that rivals a design book. These cookbooks have to be expensive to make as well.
You could sit at the TV for a week solid and still find new cooking shows on free to air and pay TV and this of course has a lot to do with the explosion of cookbooks and our love of fresh and fantastic food and recipes. A connection with the person on the screen and a huge marketing push can really get your juices flowing into the book store (yes another intended pun) But I can almost guarantee these gorgeous books aren’t referenced from back to front but scanned with a delightful eye of the pretty pictures, the reader attempts two or three and then it sits on the shelf and maybe pulled out once a year for a special occasion. My design books do pretty much the same, I scan, I drool and then it goes on the shelves, on the coffee table, beside the bed and I use them for reference when I need them. Not a great difference on price and use justification so far.
So that brings me to – Why don’t people buy more interior books?
From my show on Selling Houses Australia people are hungry for the how and why of what I do. I have been on morning shows and radio talk back talking design and real estate. I answer questions on the website, write articles and blog and it never ceases to amaze me how people want more and more. It can’t be that there is too much information out there on design websites and blogs as there would be triple the amount of blogs and websites on food styling, cooking and critiquing restaurants. It seems the more content out there the more buzz and attention something gains.
So what is it? I don’t have the answer so I am hoping you out there can let me/us know why the mainstream here in Australia do not buy enough design books to give publishers the confidence to get more on the shelves.
Here are a couple of my points that I think people might relate to:-
- Design books have lots of great pretty pictures and not enough information
- No connection with the writer as it is not conversational enough
- The interiors are not achievable, as opposed to a recipe book you feel you can at least give one or two of the recipes ago and feel some instant self-satisfaction
- The stigma of the design world is a bit stuck up and feel intimidated
- Would rather Interior books to be more interactive and feel I have the designer ‘on my side’ rather than telling me what to do all the time
So let me know why you do or don’t buy design books and why you do or don’t buy cookbooks. The written word, glossy pictures and the joy of a hardback book should be in the bookstores and on our coffee tables – or should they? Or hey, prove me wrong and tell my your shelves are just as full as mine!!! Let’s keep the design book alive!
(I also need to know if I am wasting my time writing a book!!!)
P.S. For those who love a great bookstore here are just a couple of Melbourne boutique stores I love to browse. Seek some in your own area – you will be surprised how many are out there an how helpful and passionate they are.
