What Price World Book Night?
Emily Rhodes
Last night saw the birth of something remarkable. Brainchild of legendary Canongate publisher, Jamie Byng, the inaugural World Book Night saw a million books given away across the UK.
The scheme worked like this: 20,000 ‘givers’ each gave away 48 copies of a book chosen from a list of 25 titles, pre-selected by an editorial committee. The remaining books went out to places described as ‘difficult to reach, such as prisons and hospitals’.
It is strange how such a seemingly altruistic and celebratory notion could be controversial. But objections have been raised and, aside from a great deal of irritation with logistical problems, many people are concerned about the act of giving away books for free.
In a shaky industry, in which bookshops – chains as well as independents – are closing left, right and centre, and in which publishers’ advances to authors can be slim to say the least, perhaps these concerns are understandable. One blogger suggests that the problem isn’t so much that the giveaway will lead to an erosion of book sales, but that ‘it’s another way of eroding the public’s perception of the value – and cost – of books’.
Book prices are already a contentious issue. Before 1997, a publisher decided on the price of a book – and that was, rather simply, how much that book cost. Perhaps it sounds unfair, but when the Restrictive Practices Court examined this Net Book Agreement in 1962, it declared that it was in the public interest because it allowed publishers to subsidise works by potentially important authors.
But when the Net Book Agreement was done away with in 1997, supermarkets and chain retailers began to have much more clout with the publishers, demanding higher discounts and selling books for less and less. Supermarkets can drive prices so low they will actually make a loss on books in order to profit on secondary purchases.
While this may, at first, seem beneficial for the consumer, it has meant that independent bookshops – and now even the chain stores (witness Borders’ collapse) – are priced out of the market. Unable to compete with the Internet or supermarkets on price, more and more are forced to close down. Do consumers really want high streets without shops where they can receive independent advice from experienced booksellers? Do consumers want the future of book-shopping to be either going to a supermarket or clicking away online?
Bleak dystopian visions aside, one striking effect of the end of the Net Book Agreement is the general attitude to the price of a book. Whereas people used to see the price printed on the back of the book – £7.99, for instance – and understand that that was how much it cost, now people see that price and wonder how much it costs on Amazon, or on Abe, or in Sainsbury’s. The price of any book has become variable: the Recommended Retail Price is seen by many book-buyers as not really recommended at all.
And it’s hard not to equate price with value. If people become used to thinking of paperbacks as cheap as chips (some cost even less than chips when bought online), then it is hard to make them seem worth more than that.
This isn’t a new problem. In 1894, Ruskin voiced a similar concern:
‘If public libraries were half so costly as public dinners, or books cost the tenth part of what bracelets do, even foolish men and women might sometimes suspect there was good in reading, as well as in munching and sparkling: whereas the very cheapness of literature is making even wise people forget that if a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.’
What happens when 40,000 copies of 25 books – all well-respected book-clubby titles – are given away for free? Do people think, ‘This book is so good that it’s been chosen as part of a special World Book Night initiative’? Or do they think, ‘This book is free, so it’s not really worth anything’? Or, ‘If this book is free, why can’t books be free more often?’
Several blog-commenters have pointed out that the value of the WBN books depends on how they’re given away. They say that if the books are handed out as meaningful gifts, the recipient can’t help but feel like they’ve been given something special.
True enough: when someone gives me a book that they have absolutely loved, I feel very special indeed. I feel privileged to be granted a peek inside their head; to be shown what makes them tick; to read a book that really meant something to them.
But the WBN books had already been whittled down to a Top 25. This makes the choice much less personal. And when you know that you’re a mere 1 of 48 of your friend’s friends, and that the books are all free … Well, sorry to sound like a spoilsport, but that’s hardly all that special, is it?
This is why writer Nicola Morgan’s ‘complementary’ World Book Night idea is quite so brilliant. She suggests buying a book that you’ve loved and giving it away to someone. Inside the book you could write: ‘Given in the spirit of World Book Night, March 5th 2011 and bought from [insert name of shop] – please enjoy and tell people about it.’
Buying just one book won’t break the bank, even if it’s not bought online or from a supermarket. And you may feel that this single gift, chosen just by you, given to just one person, means rather a lot more than giving away 48 copies of a pre-selected hit. Bigger doesn’t have to be better.
World Book Night is a very exciting idea – in that it is a night when people are encouraged to think about books. I hope it proves a success, and I hope we have one again next year, and in the years to come. But why does it have to be a free book giveaway? In the future, let’s make it much, much more.
Emily Rhodes writes the book blog Emily Books.
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Comments
March 6th, 2011 12:37pm
Marc Nash
'Buy one book' is the initiative The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green in London has appealed to its customers in order to save it from closure. This is the state of the book market, from publisher through to bookseller. The free market has ultimately spoken and taken a scythe to the whole industry - the author advance is a ridiculous system of remuneration, since many do not make back the advance through sales. Like the record companies of old, the publishers have been bloated, anachronistic structures as technology moves on apace.
