Book Cost Claim Deceptive?

Claims by bookseller Dymocks about UK and Australian prices for Tim Winton's award-winning book Breath are deceptive, say Australian book publishers. The CEO of the Australian Publishers Association, Maree McCaskill, was responding to a news release today from the CEO of Dymocks, Don Grover. She said Mr Grover had claimed that Winton's Miles Franklin Award-winning novel was more than 30% cheaper to buy from a UK website than from Australian bookshops because of Australia's book copyright rules.

"Mr Grover quotes the UK website price for Breath as equivalent to A$14.70, including delivery, and compares this with an Australian recommended retail price of $25 and an unattributed discounted price of $19," Ms McCaskill said. "What he fails to mention is that the same title is for sale in Australia at BigW for $16.21, which minus GST (there is no VAT on books in the UK), is a few cents more than the UK website price. BigW is a member, with Dymocks, of the so-called Coalition for Cheaper Books. If Dymocks wanted to, it could sell the same book for the same price. In fact, it is selling the book online for $24.95, plus $5.50 delivery. The fact that Dymocks is not selling it for the same price as BigW and the UK website says more about the Dymocks business model than copyright rules for books. It appears the Coalition for Cheaper Books is really the Coalition for Bigger Retail Profits," Ms McCaskill said.