(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Firstly er There is no longer a fixed price for books. The book clubs, the cuckoo boy who has sat down in the book industry and taken power, obviously need to get away. But neither for example the e-book shops, the e-book or the future significant gas station sales are subject to a fixed price.
Second, we need to look at what “almost the entire book industry” is all about:
The two publishers Aschehoug & Gyldendal agree face to face with their negotiating counterpart, the bookstores owned by Aschehoug and Gyldendal, on a number of conditions that will make life easier for… yes, precisely: Aschehoug and Gyldendal.
Deliver from the exception
First and foremost, they agree that the fixed price of books is absolutely necessary. After all, it is important for the Aschehoug and Gyldendal owners book clubs to have complete freedom to romp and take most of the turnover in the industry with his exception from fixed price: The book clubs have a gold-bound exclusive right to a 25 percent discount and receive conditions from publishers that no one else can dream of, while they eat the authors with a fraction of the normal fees.
Secondly, Aschehoug and Gyldendal would like to have sewn some state pillows under different body parts and theirs because it goes so badly with all their businesses except the book clubs.
Can not afford
Poor Aschehoug and Gyldendal! First, they own the publishing house. It does not receive direct government support, but has some lucrative assignments for the National Library. Still, things are going pretty bad. Then they own the Knowledge Publishing House. This fully business venture is such a pity that it gets money from both the State, Free Word and God help me also from the non-fiction writer's association, even though they are not so keen on the author fees. Then we have the so-called core publishing house. Book publications! After all, the big publishers can't afford to keep up at all. Here, too, the writers and their interest organizations must trust and help the poor poor, in addition to the state contributing with the purchase scheme and VAT exemption.
Smoke backed out
We are talking about an industry where there is so much fresh state and charitable funds pouring into the money gaps that even Røkke himself became very interested in his time. But here there was no room for another big guy! Strong owners (Aschehoug and Gyldendal) made life in the book industry so sour for Røkke that after a short time he backed out with chlorine marks all over the face.
The book industry has reached the stage of the development of capitalism where it is about doing for the greatest to exercise complete control. This does not sound like free trade, many would say, but the truth is that in every free trade advocate it hides a bitten monopolist: Capital has not come home, so to speak, until the winner has taken everything and acquired a total and suffocating monopoly. This is not something they say in their party speeches. But that's something a watchful observer can record all the time.
Give up on life
Back to the fixed price. In the bookstore, and just there, applies to the fixed price. It does not promote, however inhibitors bookstore. It is a staple on their feet, a lead-heavy link that they are terrified of losing, just as the world's slaves and oppressed have always been afraid of losing their links.
The result is experienced by book lovers every time they enter a bookstore. A small handful of booksellers in Norway are living boxing centers. The rest, 99 percent, have given up on living a meaningful life. The shops are empty and sad. Out on the floor you stumble into pallets of dozens of items that the book club owners have put on the holder. On the counter lies kiosk literature and competes with filofax, toys and napkins. Most activities are conducted from outside.
Threatened and pressed
I run a small publishing house myself, and know that today almost never occurs that a bookstore orders a single book from a small publisher if there has not been a very alert customer inside the store and almost threatened and pushed the bookstore to order the book. This customer is a very active user of the web and newspapers, and has discovered that there is an interesting book that can enrich her soul life instead of offending her intellect. Naturally, she then goes to the bookstore to buy the book. But it doesn't exist! The bookstore has not even heard of it, even though the small publisher has been bombarding the store with information for weeks.
In reality, the bookstores have been reduced to passive counter staff for the major publishers, who control them partly through ownership interests and partly through other forms of domination. The only reason the bookstores go in for a fixed price, which shoots them in the foot, is that the publishers say they should. There are many ways to say things. It is not always necessary to make it public, not even use words. The bookstore association has an office just below the publisher association and is strongly influenced by the fact that someone sits on top of them.
All makt
The publisher association is in reality owned by book club owners. Therefore, all plays from the publisher association are suspicious. Behind the hypocrisy lies brutal empire building. Cultural life is a money machine for the few, well helped by government charity. The fixed price secures the jackpot to the roughest players, while all the others stand with empty pockets and scratch their heads.
The publisher association has all defining power in the industry, and only very independent (and very small) players can speak against it. Of course, these players have zero influence. Now, however, the Competition Authority has finally opened up and pointed to unhealthy business conditions. Healthy can only be the day the bookstores can become bookstores again and also compete on price, not just on which book club books should ironically fill the book clubs' losing competitor's showcase.
