How Do You Take On An 800 Pound Gorilla?

Amazon.com is the world's largest retailer and Australians spend around $150 million with Amazon each year. So how do Australian bookstores take on a $16 billion company? Well, Booktopia.com.au seems to have come up with a strategy.

On the 15th September 2009 at exactly 9am (Australian Eastern Standard Time), the new blockbuster Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol, will hit the shelves. Many readers are counting down the days until it arrives. The story line has been kept so secretive and the security around printing and distribution is so tight that no one is really sure what it is about, other than once again it features Robert Langdon as the key character and it takes place over 12 hours.

Amazon.com is planning to sell millions of copies around the world and no doubt many people in Australia may consider buying their copy from the online giant. That is of course, unless Australia's largest online bookstore, Booktopia.com.au, can do something about it. Booktopia has decided to match the overseas price and offer Australians the same book at the same discounted price.

"I want to make sure readers in Australia can buy online at the same price as readers anywhere in the world" says the Booktopia.com.au CEO, Tony Nash.

In the UK, Amazon has set their discounted price at approximately AUD $20. In the USA, Amazon is discounting the book down to AUD $21.

The Australian publisher of the new Dan Brown book, Random House Australia, is printing 600,000 copies in its first print run and each and every copy is being printed in Australia. They have set the RRP at $49.95, although like in every other market, it will be discounted heavily at retail. To combat the overseas online pricing Booktopia.com.au are offering Australians a 60% discount and are currently taking pre-orders on their website at $19.95.

"Selling The Lost Symbol at $19.95 should ensure that online sales stay within Australia." says Tony Nash.

It has been a mystery to most Australian book buyers why some books are cheaper in Australia and why some books cost more. Perhaps Dan Brown and Professor Robert Langdon could crack the code on that mystery as well!

More about The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

"The Lost Symbol is a brilliant and compelling thriller. Dan Brown's prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this new book. This is one of the most anticipated publications in recent history, and it was well worth the wait," said Sonny Mehta, Chairman and Editor in Chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Brown's longtime editor, Jason Kaufman, Vice President and Executive Editor at Doubleday said, "Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. This book's narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, Dan's readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises."

"This novel has been a strange and wonderful journey," said Brown. "Weaving five years of research into the story's twelve-hour timeframe was an exhilarating challenge. Robert Langdon's life clearly moves a lot faster than mine."

Click here to order The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

More on Booktopia

Booktopia was launched in 2004 on a $10/day budget. Booktopia is currently the largest Australian-owned Internet bookstore in Australia. It now employees 40 people and is one of the fastest growing companies in Australia.