The bill, which is expected to pass the National Assembly later this month, would let book publishers set e-book prices. The idea is to prevent publishers from being undercut by the likes of Amazon or Apple.
The French Senate has passed the first reading of a bill that would allow book publishers to set a fixed price on e-books, in a bid to try to protect publishers and smaller retailers as the e-book market takes off.
But since the first reading on October 26, several objections have been raised – not least of which are whether the law is even legal.
An extension of a 30-year-old law
The law proposed by centre-right senators Catherine Dumas and Jacques Legendre aims to replicate the 1981 Lang Law, which prohibits the sale of physical books for less than five per cent below a cover price set by the publisher.
This law has proved popular in France, helping to maintain one of Europe’s best networks independent bookstores by protecting them from competition from large chains.Dumas and Legendre’s bill was the result of a year of consultations with writers, publishers and retailers, who are concerned that their revenues will be hit by the expanding online market. But for now, industry figures show that e-books make up less than one per cent of France’s book market, but that is expected to double in the next year.
“In 2011, we will see the beginning of a really strong market,” said Clément Hering, an analyst with Gfk, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
“Till now, it’s been quite a tiny market because of the price of products, which is quite high in France, and the number of platforms that are selling e-books which is quite tiny too, but that is changing.”
According to Hering, the e-book market so far has been a way of generating extra revenue for publishers rather than something that erodes profits, but that could change. In the US, digital literature accounts for more than eight per cent of the book market.
Enforcability remains an issue
But as the Internet is international, it is difficult to see how this law will work in practice. There seems little to stop a French consumer buying a book from a website based in another country, unless the government decides to geo-block e-book retailer websites. Otherwise, a French consumer could just as easily buy the same title at a lower price from Belgium or Luxembourg.
Another more serious obstacle is the European Court of Justice - this protectionist measure might turn out to run contrary to the idea of a single European market.
The Court has dealt with similar cases, including ones resulting from the Lang law, by determining whether the rule would be discriminatory against imports.”If they would be discriminatory then, prima facie, they would be unlawful unless the state imposing the restriction would be able justify it in some way.” said Angus Johnston, an EU law specialist at Oxford University.
The protection of national culture can be adduced as a justification, but Johnston says it is difficult to argue that a country’s literary heritage is protected by allowing the country itself rather than the importer to set the price of a book.
“On the face of it seems it would be challengeable successfully under EU free trade law,” he added.
Slowing innovation
The French parliament will take up the debate again in the next few weeks, when an amended version of the bill will be brought before both houses a final time before it can be signed into law.
Another problem with the proposed law, industry watchers said, is that it may inhibit innovation in this relatively new marketplace. The bill doesn’t make a distinction between books that are distribut
Book publishers have gone to great lengths in the past year to keep big political memoirs out of the hands of journalists. In response, journalists have worked themselves into a lather to obtain them. But outside of newsrooms and political parlors, it’s a safe bet that most Americans are not salivating over the juicy details.
The latest commotion comes courtesy of President George W. Bush’s memoir, “Decision Points,” which doesn’t actually hit stores until Nov. 9. Bush’s christian publisher, Crown, embargoed the book, meaning the media was not given an advanced copy and booksellers face legal action if they sell the book early.
This sent news organizations into tizzy, with each seeking to be the first to get the book and break news about its content. Yesterday, The New York Times did just that after it “obtained” a copy. The big news was that Bush pondered replacing Dick Cheney with Sen. Bill Frist before the start of the 2004 election.
Interesting, sure. But it’s not exactly like three years ago when Americans stood in long lines at midnight, fretting about who would win the last clash between a boy wizard and Lord Voldemort in another embargoed book, the final “Harry Potter.” Yet a publisher’s embargo bestows significance on a book that may not actually offer up terribly much that the public actually cares about.
Tidbits we learned from recent 2008 election recaps and memoirs from Bush White House figures were hardly enough grist to sustain the 24-hour news mill, and most were probably quickly forgotten soon after being read.
What gnawing questions have these books answered?
–What did Laura Bush think about her daughter Jenna’s underage drinking? (It “was just dumb.”)
–How did Karl Rove feel about the possibility his adoptive father being gay? (“Frankly, I don’t care.”)
–How did Sarah Palin react to the rumors that she was divorcing her husband, Todd? (“Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd?”)
