Fixed Price

A suggestion of a comment by Leroy Gutierrez previous post, I looked at the articles Letras Libres The beginnings of a collection, counting Panorama source of narratives (with the usual reference to the miracle Kennedy Toole), and Mark editorial and password, which advocates the importance of independent publishers (which will be discussed in a future post), both of Jorge Herralde, founder and director of Anagram. The two I found interesting and I recommend it. However, while searching for the random items I took in the same journal found three others, one's own and two always Herralde Gabriel Zaid keen on fixed book prices in Mexico, from the proposed law, discussed and accepted in Congress, and later, in the term-limit vetoed by President Fox, shortly before leaving his government last year, and found it interesting to bring up the subject.The fixed price for the book, as Herralde notes in his article, is a proposal that was born in France under the leadership of Jérôme Lindon in the seventies, which culminated in the call Lang Act, in force in that country since 1981 . Is to eliminate self regulating book prices by the market, allowing the state to the editor to set a single price for each of their titles, which is to be paid by buyers at any point of sale state that secures the law, regardless of the discount that the publisher to bookstores. This eliminates the possibility that they will compete for the price of the books, which favors the existence of small bookstores, which, in turn, benefits the publishers, who have as much exhibition space and therefore -most likely-generate greater sales volume which may gradually reduce their prices without reducing profits (unlike, increasing them in so far as sales volume grows), ultimately benefiting the consumer, who will have more libraries and minor prices to choose from. This, of course, in the best case and in a medium or long term or. For critics of the fixed price, however, it is an attack on consumers, which allows publishers to shoot their prices with the consent of the states.In Latin America, two of the three major markets of the book: Brazil and Argentina, have a fixed price, the other big market, Mexico, was about to have it. In the first of two articles on the subject Zaid, called Libraries and fixed price, and published in August 2005 (when the law was a proposal), Zaid A brief history of the price of the book in Mexico, ranging from a old fixed-price no-through regulations, with low turnover in bookstores, through Spanish dumping, the price volatility and the disappearance of bookstores and, therefore, the hardening of the business. Zaid hopeful concludes the passage of the bill, which would allow "the desert green again." But the law was passed and Zaid himself published in the same journal article Towards a country without libraries, in December 2006 (when he had vetoed the fixed price), in which a diagnosis fierce current state reading in Mexico and the consequences of not having a fixed price policy (applicable, otherwise many Latin American countries).The debate, which in many of our countries has not even generated-is very important and should be on the agenda of all Chambers Book and guilds and associations of editors. For now, (re) put the issue on the table and invite you to review the number devoted to the theme of the book Think magazine, CERLALC, in August 2006.