By Uwin Lugoda Following last week’s dive into the behind-the-scenes economics of the Colombo International Book Fair (CIBF), this week, we continue on the season of book fairs with a look at the other big book fair in Sri Lanka – Big Bad Wolf (BBW), which is currently being held in Colombo. BBW is one of the largest book sales in the world, and takes place across three countries and around 25 cities each year, with 2019 bringing the total to 34 cities. The sale currently takes place in cities in countries including Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Myanmar, South Korea, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. BBW first began in Malaysia in 2009 and was the brainchild of BookXcess Founders Andrew Yap and Jacqueline Ng. The sale houses single-vendor bookstalls and is a part of the remainder book industry, where books that are leftover from the retail market are bought by the organisation at low prices and sold at discounts ranging from 50-90% at the sale. “We are not an entirely commercial entity, so we are not out to make money; our goals are more socially oriented. BBW is all about the advocacy of reading. It’s all about English literacy because on average, only 2% of the global population reads books. To us, that’s a scary number and we felt that it should change,” said the group’s Head of Marketing and BBW Partner in Sri Lanka, Dipak Madhavan. Madhavan pointed out that when it comes to retail, English books from publishers in countries like the US, Canada, and the UK are financially out of reach of the average man. He went on to state that this is especially the case when it comes to families with two or more children, where in order to instil the habit of reading in the children, the parents have to pay exorbitant prices. “We felt this was wrong, we felt that reading should not be a privilege and not something only the rich can afford.” He stated that this was one of the reasons BBW took to purchase remainder books rather than make the biggest mark-up. They went in the other direction, bearing the minimum costs in terms of shipping and other logistics, alongside a small mark-up margin to make the business viable. According to Madhavan, this has led to them running at a loss in some countries, including Sri Lanka in 2018 when they sold books at the same prices as in 2017 but lost whatever amount they gained due to the depreciation of the rupee. “This year, we have tried our best to maintain the same prices. However, some books have increased in price, but it’s a very thin margin business.” Positive reinforcement fuelled expansion The organisation first ventured outside Malaysia in 2016, visiting both Jakarta and Bangkok. According to Madhavan, based on the positive responses received during those visits, the organisation decided to expand operations, reaching Colombo in 2017 and 16 more countries in 2018. Madhavan explained that when first looking to enter a country/city, the organisation starts by visiting the country around six months prior to see the potential it has for such a large sale such as BBW; they look at everything from how well English is used in citizens’ day-to-day lives, how big a reader the population is, and how popular books are in that market. “Countries like Sri Lanka and Myanmar, where you have an inherent population of English literate people, that have little access to affordable English books, are countries where we do really well. In the countries where English is not an important part of their daily lives, it is more of a challenge.” He went on to state that once having ascertained that market, the organisation then looks at the business landscape in terms of things like venue, as the sales needs to be held in a venue of a considerable size to make it economically viable. BBW fairs around the world share a similar format of having large venues which offer the option of staying open 24 hours if possible, or at least 18 hours a day, for 11-12 days at a stretch. Madhavan stated that the venues have to cover an area of at least 40,000-50,000 sq.ft., with their average venues covering approximately 100,000 sq.ft. He stated that the venue in Sri Lanka – SLECC (Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre) extending around 40,000 sq.ft. – is one of their smallest venues, with their largest being a 250,000 sq.ft. hall in Indonesia. He went on to explain that once the venue and market viability are evaluated, the organisation looks at other aspects like manpower, taxes, and customs, to name a few. Once having confirmed that the market is workable, he stated that they begin preparations around two-and-a-half to three months before the sale. Madhavan stated that the organisation has brought down around one to 1.5 million books this year, mainly from publishers in countries like the US, Canada, and the UK. Despite being remainders from the retail market, Madhavan assured that all the books they bring down are not only brand new, but originals as well. Sri Lankan market Having now come to Sri Lanka for three years, he stated that Sri Lanka is a very interesting market compared to other countries in the region like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. He explained that when first arriving in Sri Lanka in 2017, they assumed that similar to the three countries mentioned earlier, the country’s readership would mainly consist of the younger generation, due to the older generation not being inherent readers, and so would just buy books for their