Sir, – Fixed book-price practices – a feature of the book trade long shared across much of Europe – were feared to be under threat earlier this year in negotiations with the US over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
The threat, however, was taken off the table last month by the European Union’s trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, who stated unequivocally that fixed book-pricing would not be a matter of debate.
In Ireland, with the demise of the old Net Book Agreement, we have not had a fixed-price book system since the early 1990s.
Hence, when the government introduced public procurement policies, local authority public library services found themselves having to go to tender for the supply of library books, as if books were no different to quantities of road-making materials or supplies of office paper.
As a result of these new procurement procedures, a large Irish county library service found itself having to offer a substantial contract for all its fiction and non-fiction books to a UK-based company.
Under a fixed-price regime, Irish public library services would have the freedom to buy their books from a mix of local, national and foreign bookshops of their own choosing, the only criteria being which combination of bookshops might supply a library service with a diverse and quality book stock.
Independent booksellers in France and Germany greeted Ms Malmström’s decision with relief.
There have been several bookshop closures in Ireland in recent years, with many towns now having no bookshop.
To revitalise book-selling and local bookshops in Ireland, the Government should seriously consider excluding books from the public procurement system and should also look at encouraging an arrangement between publishers and retailers that establishes a (more or less) fixed price for each book sold.
In Europe fixed prices have benefitted not only independent bookshops, but also publishers. – Yours, etc,
PAT McMAHON,
Lower Salthill,
Galway.