Embargoes are useful to publishers because they help build anticipation for a book’s release. And although they may publicly state that they are angered when news organizations break them, they are also pretty pleased by the free publicity that leaks give their book.
But embargoes can be problematic. For example, at the 2006 National Book Publishers Festival 1,000 showed up to hear Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward speak about his latest volume on the Bush administration, “State of Denial.” But at the last minute they were told he was barred from speaking because the book was embargoed and that Woodward’s first interview had been promised to “60 Minutes.” When an audience boos, it’s hardly a marketing success. (Matt Lauer has snagged Bush’s first interview since leaving office. It will air as a primetime special on Nov. 8, the night before Bush’s memoir is released.)
Publicists may pull their hair out trying to protect their embargo and members of the media may fall over themselves to break it, but it’s hard to say if there are any winners in this game. In fact, the two biggest losers may be the customers and the booksellers. Both miss out when books that are hyped online aren’t available for book publishers purchase at the store. Will a disappointed reader’s interest still be piqued next week?
By: executivepublisher,
on 11/4/2010
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Win or lose at the Scotiabank Giller Prize on Nov. 9,it will be business as usual at Gaspereau Press.
For the first time in its 13-year history, the small, Kentville, N.S. book publishers and printing business has a book in the running for Canada’s most prestigious literary award, Johanna Skibsrud’s debut novel The Sentimentalists.
About 800 copies of the book were printed when it was first published a year ago; roughly half sold prior to the novel’s unexpected appearance on the Giller longlist at the end of September. The remaining copies were gobbled up by the time the title made the five-book shortlist in early October. Since then, Gaspereau’s five-person operation has been printing about 1,000 copies a week — the maximum it can handle, given other demands and book publisher responsibilities.
“Whether we win or lose, I’ll continue to make about 1,000 books a week, as long as there is a demand,” says co-owner Andrew Steeves, who runs the business with partner Gary Dunfield.
“One of the problems is that you can’t just drop everything else you do. We’re a local print shop. Long after the Giller goes away, I’ve got other clients. I can’t afford to alienate them. So I have to balance all that stuff.”
This is not remotely the way it will go down if any of the other four publishers with a book in the hunt cashes in.
The Giller, in addition to rewarding the winning author with a cheque for $50,000, is an instant boon to sales. Linden MacIntyre’s The Bishop’s Man, the most recent beneficiary of what is commonly known in the book publishers industry as the “Giller Effect,” moved 75,000 hardcover copies after winning last year and continues to sell well in paperback.
Publishers are ready to capitalize, sometimes within minutes of the announcement of the winner just before 10 p.m. at the gala’s live telecast.
Windsor’s small Biblioasis, which also has never produced a previous Giller finalist, already has a plan to print as many as 25,000 additional copies of Alexander MacLeod’s debut short story collection Light Lifting.
“As I understand it we won’t even have to call the printers, if against all odds we win,” says publisher Dan Wells. “They’ll be watching at the same time and when it’s announced, they can flick a switch and start printing.”
House of Anansi, a mid-sized Toronto publisher, has produced seven Giller finalists but no winners. The company hasn’t settled on a firm number yet for Kathleen Winter’s Annabel, the only book this year to also be nominated for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize and Governor General’s Literary Award, but president Sarah MacLachlan expects to order a print run of 40,000 copies, if the book wins.
“You talk to basically everybody that would sell a Giller book — the wholesalers, the chain, the independents — and you ask them what they think they will go through,” MacLachlan says.
“We are making a calculated decision. We’re not doing it because that looks like the right number in our heads. Historically, the repercussions have been big, so we’re like lawyers: We work on precedent.”
HarperCollins Canada, a rarity this year as the lone multi-national subsidiary in the mix, will undertake a similar reckoning in the event that David Bergen’s The Matter with Morris takes the prize.
The decision on how many copies to print will be made early Wednesday morning, but company sales and marketing vice-president Leo MacDonald anticipates something on the order last year’s Man Booker winner, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, which sold 40,000 copies in Canada. The company’s previous Giller wins came in 2001 with Richard
By: executivepublisher,
on 10/16/2010
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Book publisher Bloomsbury has hailed “resilient” second half trading as it toasts the success of this week’s Man Booker Prize for Howard Jacobson’s novel The Finkler Question.
