The Bookseller.com

5th July 2008

BA: Rand's firm sale concerns

12.05.08 Graeme Neill

Booksellers are "very concerned" about firm sale on backlist which they say could lead to them stocking - and selling - fewer books, according to Booksellers Association president Graham Rand.

In his presidential address to around 400 delegates at the BA conference in Brighton this morning (12th May), Rand said that cooperation between publishers and retailers on issues such as the environment and World Book Day could be under threat if "attempts are made to change the status quo without agreement".

"Our members, both large and small, are very concerned about this," he said. "The returns question is complex and worthy of discussion but changes should only be made with agreement, not imposed."

He spoke of recent discussions the BA Council held with an unnamed publisher, who decided to amend a number of its earlier proposals. "With returns the whole picture has to be considered and over selling might well produce as much waste as over buying...Part of any new agreement would also need to address the question of compensation if risk moves from one side of our business to the other. There is a real danger that we could end up with booksellers stocking less books and making fewer sales - to the detriment of both publisher and bookseller."

In a wide-ranging speech, Rand said that the British economy was in a "perilous state" but that the book market was doing ok. "Nothing too exciting but nothing too alarming either. And that has now been the story for the last five or six years; small unit growth and slower cash growth but nevertheless, steady progress."

He warned that the industry should not lose the agenda on environmental issues. "Green believer or non-believer, as an industry we should take urgent steps," he said. "We do not want to sit back, lose the agenda and allow ourselves, perhaps justifiably, to be targeted by any environmental group."

Rand said that while discounting was a "fact of life" for the industry he believed some titles were being sold too cheaply. "How can we expect the public to value books if we don't?"

He said that the industry was continuing to examine digital issues and talked of a looming debate about the role of ISBNs in digital content. There are differing schools of thought about whether different manifestations of a digital file should have a unique ISBN or whether there should just be one for the master file. "I do know that the retailer, the wholesaler or whoever, will have to have a means of identifying precisely what is being traded in the future," Rand said.

Graeme Neill BA Home Firm sale Graham Rand BA Council

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