I've just taken a look at Waterstone's new website. It's a cause for celebration. One of my concerns for the industry is that the excellence of Amazon and its clear customer benefits might result in their becoming wholly dominant. Waterstone's have shown that it's quite possible to build an attractive, clean, professional alternative on-line bookstore. And it doesn't stop with Waterstone's. Many book retailers - independent, chain, specialist, clubs - are experimenting with on-line selling and many more will do so. Some will try to compete on price (which is probably a forlorn exercise) but most will use the web to reinforce their existing skills of selection, service, local knowledge and building customer loyalty. The more routes to market the better.

One route to market which has disappointed in recent years but which we're told is turning a corner now is Book Club Associates in the UK. I think everyone in publishing wants to give them the benefit of the doubt. We all hope that they will return to the glory days when they helped build new authors such as the early titles from Wilbur Smith; where they underwrote many great non-fiction series such as Antonia Fraser's Kings and Queens of England; where they helped reintroduce classic books,  such as the Oxford History of England, to a new audience. So good luck to them but I was rather concerned by a recent quote from their Chief Executive (perhaps misquoted) in Publishing News. Are Bernard Cornwell and the Sharpe series really an example of a new author and new fiction?

'Particular successes have been facsimile editions of Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie, and collections of Danielle Steel and James Patterson. “We’re continually testing new authors – Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series for example – and I think there are real opportunities for us with combined author collections under subject groupings such as crime and thriller, science fiction, true life adventure …We’re only limited by our imaginations.'