Published on September 21st
Hot on the heels of the announcement that Waterstones (owned by HMV) is limiting its buying policy to a central decision on 350 titles and cutting down on stocking picturebooks, came the worse news that the management buy-out proposed for Ottakar's by Managing Director James Heneage and two colleagues might be trumped by a higher bid from HMV themselves. If successful it would give the parent company of both chains 24.6% of the market, a recipe for pushing for even greater discounts from publishers.
Or just as bad, even more influence over what gets published. It's not hard to imagine publishers routinely showing draft manuscripts and outlines to buyers and using their reactions to decide what gets published, particularly in the field of picturebooks.
I wonder if the Ottakar's situation has anything to do with its øweak salesÓ of Harry Potter 6 (reviewed in this issue). These turn out to be øonlyÓ 70,000 on the first day, representing 3.5% market share.
Ottakar's sold it at £11.99. Tesco was selling it at £7.95 instead of £16.99 and claimed 20% of market share in the first week. But Amazon.co.uk, who sold 400,00 in pre-orders alone priced it at £8.99. Kwik-Save made it so cheap at £4.99 that doubtless some independents were tempted to get their stock from there. The average selling price across the board was £9.49. (Source for all figures: Bookseller 29 July 05)
Labour MP, Lynne Jones tabled an Early Day Motion, supported by eleven others calling on publishers and øbestselling authors such as J.K. RowlingÓ [sic] to bring a halt to øextreme discounting.Ó She was thinking of the disadvantage to independent booksellers and quite rightly, but what of the writers and illustrators?
I shall be writing to her and James Heneage of Ottakar's, if he is still in power, who was speaking of writing to authors øTo provoke a debateÓ about such issues. I have news for you, James: the debate has begun. See a brief report on my press campaign in the news section.
And if all this seems trivial in the light of recent events, do read the feature øTaking the High Ground,Ó with information about how schools can get involved in tsunami relief.
~ Mary Hoffman