Bloomsbury said the win was helping the book gain increasing worldwide fame, while it is also seeing popularity soar for Eat, Love and Pray by Elizabeth Gilbert following the release of the film version featuring Julia Roberts.
The group outlined a strong second half line-up that it expects will help offset a 48% fall in profits during the first six months.
Next month’s relaunch of the Harry Potter series designed to tie in with the keenly-awaited movie of the final book is expected to drive sales, as is an “exceptionally” strong programme for its professional titles amid a raft of Government changes to tax rules.
Bloomsbury said: “Overall, business is performing well for the group.”
However, it stressed the full-year result was “still dependent on the level of consumer and business-to-business demand between now and the end of the financial year”.
The group reported a sharp fall in interim pre-tax profits to £949,000 against £1.8 million a year earlier after a tough second quarter, dominated by uncertainties surrounding the general election and emergency Budget.
Analysts at Numis Securities believe the final six months will counteract the drop, forecasting a 4% rise in annual pre-tax profits to £8 million.
They also put faith in Bloomsbury’s expansion plans, with the book publishers looking to take advantage of the rise in popularity of e-books, as well as further acquisitions in strategically important areas.
Numis analysts said: “We believe that the group is both well positioned to benefit from structural change in digital publishing and, in the short-term, an uplift in sales from film releases of Bloomsbury titles.”
By: executivepublisher,
on 10/5/2010
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Michael Serbinis likes to think of himself as a David, but on this recent evening he looks more like a Steve — Steve Jobs to be exact.
It’s a rainy night in Toronto and about two dozen members of the city’s book publishing companies and media circles have gathered in a basement theatre at a swanky Yorkville hotel to hear from Mr. Serbinis, chief executive of Canada’s e-publishing startup, Kobo Inc.
As he stands at the front of the darkened theatre clutching a can of Red Bull, Mr. Serbinis is trying to do his best impression of the Apple Inc. CEO. There’s even an Applelike air of secrecy to the event, with everyone in attendance being asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement on the way down in the elevator.
In typical Steve Jobs fashion, at a methodical pace he walks the audience through a series of eye-popping stats to illustrate Kobo’s growth over its nine-month history before taking a few subtle digs at his competitors.
Finally, he tops it all off with the unveiling of a new product: Kobo’s new wireless eReader, the latest addition to the company’s arsenal in the battle for control over the exploding market for electronic books.
“I know what you’re thinking, ‘Now I have to sign an NDA to go to a Kobo event? What is this, Fight Club?’ ” he says with a laugh. “Well, when you’re David and you’re fighting Goliath, every day feels like Fight Club.”
The Goliaths of which Mr. Serbinis speaks are indeed the titans of the technology industry and present a formidable challenge for the young company. Kobo’s eReaders and digital bookstore compete with Amazon.comInc.’s Kindle reader, digital offerings from Google Inc. and, of course, the iPad and iBookstore operated by Apple. But so far, Kobo is holding its own. Since launching in December, Kobo has attracted more than a million users to its service. Each week, its applications, which run across multiple smartphones, on book publisher websites and various e-readers and tablets, are accessed from more than 200 countries. There are now more than 2.2 million digital books available in the Kobo store. Its eReaders are sold in bookstores across North America and around the world.
When the company, which is privately run and does not publish financial details, launched it had just 20 employees; by the end of this year, Kobo’s head count will be close to 200, said Mr. Serbinis, who allows that net revenue is growing at between 300% and 500% per quarter.
What separates Kobo, whose parent company, Indigo Books & Music Inc., owns 60% of the Toronto startup, from its competitors is its singular focus on digital books and digital books alone, Mr. Serbinis said in an interview.
Unlike Amazon, the company doesn’t sell physical products — except its eReaders — and its devices aren’t multi-purpose machines such as Apple iPads.
“We’re the only pure play that’s in this game and from the very beginning we’ve focused on being global, being open and being the best partner for all the device manufacturers for booksellers,” he said. “Those three things combined with the fact that the market has just exploded, that’s a recipe for massive growth and scale.”
Digital books aren’t a new business, but the increasingly popularity of smartphones, tablet devices and Web-enabled e-readers such as Sony Corp.’s Reader — all of which support Kobo’s e-book store– is beginning to prompt book lovers to think about going paperless.
Sales of electronic books are rising at such a breakneck pace that they’re beginning to take a significant bite out of traditional and self publishing revenues. Mr. Serbinis said that when the company launched, it
