After experiencing remarkable growth in recent years, Quebec publishing is stabilizing and renewing with new challenges. Eco-responsibility, increased fees, accessibility, points of sale, this series of texts focuses on several of these challenges that the book industry is preparing to meet. First look.
It seemed to escape inflation and the evolution of the cost of living. The price of books here has long been surprisingly stable. To the point where publishers liked to repeat, in jest, that “we still sell our books at the same price as in 1984”! But the impacts of the pandemic, hard and costly, put an end to this lull for readers’ wallets. The price of new national editions has increased by 21% from 2016 to 2022, according to Gaspard.
The average price of the Quebec book has increased by 12.8% from 2017 to 2022, still according to Gaspard. This rate also includes “in-depth” books, those long-term books that continue to find readers even after they leave the new release shelves. For foreign publishing, this increase is 7.3%.
The fastest growth can be seen in the evolution of the price of new titles in foreign editions, which rose by 24.5% from 2016 to 2022. “Yes, we have increased the selling prices a little. Not stratospherically, but $1 on a title here, $2 there,” confirms Judith Landry, General Manager, Publishing, Book Sector, at Quebecor, which has 18 different publishing houses, including Éditions de l’Homme, Stanké, Trécarré, l’Hexagone and Libre Expression.
It is the color cookbooks that have experienced the most solid increase at the editions headed by Mme Landry. “They went from an average price of $35 to $40. But considering that everything has increased and that we are in a great global inflation, readers are not surprised. »
At Leméac editions, we also increased the prices a tad. Pierre Filion, managing director and editor, explains that the house, which has a large fund, including several still-living classics, changes prices during reprints — that is, when a new print run is required because all copies have been sold.
“We reprint The sisters-in-law by Michel Tremblay or Area of Marcel Dubé every two or three years. We will then increase the price by $1 or $1.50. We do a little catching up like that, not complete, but to recover a little. You can’t increase the price of a book by 20% all at once,” says the publisher.
Paper money
It is the increase in book production costs that forces publishers to adjust book prices. An increase that affects labor costs — editors, revisers, graphic designers, employees. Transport. Printing. And, above all, paper, very stiff.
“I’ve been working in publishing for 50 years,” says Pierre Filion. Before, the paper accounted for perhaps 20 to 22% of the cost of the book. Now it’s 30-35%. It’s a big step forward. »
Since 2020, “it has been incessant, says Mme Landry. We kept receiving notices of increases in the price of paper. We were very touched at home, especially at Éditions de l’Homme, where we do a lot of color printing. »
Pierre Filion illustrates this with an example from his collection of Quebec youth novels, the first printing of which was made in February 2021. “We made the last reprint in September 2022. Between the two, there is 22% of increase. It’s quite a gap between a print and a reprint, in a very short time. I can’t, within a year, raise the price of a book by a piasse all of a sudden. »
A pocket of money
All publishers interviewed by The duty believe that there are psychological price thresholds that the reader is not ready to exceed, depending on the type of book. Thresholds that they evaluate through market research, with experience, according to the number of pages, according to the cover, rigid or not, and the use of color or black and white.
“I’ve been in publishing for more than 30 years and I know that such and such a book aimed at an X clientele has been selling for $24.95 for ages,” laughs Jean Paré, General Manager at Saint- John editor. “There, we added $1 or $2 here and there, otherwise it doesn’t hold water. We needed to switch to a more viable price zone. »
“We must also remember that alongside Quebec novels whose price hovers between $25 and $30, we see an industrial landing of French novels each season, which can easily sell for up to $45,” adds Mr. Paré. .
The psychological threshold of the price would be less elastic for the children’s book, according to Thomas Campbell, of the Héritage editions, who spoke about it during the last Interprofessional meeting of the book sector. “We are looking for ways to adjust the containers, without it becoming cheap, he said then on the stage, because the customer does not think of the difficulties which the editors live. At home, for example, we tried a pocket format, Frissons, as soon as the large format was sold out. »
Historically, paperbacks were only offered to books with a certain longevity, which had passed the test of several reprints and remained popular. This explains why “the authors are always happy to be told that they pass in pocket”, specifies Mr. Campbell. While it was previously a guarantee of large or long sales, the passage in the pocket is now done for the sake of economy.
Other strategies are designed and tested to counter this pressure exerted by production costs. “We try to innovate by finding new formats,” says Judith Landry. Or by reducing pagination. We don’t skimp on quality, but, yes, we are looking to see if our books can have fewer pages. »
Back to the prices of the future
Is it true that book prices have remained the same since the 1980s? Yes and no, answers Mireille Laforce, director of legal deposit at the Library and National Archives of Quebec. In 1986, the average price of trade edition publications was $21.38. In 1990 it was $29.47. In 2000, $26.46.
In 2020, the latest statistics recorded by Legal Deposit, the average price of books was $29.07 (this time including all categories, not just commercial publishing). More than in 1986, therefore. But if we calculate inflation, with the tool of the Bank of Canada, since 1986, then the Quebec pound should sell today for $51.50. We are far from it.