Melville House Books

One of Australia’s biggest bookselling chains, Collins Booksellers, “is in deep financial trouble” and “has stopped ordering books and publishers are refusing to supply the privately owned company because its unpaid bills are mounting,” reports Michael Bachelard in a report for The Australian. The company “has struggled to cope with the new realities in the book trade,” says Bachelard,” especially competition from “aggressive overseas companies such as Borders and Amazon.” A company spokesman would not comment on rumors that the chain is for sale. But one “influential publisher” tells Bachelard that would be a “disaster for the industry,” because Collins “was one of the few companies that stocked ‘real books’ published by small and medium-sized Australian publishers.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.