Madam, - In Kitty Holland's report of June 23rd on the price discounting of the latest Harry Potter book a spokesman for the Consumers' Association, Dermot Jewell, is quoted as saying that the discrepant prices at which it is being sold in different outlets is a "classic example of the enormous profit margins" in the publishing trade here.
Well, whatever it may be, it is not an example of that. Publishers here and in Britain issue books with a recommended retail price. They then sell these books to the wholesale and retail book trade at a discount calculated as a percentage of that price. The actual retail price depends on the mark-up that different shops then apply. Variations in price reflect the imperatives of bookselling, not of publishing. One might have expected the Consumers' Association to make this elementary distinction. - Yours, etc.,
FERGAL TOBIN, President, CLÉ/Irish Book Publishers' Association, Dublin 2.