The Guardian, renowned Britain-based daily, recently unveiled that more than 100 small bookshops in the UK are joining forces and forming an ‘alliance’ to face the practices of some of large chain publishing houses, which not only deprive them of good prices; they also deny them sufficient number of copies to meet growing demand.
The decision came after one of the largest chain publishing houses Waterstones, distributed the 5,000-copy edition of Philip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage exclusively to its branches, and the smaller bookstores missed a business opportunity, thereby losing the chance they would otherwise have to profit from sales.
The move aims to enable small bookstores, also known as ‘independent bookshops’, in the UK to negotiate better prices and few exclusive bookselling right. It will also increase sales that will support bookshops and enable them to compete with electronic stores in the publishing market.