The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

Chinese print costs hit home

14.08.08 Benedicte Page

Print costs in China have reached "unprecedented" levels, raising concerns that new titles could be delayed or cancelled. UK novelty, gift and illustrated publishers are the hardest hit.

Publishers and retailers are facing possible cuts, delays and r.r.p. increases as the combination of paper and oil price rises, new labour laws and fluctuations in the US dollar and RMB—which has seen Chinese printing costs surge by up to 40% since the beginning of the year—hit home.

Kate Skipper, children’s buyer for ages 0–5 at Waterstone’s, said: "We are seeing prices for novelty titles go up and we think the next year will be significantly different in terms of what is being published. There have been some wonderful books out there, and we hope publishers won’t lose sight of that, but perhaps some of the weaker areas will die back. One area for concern is where the r.r.p. for customers becomes prohibitive."

But Christian Herrison, sales director at Usborne, said: "We will have to look at price increases because labour costs, printing and materials have all gone up. We’re going to work through that—there is no way we will cut our baby and pre-school lists—but we will have to work harder with our printers and give ourselves longer lead times to make sure we meet our schedules."

Yolanda Denny, production director at Little Tiger Press, said: "The past three to four months have been impossible. Normally, printers keep prices steady for a number of months, but even with reprints I’d be getting new quotes in a couple of weeks. It’s impossible for our sales teams to sell a book because they don’t know how much the cost will be going up."

Susannah Moore, sales director for packager Tony Potter Publishing, said the diversity of price increases was on a scale "unprecedented in recent years" and had caused problems for coedition partners: "If they took a book last year, they have expectations of the price of a reprint and have set a retail price."

Hard-pressed production directors are being forced to turn to other territories, including Thailand, Indonesia and Korea for their printing needs.

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