Should writers, or any artist for that matter, be left to the mercies of the free market (boo hoo, you don't get paid much if your kindle book nets you £0.26p per sale, maybe you can't write full-time because no one is going to pay you sufficiently), or should the writer or artist expect some sort of societal investment underpinning the 'social' value of what they do? Hard to justify in an era of savage cutbacks throughout all layers of society and its public services. And I say this as a writer. Yet the free market can also produce the artificiality and barrenness of the Visual Art market, where one or two big hitters, as much investors and speculators as art mavens, can completely determine the market and manipulate it.
The wider question is what place art and artists in our society. Literature is just one part of this. Such debate of course isn't occurring in our society. Through Thatcher and Blair & Brown, very little debate is thrown open to the public, when the bottom line is always the ultimate determinant of 'value'.
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March 6th, 2011 1:43pm
Neil Taylor
Another good article on WBN. I applied to be part of it for one reason really. I work in London for a large media company and my department mainly consists of young graduates in their first or second job.
These kids have excellent academic records, but it seems more and more of them have given up on reading, if they ever did at all.
The best example is a young chap in my team, with 11 GCSEs at A* - B, 4 A grade A Levels and a first in Economics from Bath. Not only has he not read fiction since school, he tends to not watch films, as they go on too long...
He was my main target and I chose Lee Child's Killing Floor as a book I think he'll read.
The other copies I gave out to friends and colleagues, none of whom had heard of WBN, but all of whom were absolutely blown away to be given a book for free, giving some hope that books aren't as devalued as one might think.
I'm not trying to and don't disagree with any of the points raised here, but my own hope is that WBN gets people who don't read, reading and people who do read, reading more.
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March 6th, 2011 2:32pm
Michael Fowke
Giving away a million books looks like fear to me.
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March 6th, 2011 3:14pm
mario lummi
well I was a giver in world book night.I explained that this was a special event and to pass on the book once read.The book itself will be like a message in a bottle and who knows where it will end up.brilliant idea and very well received
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March 6th, 2011 3:36pm
Parrish
As a world book night giver, I agree that how the book is given matters, I had 48 copies of Cloud Atlas to give away, which I did with my daughter. After the initial suspicion that we weren't trying to sell them something the people who received our gifts & they were given as gifts with me explaining why I loved this book/author & the evos behind my gift went away with a smile. All who received a book were surprised, happy appeared to walk away with a lighter step & a gift in their hands. Also my daughter & I walked away with joy, with pride, with the realisation we had handed total strangers a new world to explore,which was all I asked.
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March 6th, 2011 3:45pm
Gail K
I was a giver and had a really good experience. I had stuck a short explanation inside each of my books explaining why I would like people to read it and then pass on either the message (about increasing knowledge of how people with autism view our world so differently and the problems that can arise from misunderstandings) or the book or both.
if people refused my offer it was usually because they had already read the book. those who took it amazed me with their gratitude and often surprised delight. they were almost thanking me for choosing them. Quite an experience! A couple of recipients even made sure that the books weren't costing me personally and I have the feeling that if they had I would have been given a donation toward the cost. I ended my time of giving thinking that I had met some lovely people whom I am pretty sure will read the book.... or at least give it to someone who will.
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March 6th, 2011 5:00pm
Jemma
I was also a WBN giver, and found the experience incredibly exhilarating and valuable. My books were given to a wide variety of people - some who read and some who don't, but all of whom intended to give it a chance and then pass it on. I see the point being made with reference to the value of books, however I believe that the best way to improve this situation is to change things and to get people more interested in reading, and hence in buying, books. When I encounter an especially moving or thought provoking book, I not only tend to immediately rush out to buy every other book by that author, but I bulk-buy copies of the book as gifts for the readers in my family. If some of those given books on this very special night react the way I do, then this can only be a good thing for the publishing / writing world and for society as a whole. Reading encourages a greater amount of empathy and understanding amongst people - something that today's society sorely lacks!
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March 6th, 2011 5:17pm
Silke Juppenlatz
It's a great idea, but 95% of the books I saw on offer for give-aways weren't something I would ever read.
Not even for free.
There is your problem. Right there, staring you in the face.
I average about 80-90 books read a year, I read fast, I read a variety of fiction and non-fiction, but if you try to shove "Literary" at me, sorry. No. To me, and to many others, "Literary" is another way of saying the book is dry, old and boring. I realize this isn't always the case, but very often it is. To me, seeing "Booker Prize Winner" on a cover is the best way of ensuring the book remains on the shelf.
At least 90% of those books are guilty of being plotless doorstops.
When I read for pleasure, I want to be entertained. What a novel (pardon the pun) concept, eh?
Perhaps the reason people aren't reading as much isn't because they don't want to read. It's because of what is on offer to read.
When I go into a bookseller, 99% of the time, they don't have what I want to read.
Oddly, in the US, I walk into Barnes and Noble -- and walk out with 6-10 books.
