Anansi.ca: Selling Books Online

As the Canadian publishing industry becomes increasingly threatened by difficulties including diminishing per-title book sales and irregularities in dealing with bookstores, book publishing companies are striving for innovative ways to increase revenue. One such way is to sell books online, and Toronto's House of Anansi Press began this in the 1990's. This report explores why Anansi began selling online and what the company envisioned would come from it. It discusses the implementation of the online bookstore while highlighting some of the considerations that were taken into account. It also explores what it takes to keep online sales running, and what impact it has on Anansi financially. The report concludes with how Anansi foresees the hture of its online bookstore. This paper as a whole serves to demonstrate, through the analysis of Anansi, how selling online is a thoughthl proposal for a publishing company, especially in today's Canadian publishing industry environment.