::hides from work::

[teddog]

Because it makes me meh.

This is unnerving stuff:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060502.wdollar0502/BNStory/Business/home
I remember when the dollar was hovering around 60 cents.

So... I got bored last night and without internet and wanting to read something, I looked up a bunch of old RP logs. Read from... I think it was December 28 to the beginning of the fox misadventure (can't remember the date on that one. Mid January?). Interesting stuff, if mildly entertaining. I'd forgotten about some of the cute small things, like Lorna picking up a herd of men after walking down the beach (which grew larger with every post) and then throwing them off by giving them the number of a gay escort service. Fun stuff.

Comments

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

The loonie: yeah, though I'm actually enjoying it. I know there's been a lot of hardships on the exporter side, but one thing that's not talked about is how importers faired with a poor Canadian dollar. This article did, so yay! When I ran my bookstore, we really suffered with the low dollar. It's nice to see that come back the other way.

Oh, hey, on a nosy note: did you get out to the Mark Askwith thing? And if so, how was it?

Von

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

Nope, didn't make it out. This (http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/calendar/default.asp?eventid=480) is kicking my ass at the moment (note: logo is mine, pasted together background isn't) and I just couldn't pull myself to run out and grab tickets and then run out to the university.

I'd enjoy our low dollar if I can see the result in the marketplace. Seriously, where's my 38 cents for a dozen eggs? Or my gallon of milk for $1.50? I can get prices like that in New York state (for the record, that was at a Wegmans in Canandaigua last summer). Isn't milk going for about $5 for a 4 litre bag here?

You know more about publishing then I do, but with books alone there's the problem with everything being so much more expensive in Canada. The third Red Green book has the prices on the back as $15 US and $23 CDN. That seems extreme, since I'm fairly sure that it was printed in Canada (I think the publisher was American, though) and is a spin off from a Canadian series.

Or, for a nasty example in DVDs, early Mystery Science Theater sets. Volume 1 lists on Amazon for $26.47 US and $58.39 CDN. That's over double the price!

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

Heya,

Books: oh, I have a theory on this front. When the Canadian dollar started to really tank in the early 90s, publishers were a bit slow to respond. They were clearly losing out on margin as the dollar sank and I believe that they've been so slow to adjust to the prices because they want to earn a bit back. I think that they probably justify it from the point of view that the dollar could sag again ('course, that's not what's being predicted) but it's pretty distasteful.

Actually, there are legal concerns with this practice, too. Territorial rights being what they are, Canadian booksellers are legally forced to buy their books from Canadian rights holders (so if a book has a different publisher in the States we are barred from ordering that edition - we have to go Canadian). This changes, however, if the price point becomes extremely problematic. There are calculations and time periods and whatnot to make sure you are on correct legal footing, but the Canadian publishers will have to start correcting for price or we'll have some interesting events starting to happen in the Canadian book trade. I think!

Nice logo! :)

Von

[commanderteddog.livejournal.com]

Doesn't the barring of import sales fall back to copyright law, in that the rights holder controls what gets sold where?

Okay, another question: Is the price on the back/inside cover the suggested price (like a MSRP) or the price that it needs to be sold at, barring sales and clearance? Because, unlike food, clothing and various other examples, the price of books tends not to rise and fall so much depending on the location of the physical store. IE, you'd pay extra for groceries at Superstore in Thunder Bay compared to the Toronto Superstore and blame that on the gas needed for transport, but the prices are the same for a novel from Thunder Bay's Chapters or Toronto's Chapters. Although, the costs aren't probably as bad for a huge company buying in bulk and probably could be spread around more.

Oh gosh, too many questions. If the dollar hovers up around 90 cents, where would the pressure to change the cost of books come from? I doubt the publishers would change it on their own, and with the booksellers, Indigo probably has the biggest say in the pricing of books. Then there's us, the customers, but while we care enough to have a discussion, it might be hard to get the ball rolling with others. We could try to make a stink, though. Paying an extra 30% or so is not cool.

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

Rights: ok, I may be getting this wrong so keep that in mind. Book retailing is a unique aspect of copyright law and is fairly complex. The rights holder only purchases what are called territorial rights and can only sell the book in that particular territory. In other words, if you write a book Harper Collins may be your publisher in Canada, Random House in the States, and Little, Brown in Britain. A Canadian retailer would not be legally allowed to order your book from anyone save Harper Collins (I'm side-stepping distributors like North 49 here since it makes the discussion a wee bit more complex). Even if Harper Collins is out of stock (not out of print) on your book!

Where it gets trickier (and again, I'm not sure of the exact wording) is the fact that the price of the book (more on this in a sec) has to be within a certain percentage of the exchange rate. If it's not, a retailer can go somewhere else - they are allowed to violate territorial rights and source the book from, say, the US or the UK.

So, if your book was $17.95 US and sold for $24.95 Canadian (through Harper Collins) the book is over the current exchange rate. At some point (I'm not positive on the particulars) Canadian bookstores would be allowed to source your book through either Britain or the US instead to get a better price.

Prices: The printed price on the book is only a suggested retail price. One could actually argue that that printed price has no business being on the book since it actually acts as a default final price. It's important to note that this price is what the retailer was charged (less, of course, their discount off that price). But any retailer could sell the book for a higher or lower price than what's printed - it just never goes higher since customers would freak. So yeah, you're totally right with the pricing across Canada (barring sale prices and discounts) - books are the same price everywhere.

So, to answer your last question - the pressure to change the price of the books to reflect the correct exchange rate comes from the territorial rights agreements. If, in the example above, Harper Collins continues to sell your book at the inflated price, eventually book retailers will be able to get it from an alternative (US or UK) source. The catch right now (and my understanding is that it's a big problem) is that this hasn't happened yet - so the books are still being bought and sold at the MSRP regardless of how well the Canadian dollar is doing. That has to change, but when and to what extent is anyone's guess.

But right now publishers selling books in Canada are doing pretty damn well.

Von

[vonandmoggy.livejournal.com]

Just a quick follow-up: the bookie I want is now available on store shelves. I knew it was priced at $99.99 US but what shocked me was seeing the Canadian retail price - a whopping $160.00! What's doubly annoying is that I know that comic shops are billed in US dollars, so any Canadian retailer selling it at the printed SRP is making one helluva mark-up.

The two stores I saw it in had no info about adjusted pricing for the strong Canadian dollar. So needless to say I didn't buy it.

Grrrrr....

Von