BA president calls for more publisher support and debate on scrapping printed cover price

The president of the Booksellers Association (BA) is urging a "mature debate" on scrapping printed cover prices on books, as indies look to offset soaring expenses during the cost of living crisis. 

Opening the BA annual conference at the Jurys Inn Hotel in Hinckley Island, Leicestershire, on 31st October, BA president Hazel Broadfoot, owner of Village Books in Dulwich, encouraged retailers to address the issue of book prices, which has been gathering momentum this year.  

She said industry members need to decide "whether it’s time for a mature debate on whether books should continue to have printed cover prices". 

"I know many people’s eyes will glaze over at the prospect," she continued, "but almost uniquely among retailers, the price we can sell our main products for is capped by our suppliers. We can price them down, but we can’t price them up. As I say, my own views are mixed and I view the prospect of price labelling 10,000 books in my shop with horror, but while we are thinking about each and every cost in our business and each and every opportunity to maximise profits, it may be worth at least a second thought."

Broadfoot said booksellers need to consider how to mitigate soaring prices at every level, particularly for utilities and other overheads, and how to improve gross margins. 

"The vast majority of the goods we sell are books, so we are dependent on our gross margins: any improvement in those margins could go a long way towards offsetting the horrific increases we are facing on utilities and overheads," Broadfoot said. She urged publishers to be "imaginative", as retail enters the busy Christmas period. 

"Covid provided a massive windfall for trade publishers, with huge sales and profits," Broadfoot said. "And my message to publishers is, we need your support. Now and through the coming storm.

"Talk to your bookseller customers, understand what shocks they are facing, remember your Covid windfall and look at creative ways to help mitigate against those bookseller shocks," she added. "And remember that a very small gesture from you could have huge significance for a small business and could determine its survival."

Broadfoot also highlighted concerns about the diminishing number of reps who were calling or available to call.

She said: “Whenever a trusted rep retires there is widespread anxiety among booksellers that they won’t be replaced; that the boundaries will be redrawn and the existing rep force spread more thinly. By definition the magnificent work being done by reps isn’t done under the common gaze of a publisher’s head office. It is being done far away, in bookshops up and down the country. But they are our lifeblood. I spoke about booksellers being key to the ecosystem of books. The relationship with reps is symbiotic within that ecosystem.”

Authors were also key in driving customers to indies, she said, commending Bob Mortimer in particular for using his status to highlight bricks-and-mortar booksellers as places to buy his debut novel The Satsuma Complex (S&S). “Why the seemingly thoughtless linking from author and publisher sites to Amazon and only to Amazon?” she asked of others in the industry.

She concluded: “One thing I would dearly love to see is the balance of emphasis change in how we communicate to consumers as an industry, with more emphasis on the value of books. Because books are wonderful value. And so are booksellers.” 

Highlighting some of the challenges independent retailers have faced, and continue to face, this year, Meryl Halls, m.d. of the BA, said: "Should we now be focusing on energy price hikes, impending recession, on the labour shortages we’re all facing, on the supply chain challenges we’re worrying about for Christmas? Should we worry about consumer confidence, the war in Ukraine, inflation, wage hikes, strikes, making enough money to pay the shop rent? 

"Should we be preoccupied by the challenges of running in-person events or the ongoing systemic challenges of operating on the high streets and online? The truth is that we have to worry about all those things, and it is exhausting, running to stand still."

She urged all bodies in the industry to move towards creating a "robust" ecosystem which values "attracting new entrants" and is "commercially viable, culturally relevant, environmentally responsible, ethically concerned". 

Highlighting sustainability as a key focus for the new year, Halls stressed the importance of the BA’s recently announced launch of the Carbon Calculator, and an updated Sustainable Bookselling Manifesto, in addition to the new £100,000 Sustainability Grant Project.