Did paper prices triple in the UK?

[Barcey]

I saw this article on the Bookseller about resellers complaining about the increase in hardcover books.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/re...s-pricing.html

After reading repeatably about how paper and binding costs are "insignificant" I was struck by the publisher's comment...

"Where we can, we absorb additional costs without passing them on. However, the substantial rise in the cost of paper this year has forced us to increase some of our prices by around 5%–6%."

If all the paper related costs are so insignificant and there's hardly any difference in the cost between producing a paperback versus a hard cover I had to assume the raw material cost increase must be enormous. It must have increased by 300%. I started to panic about what this was going to mean to the price of toilette paper so I did a quick search on the internet and all I could find was paper price increases between 5% and 8%. I'm starting to think that the publishers aren't being totally honest with us.

[Valkrider]

Originally Posted by Barcey

I'm starting to think that the publishers aren't being totally honest with us.

Really they will use any excuse to keep their revenues now ebooks are biting into their profits.

[sunnysmiles]

Some publishers are plain greedy and I work for a book shop. Can you justify £80.00 for a small hardback book and they give you as littlle as 20 % discount because its academic .

[Leyor]

It's a standard business tactic in all markets. It works best in markets where the users aren't very discriminate or have few other options.

I remember last year in my country, grain prices went up, prices on grain and bread went up. When later the grain prices fell drastically worldwide, incidentially the bread prices stayed the same.

Another standard tactic is defending the reduction once prices drops with things like "we use higher quality paper than other publishers, therefore we're unfortunately not affected by the drop in paper prices".

In the end you can only make them drop their prices by punishing them for the increases and shop elsewhere until its dropped.

[harold1066]

Yes prices in the UK did increase by quite a lot. The problem is there are no paper mills in the UK anymore, so all paper has to be imported.

I work in a printers and this has had a big effect on us.

[J. Strnad]

Originally Posted by harold1066

Yes prices in the UK did increase by quite a lot. The problem is there are no paper mills in the UK anymore, so all paper has to be imported.

I work in a printers and this has had a big effect on us.

But publishers want it both ways. When printing costs go up, they use that as an excuse to raise prices. When printing costs disappear (along with shipping and returns) as they do with ebooks, they portray those costs as "insignificant."

The real price savings to readers will come when publishers disappear.

Oh, wait. For many of us, they already have.

[harold1066]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

But publishers want it both ways. When printing costs go up, they use that as an excuse to raise prices. When printing costs disappear (along with shipping and returns) as they do with ebooks, they portray those costs as "insignificant."

The real price savings to readers will come when publishers disappear.

Oh, wait. For many of us, they already have.

Its true the publishers are the biggest problem, in the past 18 months we have seen our self-publish printing increase 3-fold

[elcreative]

Doesn't it depend on the number of sales likely and the amount of effort used by the author to decide facts like this... I mean if you invest two years of work into producing a book that is only going to sell 100 copies in a very specialised market then you either get virtually nothing or charge as high as the need for the book can justify...

Originally Posted by sunnysmiles

Some publishers are plain greedy and I work for a book shop. Can you justify £80.00 for a small hardback book and they give you as littlle as 20 % discount because its academic .

[sunnysmiles]

We stopped printing in the UK and now do all our printing in Turkey . Its very efficient quicker and cheaper than UK. We are a small publisher and bookseller of specialist books .
Many of the printers we used to deal with in Uk have closed down .

[Rainmaker]

You have to understand that there isn't a real connection between "raw prime material" and "final product". Take a look at any produced material. (lets say bread).
The baker has to pay his employees, he has to pay for the flour, he has to pay the bills for the shop, he has to pay for the gas or electricity for the oven.
The 5% increase in flour (cereal based products usually) isn't related that the bread price went up a 50%. Specially during inflationary economies, where all "Costs factors" tend to increase simultaneously; so is flour goes up by 10%, energy costst 5%, renting goes up by 15%; it doesn't necessarily mean that bread will cost 30% more, it could go even as 100%.

[speakingtohe]

Pricing in today's global economy does not usually follow any rules. I can buy a 10 lb. weight in Canada manufactured in China for 9.99 at a high priced retail chain. This item has passed through many levels of retail markup and shipping costs. I can't send a 3 oz. item to my next door neighbour for 9.99.

Book publishers are probably thinking that if these people will pay the same or higher prices for ebooks than physical books than they can get more for physical books.

[Leyor]

Right now the book market is evolving,

Readers are buying an increased number of ebooks, and some publishers are worried physical book sales will drop. Agents like Amazon are excerting an increasing influence over the prices the publishers are allowed to demand. Etc.

Through history when this has happened, sucessfull businesses change their market models, and unsuccessfull businesses raise their prices.

[Hellmark]

Also, to somewhat defend the publishers, with ebooks biting into paperbook sales, certain costs aren't as easy to spread out. For instance, shipping for them is often done by cargotruck, and if fewer books are being sent on each truck, then each book has to cover a larger portion of the cost for that.

That said, most of the shit they pull is BS.

[Leyor]

There's a big amount of savings though, beyond the obvious production cost savings (and yes, its alot cheaper to produce a digital book than a physical one),

First of all, fewer books also means fewer trucks Secondly, there's a big savings on storage space. Publishers no longer have to store books at warehouses, if the book is in low or unknown demand.Small publishers who can now operate without large overheads and large publishers can now cost effectively sell their backlisted items (took this bit from wikipedia).

[carpetmojo]

Surely it is obvious "academic" books will be dearer than "normal" books, simply because they are almost certainly aimed at a specialist end-market, with relatively small numbers, and probably have a limited shelf-life, particularly in a research/theory heavy subject. Costs must be higher all round, surely.
And a writer has to be assured of the chance of a viable return if it's going to take, say, a couple of years work.
Biographies must be a good example, lots of research/travel/sweat/blood/ tears - and then you have to hope someone's going to publish it and someone else buy it !