BOOK TRADE IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26633, 19 January 1952, Page 3

BOOK TRADE IN BRITAIN

CRITICAL YEAR AHEAD [An article from the “Sunday Times", by its Literary Editor, LEONARD RUSSELL.] A critical year lies ahead for the book trade; the price of books must go up, a new paper shortage is here, costs of every kind show an inexorable rise. Whether the i.ew selling prices will touch the 50 per cent, increase mentioned by the Publishers’ Association in their recent advice to librarians and education authorities is hard to say. A rise of 25 per cent, may prove nearer the mark, at any rate for the greater part of 1952. And the old year? It has marked what may prove the end of a publishing chapter by breaking all previous book production records. Figures given in the “Bookseller” show that 18,066 titles appeared in 1951—13.128 new works and 4938 reprints and new editions. Up to now the year 1937, when pre-war production was at its peak, held the record. But 1951 passed its figures by 929 books and that of 1950 by nearly a -thousand.

Last year saw increases over 1950 in works of fiction (though this category fell 1226 short of 1937's all-time record of 5097), education, technical publishing. art and architecture, topography, trade, law and parliamentary, and biography. Children’s books dropped considerably. On this busy but not necessarily healthy note ends, it may be, a phase of post-war publishing. The signs and portents tell a different tale now, and one would hazard the guess that 1952 will see a spectacular fall from the present rate of 1500 or so books a month. It is significant, for one thing, that many printers are canvassing for work, after a decade of having it pressed upon them. The paper shortage is a major problem. World demand for wood pulp has greatly increased since it has been used for many new purposes, including ever more elaborate packaging; and Scandinavian suppliers who can sell to the American market for' dollars are not likely to reduce their prices to us. Because of this unremitting demand for wood pulp, the supply of esparto grass from North Africa normally reserved for book publishing has been “raided”—publishers of periodicals, for example,' have been using esparto-grass paper instead of wood-pulp.

And the price goes up. Esparto-grass paper cost £Bl 16s 3d a ton in April. 1950, and £164 10s in July, 1951 —six times its pre-war price. Now a new export tax of £l6 a ton has been announced by the French Government. Publishers have shown great reluctance to raise the price of books, and have in fact been subsidising current publications from their no more than normal profits on old stock. But now that they have no option they are not at all inclined to greet the unseen with a tear. Many of them believe that the bookseller will meet with only a very brief resistance to higher prices. The subscription libraries have their problem in turn, for dearer books must lead to increased subscriptions. One very important library is introducing a new higher rate to cover novels priced up to 15s, and non-fiction works up to 30s. It will operate in addition to the present ordinary subscription rate, which guarantees books priced up to only 10s 6d and 21s respectively.