Booksellers fight back as prices fall by 17%

BOOK prices have dropped by 17% over the past three years as booksellers fight back against recession and the challenge presented by ebooks.

While the sector has had high-profile casualties such as Hughes & Hughes which went into liquidation last month, industry heads believe the majority of sellers will survive the spending slump. Sales of books actually went up significantly from 2007 to 2009, rising by 20% to a total of 14.6 million copies last year, but the value of those sales only rose by 3% in the same period, totalling €156.5m last year.

That’s because the average selling price dropped from €12.60 in 2007 to €10.75 last year – a feature John McNamee of the Irish Booksellers Association says will help keep customers coming through the door.

“Books have never been such good value,” said Mr McNamee, manager of Eason in Portlaoise. “I can’t remember when we last had brand new paperbacks selling at £5.99 and yet now we have them at €5.99.

“There are a number of reasons for that. There is an element of the market responding to make sure that the consumer is encouraged to come to the book shop, but it’s also the case that some of the publishers have been price-conscious in the production of books.

“They may have used a lesser quality of paper or made other changes so that a book that would have cost €16.99 is now €14.99 or in some cases €12.99.”

The strength of the euro against sterling also helped, but Mr McNamee warned that a weakening euro was only one of the challenges booksellers faced, given the growing popularity of e-books – copies of books downloaded onto electronic readers.

“On the one hand they’re a huge threat to the industry and on the other they’re a huge opportunity.”

He said publishers were already dabbling in producing books in dual forms so that they were available as e-books, but also on paper.

More publishers were exploring on-demand printing using new technology to enable them run off small numbers of copies as shops ordered them instead of the traditional way of investing in massive print runs all in one go.

Even innovative sellers will have their work cut out for them over the next few years, however. The British giant, Waterstones, saw its pre-tax profits fall 37% in its Irish shops last year.

John McNamee admits it won’t be easy in the years ahead, especially with the excess of retail space, high rates and, in some cases, the upward-only rent reviews, which affect all retail sectors. But he added: “I have been through some hellish times for bookselling in the past and I don’t believe we are going back there.”