None of which are on sale in the UK.
That's why Amazon gets my money more often than the local bookshop. I used to travel into London, Charing Cross Road, once a month, to get my book fix.
I had to, because the stuff I wanted to read, be it science fiction, fantasy, thriller, romance, horror or numerous other genres, had such a limited, narrow-minded selection in other bookshops, I had to resort to great lengths to get what I wanted. I paid over the odds for them, too, because a lot of them were imported.
Trying to order them from Waterstones, back then, was met with raised brows and then with "We can't get it."
With E-Readers on the market, this isn't as much of an issue anymore, as books become available to download.
The publishers and the booksellers need to get out of the archaic and highbrow mindset of what they deem appropriate reading material, and publish and sell the books we want to read -- not what THEY want us to read.
And pay your authors a decent percentage, while you're at it.
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March 6th, 2011 7:22pm
Emily Rhodes
I'm very pleased to hear of some positive experiences of the night. Did anyone receive a really stonkingly good book? And how did the Big Green Bookshop fare? I hope it's had a profitable weekend. Despite working in a bookshop, I'm tempted to head up there and buy a book from them myself - chin up!
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March 6th, 2011 7:31pm
Fergus Pickering
When someone gives me a book they have absolutely loved my first feeling is one of anxiety - that I won't like it and therefore that I will be criticizing the giver. I'd rather they gave me a bottle of scotch (I know I'll like that) or some book they know that I will like. I NEVER give people books on the off chance they will like them because I do.
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March 6th, 2011 11:56pm
2trueblue
A great idea. Our books did not arrive so did not get take part. Could be adapted to suit children with random choices which they could keep, pass on or swap once they have finished it.
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March 7th, 2011 8:18am
David Chappell
I was a giver on WBN and would concur with others about the positive experience. I can see the argument on the commercial side but the objective was to generate interest in books and reading which is a challenge for publishers and retailers alike. However it is a well used technique with other products to give away samples or heavily discount. The receivers of the books will either be regular readers and buy or borrow books anyway but may have found a new genre. If they are not regular buyers of books and enjoy the book given then I cannot imagine that they will assume that free books are available every day or wait until the next WBN in the hope of receiving a free book.
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March 7th, 2011 9:17am
James
I disagree wholeheartedly with your romaticised notions of independent booksellers, as for me, the exist only in films such as Notting Hill.
The reality is that most such establsihments are owned and run by snotty, quite unhelpful people.
Moreover, you cannot write off Amazon and Abe and the like so easily. You are forgetting the thousands (if not millions) of book reviews that provide you with helpful input before making a purchasing decision - far more input, in fact, than any of your mythologised independent booksellers would be capable of.
Finally, and most importantly, if the price of books is driven down by free market forces and economies of scale, how is this not an overwhelming victory for readers? If a twee little bookseller cannot compete with these prices, this is market inefficient. If there is a class of person that enjoys the ancillary benefits of the dusty bookshop and is prepared to pay a premium for these, more power to the bookshop. If not, they have been priced out in a manner that is capitalist and fair, through a market that has evolved with technology, and if readers (such as this one) can buy and read more books at lower cost, that is an overall victory for literacy.
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March 7th, 2011 11:31am
Jerome
Surely the whole point of the give-away was to reach people who may not read regularly, to make them at least consider reading the book they've been gifted, and possibly open their eyes to the joys of reading? How could this be anything but good for the publishing industry?
We had a great time giving out the books at our local, and we were amazed at the level of gratitude that we received from people. I only hope this initiative becomes a regular thing.
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March 8th, 2011 5:00pm
Michael Green
Ok, well I spent last Saturday night driving around the towns and villages and hamlets on the Isle of Wight and got a pretty mixed reaction. Some people absolutely got the idea, and that was moment of sheer joy. It takes some courage to stop a stranger in the street, tell them that you are giving them a personal present, and admitting to them that this is a book you love. You can see their thought processes fly from fear, to scepticism, to realisation and then hopefully to pleasure. Giving a book to one of a couple was great. Some pulled up their collars and walked off murmuring that they were not interested. One woman, patronisingly put her hand on my shoulder, said 'no thanks, I have read it', and then started to tell me who I should give the book to amongst a crowd of her cronies. I wished her well and moved on, keeping my books firmly in my rucksack. I felt like I had asked a girl for a date and been publicly and humiliatingly turned down. Overall, did it work. Yes, it did. Books are special. They mean something, and if only 10% of those you choose to give a book to understand that, then this enriches all of us.
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March 15th, 2011 10:03am
Neil Taylor
OK, so an update to my initial comment (second comment on here).
One of the people I gave a copy of Killing Floor to came into work yesterday having started the book on the Friday and finishing it on Sunday afternoon.
Clutched in her hands was a copy of Die Trying, Lee Child's second novel, that she had bought from a bookshop near to Waterloo station on her way into work. She loved it and is intending to work her way through the whole series.
How successful an event would you say it is now?
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