children. Because of this, the organisation focused on mainly bringing down children’s books, with almost 70% of their stock catering to that demographic. However, to their surprise, Madhavan stated that all the fiction and non-fiction books brought down for the adults were sold out within the first few days of the sale. “Everyone was asking us why we had so many children’s books.” Realising that Sri Lanka was quite different from the rest, being a Commonwealth country with a strong English education system, Madhavan stated that the next year, they were better prepared to cater to the adult market as well. “Here adults are actually readers and therefore, the trend is different because they first buy books for themselves and then for their children, so it’s different from most of the countries in the region.” Madhavan explained that this was because each market has its own characteristics – this, he said, acts as a constant learning curve for the organisation. The learning curve mainly applies to the selection of books and managing the expectations of the crowd. “I’ll touch on our Preview Day to give you an example of how we try to manage expectations. In 2017, when we first came to Sri Lanka, we were not very well known, so the turnout was low. So the next year, we gave out more passes and everyone showed up. However this year again, we gave away less passes, and that, together with it being a Thursday (17) morning, led to the venue being fairly empty this year.” Youths get exposure too Apart from advocating reading to Sri Lankans, the BBW fair also employees several of the countries’ youth during the 10-day period it is in those countries. Madhavan stated that they work through an agency in Sri Lanka to hire school leavers and university students mainly, in order give them work experience. He explained that working at the sale is different in terms of the pace at which they work, efficiency, processes, and standards. He stated that these aspects have been honed over the last 10 years using the feedback they got from each city in which they held sales. “The feedback we get from people who work with us is that, it’s hard work but they learn a lot in terms of management, timekeeping, and responsibilities. You cannot learn these things in most of our day-to-day lives.” Madhavan also pointed out that the experience they gather from working for BBW acts as an endorsement when it comes to applying to other places in the future. He went on to state that some of their part-time crews also go on to work with them fulltime and travel around the world to the other cities the sale takes part in. However, Madhavan stated that due to there being reduced hours in this year’s fair, the number of employees hired was less in comparison to the last two years. He explained that this year, the opening hours will be from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. from Monday to Thursday and 24 hours from Friday to Sunday, compared to the last two years when it was open throughout the 10-day period. He stated that this is due to it not being economically viable for the organisation to keep the sale running 24 hours on weekdays. Despite the reduced hours, Madhavan is positive about the turnout, with the fair on average having around 200,000 to 250,000 visitors for each of its events. 2020 He stated that when BBW returns to Sri Lanka in 2020, they hope to explore something new, a new way of doing things. These new initiatives are set to be introduced in other cities next year, and would eventually make its way into Sri Lanka as well. Apart from this, he stated that the organisation hopes to expand even further than they have this year, and host the sale in 50 cities. Madhavan explained that the organisation would like to keep its sponsorships and partnerships in Sri Lanka, one of which has been Sampath Bank whom they have been working with for the long term. He also stated that outside of the BBW sale, he hopes they get to work more with the local industry, i.e. booksellers and bookshops. “At the end of the day, we are bringing books at 50-90% discounts, and all of the products have already cleared customs as well. So if anyone wants to resell these books over the rest of the year, that’s fine by us. At the end of the day, businesses have to make a living and we are only here for 11 days, whereas the others are here for 365 days, so it’s down to the local industry to actually continue that mission.” Speaking from the Sri Lankan book industry point of view, the Sarasavi Finance Manager Sarath Jayasighe stated that having a sale like BBW is advantageous for the country as consumers are given the opportunity to obtain books from publishers they would otherwise not be exposed to. “The book industry in Sri Lanka caters to the demand, while the BBW sale creates a demand by bringing in exclusively international books. They cater to a market we don’t cater to, so it’s an advantage for the consumers.” Book enthusiast and co-founder of Book Swap Colombo Nadeesha Paulis stated that while BBW targets the English readership in the country, they also provide a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books, including books on subjects like photography, which would otherwise be unavailable in the Sri Lankan market. “BBW provides affordable books to the Sri Lankan audience, and helps increase the readership in the country, especially due to the sale that’s open for long hours.” The BBW sale began on 18 October and will be ending tomorrow (28).