I have written several books, translated many more, and keep more than 3,000 books stacked at home by a rough count. Yet it would be embarrassing to call myself a publishing expert. So I want to speak strictly from a consumer's perspective. The fixed book price policy is a failed system. Far from achieving its original goal of saving small neighborhood bookstores, it is producing the opposite effect.
It has been nearly 10 years since I settled in my current neighborhood in search of a cheap jeonse (a Korean lease system requiring a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent). This area is full of so-called "hip" shops and "neighborhood bookstores." Within a 1-kilometer radius of my home, there are more than 10 places calling themselves "small bookshops" by my count, and another one opened about two months ago.
But I do not use neighborhood bookstores. The books that might interest me have either already been bought or were never likely to be in such small stores in the first place — but that is not the only reason. Even if I spotted an eye-catching book on a display, I am certain I would not buy it at a neighborhood bookstore. Whether I buy it here or at an online bookstore, the price is the same, or the online bookstore is clearly cheaper.
Let us briefly examine the "new fixed book price policy," in effect since 2014. It limits the maximum discount on all books, whether backlist or new releases, to 10 percent of the list price. Economic benefits that may be offered separately from discounts are limited to 5 percent. Whether a large bookstore or a neighborhood bookshop, businesses selling publications — that is, books — cannot offer discounts greater than 10 percent of the list price, nor provide gifts or mileage exceeding 5 percent.
The logic of those who proposed and pushed the new fixed book price policy goes like this. Without such restrictions, large bookstores and online bookstores would sell books at prices far below the list price, because they have the capital to do so. Small bookstores, by contrast, lack the capital to compete in discount wars with large bookstores. So if book prices are fixed, small bookstores will gain competitiveness too.
At first glance, it seems plausible. But it is far removed from reality. This is now an age of same-day delivery, where most books ordered today arrive tomorrow. Just by waiting one night, I can get a 10 percent discount on the online bookstore account I have long used, and even accumulate mileage. Why would I buy a book at a neighborhood bookstore, sacrificing mileage and even at a lower discount rate — in other words, paying more?
Of course, there are surely some who deliberately pay more for a book because of the "sensibility" thought to be offered only by neighborhood bookstores. But such cases are few. Most consumers check the book at a neighborhood bookstore and buy it online. Not a few simply take a "sensibility shot" or two for Instagram and leave. This is why many neighborhood bookstores have no choice but to generate revenue from renting out space rather than selling books.
The fixed book price policy, far from protecting neighborhood bookstores, threatens them all the more. Book prices soar by the day. Publishers, weighed down by inventory burdens, keep reducing print runs and then quickly take even those out of print. In a world already overflowing with things to watch and enjoy, the number of people who read books keeps dwindling. The fixed book price policy cannot be something that protects neighborhood bookstores. For whom, exactly, is this fixed book price policy?
