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Printing and production costs are likely to go up following Brexit, which may lead to publishers increasing book prices, members of the Independent Publishers Guild have been warned.
However, publishers have also been advised to “hold on for a little bit until things stabilise” before taking any action.
Speaking at a recent IPG event called ‘Brexit: Key Questions for Independent Publishers’, Kamal Singh, a financial director, told IPG members that businesses printing overseas are likely to see their costs rise as a result of the fall in the value of sterling. He advised members to renegotiate terms but wait before repricing their books.
“Businesses should communicate with [overseas printers] and see how in the short term the impact could best be absorbed between themselves", Singh said. "You could try to negotiate better prices by consolidating similar format books, thereby increasing print orders. A lot of printers will want to invoice in euros or dollars, but I’d try to avoid that as far as possible, as again you would not want to be exposed to currency volatility.”
He added: “I would suggest holding on for a little bit until things stabilise. Your costs are going to be going up, so it logically follows that your prices should follow, but you are in a competitive environment so there are a lot of things to take into account. I’d wait and see before making fundamental changes.”
Richard Fisher, IPG academic correspondent and former m.d. of Cambridge University Press, said: “There are IPG members, especially in academic publishing, who price in dollars or euros as things stand, and it’s a tough judgement about what to do. For the next fortnight I think hold your horses and see, but after that we just don’t do – it’ll be a watching brief.”
The panel also discussed how Higher Education would be affected by the UK's exit from Europe, with Fisher saying that Brexit will have "major" consequences for student debt and fee increases. “We’re possibly going to see a return to the student cap, and there are major implications for levels of student debt and fee increases – though that said, nothing is going to happen until 2020 as things stand, and the message on the Knowledge Economy white paper is that it still stands", Fisher said. "The decline in the pound may increase non-EU student numbers and compensate for EU students who will inevitably find the UK a less attractive place to study. Whether or not students will be included in overall immigration numbers is unresolved and a real political hot potato."
He added: “It’s heartening to see a post-Brexit government viewing Higher Education funding as a massive priority, particularly in areas where IPG members are strong, like the arts and social sciences. But we’ll see – none of this is known.”
Fisher also emphasised the importance of listening to a plurality of views regarding the referendum, as the majority of the publishing industry were in favour of remaining in the EU.
“It’s really important that as an industry we understand the Leave articulation, and British publishing needs to recognise the strength of other views," Fisher said. "There are massive demographic sectors we don’t deal with properly at the moment, like those left behind by the digital economy. Our collection of businesses is probably the most pro-Remain small business grouping in the UK, but it is important to remember that a lot of other small businesses don’t share our cultural orientation. We need to think about all that while recognising the strength of the Remain argument.”