In the UK, mass market paperback costs are growing more expensive, just like their American counterparts (those “upperbacks” or whatever you want to call them? A great way to get customers to fork over more cash for a mass market paperback…too bad it’s only working partially well.) But when Asda, one of the heavyweight supermarket chains, says that 7.99 or 8.99 is too expensive, the industry has to listen…maybe.
According to The Bookseller, Asda books buyer Steph Bateson said she was “concerned that prices were sneaking up”, and that £7.99 for a paperback was often too much. The supermarket’s two-for-£7 chart offer is ongoing. “For non-fiction [£7.99] might be fine, but chick lit shouldn’t be £7.99. We want to offer a good price to our customers and if a paperback is £7.99 it is difficult to put in our chart. We will often tell publishers we are not going to buy something.”
As a result, Asda declined to stock recent paperback releases priced £8.99, including Robert Jordan‘s KNIFE OF DREAMS. Defending the move, George Walkley, business manager of Orbit/Atom, said: “Robert Jordan’s book is well over 800 pages and we are pricing in line with the market. We try to keep competitive…but in some cases a paperback will justify a higher price.”