Book giants Borders and Angus & Robertson are not the only ones in trouble, with the internet sucking the life from many independent bookstores around Australia. As many as 200 Angus & Robertson and Borders bookstores could be sold off or closed with the prospect of thousands of job losses after parent company, REDgroup Retail, was placed in voluntary administration. A debt mountain, the growing popularity of online book buying and digital formats are behind the chains' financial woes. But small bookshops are also going to the wall in increasing numbers, with at least six franchised and independently owned small size retailers due to close in New South Wales in the next few weeks. The popular Zabriskie Booksellers in the famed Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi has been a local landmark for 20 years. But owner Nikki Zubrzycki says that any day now the store will close for good and she has no doubt that the internet has killed her business. "Over the last six months it's really dropped ... winter was terrible and we only survived by me borrowing to pay rent," she said. Book retailers large and small are in trouble because the Australian dollar has risen in value in recent months and consumers are turning to the internet to buy books at much lower prices. Most of the trade is presumed to be flowing towards Amazon in the United States and the UK's Book Depository website. The latter offers free postage to Australia. When members of the Australian Booksellers Association gathered for their monthly meeting this week it felt more like they were attending a wake. Owner of Sydney's Lindfield Bookshop, Scott Whitmont, says "it is the toughest year in the book trade since I've been in it - since 1994." Confounding brick and mortar booksellers are people like Melbourne man Dan Milne, who runs a website called Booko.com.au which compares prices at 48 online shops. "I did it to solve my own problems", explained Milne, who has a day job in the city of Melbourne. "When I first built it I had maybe 10 online shops and my wife convinced me to put it on the internet and slowly it grew from there." No-one knows exactly how much people are spending buying books online from offshore, but internet payment company PayPal says online purchases from Australia for all goods increased 76 per cent last year. But it is not just the internet that is killing bookstores. Big W, Target and Kmart are another part of the story. These days the big discount department stores sell about one-third of the books sold in this country. Because they buy in bulk they can sell them onto the consumer at prices far lower than any independent bookseller could ever hope to. Booksellers complain that Australian publishers who set prices have been too slow to respond to the slump in sales and only now are they responding. But in the internet age it could be too little, too late. Meanwhile, Australian Publishers Association chief executive officer Maree McCaskill has reacted with shock at the news that Borders and Angus & Robertson have been placed into administration. "I think it is incredibly sad. The publishing industry will be mortified to know that this chain, which is the largest retail chain in Australia, has found itself in administration," she said. Over 160 Angus & Robertson bookstores across the country, as well as 26 Borders stores in Australia, five in New Zealand and one in Singapore will be affected. Across the Tasman, REDgroup also owns 72 Whitcoulls bookstores. Altogether the group has 2,500 employees. While REDgroup Retail has no financial connection to the US Borders group, which co-incidentally filed for bankruptcy protection in the last 24 hours, it does share the same tough trading conditions which have seen retail book sales dive over the past six months. But administrator Ferrier Hodgson says it is business as usual, at least until a creditors meeting early next month. But the development came as no surprise to Tim Coronel, who is the publisher of industry bible, Bookseller and Publisher magazine."The Red group reported a $43 million loss for the year ... and lost senior staff in the last half of last year," he said.