Book Price Wars Limit Diversity December 22, 2006
“Christmas should spell bonanza for the book trade. But as consumers increasingly load up their trolleys with heavily discounted volumes at supermarkets, booksellers are warning that there could be dire consequences not only for independent bookshops, but for publishing as a whole - and ultimately for the reading public.”
Here’s another instance, if one were needed. of short term advantage leading to long -term loss of diversity. Independent booksellers cannot buy at anything like the same volume as supermarkets, Amazon, and other mass retailers, but independents play a substantial and often unrewarded role in supporting good books that are not mass marketable. as well as taking chances on stocking first time novelists. Eventually, as Wal-Mart as shown, big buyers get to dictate the terms of production. If that happens in publishing, the already restricted range of publishable fiction and nonfiction will decrease. Libraries can help to offset this narrowing trend of market driven, and therefore unnatural , selection. But they can’t do it all.The publisher Faber and Faber has been instrumental (see The Guardian “Declaration of Independents” July 8th 2006) in setting up an alliance of independent publishers to help support independent booksellers. The solution to the narrowing authorial base and increasing barriers to entry, however , is far from satisfactory.
The next time you are in an independent bookstore and see a title that costs a little more than the groceried equivalent, remember that the higher cost ensures that future writers will be read. Those extra pennies help guarantee the future of the freedom to read.
Tags: WARS | Warning | volumes | ultimately | trolleys | SUPERMARKETS | Reading | Publishing | price | Load | independent | increasingly | heavily | DISCOUNTS | dire | consumers | consequences | bookshops | booksellers | Bonanza | Culture | Charlotte
