I don't know if anyone else has read Philip Pullman's article in today's Guardian, but I thought it might be of interest to many writers here.

There's some talk of doing away with the RRP (Reccommended Retail Price) on books and instead allowing individual retailers to set the price themselves. The problem with this, as Pullamn points out, is that with all the discounting that goes on at the moment, you would lose your point of reference as to what's the best deal; both for the author and the consumer.

As an author's royalties are based on a percentage of the RRP a new system of payment would have to be arranged; one that would probably leave the author worse off financially.

Pullman explains it much better than me, (with an interesting egg analogy), so if anyone's interested take a look at the article. It's in today's picks on the top left of the homepage at

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Katie

Interesting article, Katie. And rather worrying. We'll have to keep an eye on that.

Are you going to the London Book Fair next week? There might be more info about this there...

Dee.

This paves the way for 'hip' books and must haves to be excessively priced. JK Rowling will throw her head back and cackle like a dog when she hears her next book will be selling for more than twice the price of her last.

I think it is inevitable that RRP will go.
The forerunner was Retail Price Maintenance that was outlawed many moons ago. The most recent target has been in the Pharmacy field.

This may hit the returns of the successful Author but will probably mean a reduction in price of the average book - hopefully this will mean higher sales.

The main impact is likely to be that the most popular books will become 'more important' in Supermarket merchandising, putting the independent booksellers under increased pressure and forcing more closures of the small bookseller.

Where does all this lead the Author? Don't worry about it... just concentrate on become a real 'best-seller Writer' for everything is changing all the time.

Len