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Business
商業報道
Bookselling
售書業前景
Spine chilling
令人膽戰心驚
Mass-market retailing changed publishing before the e-book
E書時代近在眼前，紙書商改出版策略
SNAZZY technology is a twist in a narrative already several chapters long.
先進科技已經在小說故事中糾結了好幾個章回。
Mass-market retailing has changed the publishing industry:
圖書市場零售業改變了自己的出版業策略：
these days books are as likely to be found beside steaks and saucepans as they are to be bought in specialist stores.
現如今，人們在牛排、燉鍋旁找到售書點的概率就如在專門店買到書的概率一樣小。
The story turns on whether broader changes in bookselling will stifle literature.
故事發展成售書業的變化日益擴大，它是否會扼殺文學這一問題。
Dan Brown will survive. Would Dante?
丹布朗能夠幸免于難，但丁也會么？
For most of the past century, governments across Europe protected book prices; many still do.
在前一世紀大部分的時間里，歐洲的政府都在保護圖書的價格，很多國家依然這么做。
Even in America, apart from dime-store romances, few titles were sold outside bookshops.
甚至在美國，除了小商品店里的言情小說，其他種類的圖書在書店以外的地方幾乎絕跡了。
But in the 1970s stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble applied a supermarket maxim to print:
但在20世紀70年代，諸如鮑德斯、巴諾這樣的書店卻都奉行著超市售書箴言：
pile them high and watch them fly.
只要把書摞高，人們就會搶光它。
Waterstones did the same thing in Britain and top titles started selling in the hundreds of thousands, even millions.
英國的華特史東書店也這樣做，這使得暢銷書開始了以成百上千甚至是百萬冊的數量銷售的歷史。
Just as book superstores forced out many independents,
就像超級書店獨立出來很多自立門戶的店鋪一樣。
so supermarkets and other mass retailers have since crowded the book chains.
超市還有其他的零售商業也開了很多圖書連鎖店。
In Britain, when price regulation was disbanded in 1997, supermarkets rushed in and now sell a quarter of all books, according to the way that Nielsen, a market-research outfit, calculates it.
根據市場調研機構Nielsen的統計，在英國，97年價格管制被撤消的時候，超市蜂擁而入并開始銷售市場1/4的圖書。
Belgium and Finland mimicked this trend.
比利時以及芬蘭也紛紛效仿這一趨勢。
This has been good for readers:
這對于讀者來說是個好消息。
in Britain the average price of a book has fallen by 15% since 2003, reckons BML Bowker, a book-marketing consultancy.
圖書市場顧問鮑克出版社的數據顯示，03年英國圖書的平均售價下降了15%。
And demand has grown: consumers spend the same amount on books, so they must be buying more.
而圖書需求量也上升了：消費者在圖書上花費同樣多的錢，圖書的價格降了，這樣他們購買的書更多了。
Those independent bookshops that survived the chain war in America and Britain have held sales and prices steady.
那些在美國、英國連鎖店之戰中幸存的個體書店，久維持著圖書的銷量還有價格的穩定。
Meanwhile, mass retailers find books such a draw that they lure in customers by selling some titles at a loss.
同時，銷售商發現一個賺錢的方法，他們以虧本地銷售一些圖書來吸引顧客購書。
Higher turnover should also be positive for publishers.
按理說出版商應該也得到更高的利潤。
But mass retailers demand discounts of up to 60% for bulk orders, shrinking margins.
但大批訂貨的商家向出版商索要高達60%的數量折扣，這反而使得利潤減少了。
All sides prosper when books sell quickly.
只要書賣得快，各家都會得利。
But, unlike groceries, if books don't sell, retailers return them to the publisher—and do not pay.
但是，與日常用品不同，如果書籍賣不出去的話，零售商就把書返回給出版商—并且不付返回的書費。
So, when a book with a large print run flops, publishers end up with an expensive pile of recycling.
這樣，當一本大量印刷的書籍不好買，出版商就得最終以高價來回收它。
That is why some publishers have stopped doing new deals with the likes of Costco, an American warehouse retailer, which likes to order very large print runs.
這就是為什么一些出版商停止與類似于美國的科思科這樣的連鎖店做生意的原因。因為這些商店喜歡訂購大宗的貨物。
Few people will mourn publishers;losses from increased price competition and new technology like e-readers.
像e書讀者一樣，很少有人來吊唁出版商因日趨激烈的價格競爭以及日益發達的科技而導致的損失。
The question is whether these trends undermine the quality of books which are being published, by breaking a business model that has let firms focus on variety and range.
問題是，這些趨勢會不會擾亂商業模式—使出版商不再專注于擴大圖書規模增加圖書種類，從而降低出版的書籍的質量。
Publishers have good reason to shiver at the decline of traditional bookshops.
在傳統書店數量減少的情況下，出版商感到害怕是正常的。
To fund the discovery and promotion of new authors, they have relied on books that sell steadily over a number of years.
為了資助發掘和宣傳新作家，出版商們依靠那些很多年來都銷售平穩的書籍來維持運營。
Yet mass retailers stock a few hundred new blockbusters.
但是，零售書商們也儲存著幾百個新的暢銷巨作。
At first sight there is no reason for concern.
乍一看，圖書業沒什么讓人擔心的問題
New works are abundant—40% more titles came out in Britain in 2010 than in 2001.
新作品很多—英國10年出版的新作品數量比01年高出了40%，
But this obscures a starker trend: “mid-list” titles are selling in smaller numbers in America and Britain.
但是它掩蓋了一個嚴峻的趨勢：“銷售量居中”的圖書，在美國和英國的銷售量少了。
This matters for cultural life, because most literary fiction and serious non-fiction falls into that bracket and much of it could become uneconomical to publish.
這會影響到人們的文化生活，因為大部分的文學小說還有嚴肅類非小說作品都屬于這一范疇，以至于很多這種書出版起來可能毫無利益可言。
