In such a climate, there is little room for books of good quality but modest sales potential. Neither is there much interest in the development of Swedish authors, unless they can produce titles that will sell big. Most publishers would rather import bestsellers from America than produce books by our own writers. Not surprisingly, the number of bookstores has been drastically diminished. By way of contrast, neighboring Norway, with a population of about half Sweden's 9 million, has more than 400 bookstores spread throughout the country, while Sweden's bookstores number a little more than 300, and these are almost all in the big cities.
Many municipalities are simply without a bookstore.
The difference is that in Norway, government and business have together fashioned an effective book policy, with fixed prices, agreements between different groups, guaranteed distribution to retailers and libraries, and so forth. Given the state of the Swedish book market, online bookselling has much to offer the reading public. Readers in places without a bookstore can still choose from a wide variety of titles. Now with just a click, the customer can choose to browse for books from the Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, or the Danish markets. Unlike the many pessimists who people the book business, Petersson exhibits an encouraging enthusiasm.