Time to boycott WH Smith over travel books?

PolishBigSpender

McAzrael wrote: »

Are you absolutley sure you're not concerned about your royalty cheque? Not even a little bit?

Of course he is. He'll be hoping that the potential bad publicity from WH Smith's move will encourage people to seek out smaller publishers, of which he stands to benefit from.

SimonVeness

Oh spare me the false dim-witted thinking. If you're happy for big corporations to rule the way you shop, don't bother reading (or trying to understand). If you care about choice, quality and a level playing field, then you'll realise I am just trying to flag up a situation which most people in the media consider highly iniquitous. Of COURSE I am worried about the long-term consequences of deals like this, as anyone in their right mind would be. Of COURSE it threatens my livelihood (and that of many other writers, researchers, publishers and book-sellers). The logical conclusion of deals like this (unless someone makes a fuss about it) is that there would ONLY be Penguin books on the shelves and the info available for people to buy (or find online) would be vastly diminished and of poorer quality because a lot of the professional working base would be lost, unable to exist on the margins that a 72% discount represents.

Or then perhaps you work for Penguin yourself and are actively involved in creating a monstrous monopoly that squeezes out some of the best people in the business?

Tojo_Ralph

SimonVeness wrote: »

Time to boycott WH Smith over travel books?

With regards to this boycott you are so vehemously calling for, can I safely assume that you yourself are boycotting WH Smiths and refusing to let them sell your books in their high street stores and via their website?
...

negg

Bookstore and publisher come up with exclusive deal that shuts out 78% of the market

Really? As a businessman myself, that sounds wrong to me. If Penguin have 22% of the market share and your publisher have 22% of the market share and a third competitor have 22% share also, that is 66% of the market - a possibility.

Do you not think that WHS will have gone to all three (maybe more) companies and put out a tender? A tender where Penguin offered them the best deal and the other companies lost out?

Do you know for a fact that your book publisher was not approached and that they went in too expensive?

I very much doubt that WHS has just gone for Penguin without looking at other possibilities first.

giovanni

Just use the internet...

disney_cjd

SimonVeness wrote: »

Here's a subject which may make a few people's blood boil (as it does mine), but WH Smith have just announced an exclusive deal with Penguin books that will ONLY sell Penguin travel guides in their 464 travel stores (airports, motorway service stations and train stations) throughout the UK. This means some of the best travel guides will NOT be available to the general public in future, so many people will be short-changed on getting the right info for their holidays. WH Smith already have a monopoly in all these prime locations (meaning no-one else can sell books there), so many holiday-goers expecting to get a choice of the best available (and thus, help ensure they get the best possible holiday), will be unknowing victims of this anti-consumer measure.

Now, I have to declare an interest in this, as the co-author of the best-selling Brit Guide to Orlando and Walt Disney World and also Disneyland Paris (which are clearly NOT Penguin titles - whose brands include the Rough Guides and information-poor Dorling Kindersley titles), hence we stand to lose some of our sales. But I do feel very strongly that this measure is both anti-competitive and anti-consumer, and I hate to think of many people buying books for their holidays which are, quite frankly, inferior to what is widely available. Under this monopoly, people will not be able to buy Lonely Planet, Frommers, Bradt, Unofficial Guide, Fodor's and other brands, all of which have some great books on different destinations. We are quite fortunate (in some ways) being the market leader for Orlando, hence we have some very loyal readers who always ask for us specifically, but there must be dozens of other books which are just as good which will simply be forced out of business and that, to my mind, is just plain wrong.

So, if you feel as I do, please join me EITHER in boycotting both WH Smiths and Penguin books, OR in going in to your nearest WH Smith travel store to ask them to stock a full range of travel titles. Then perhaps they will come to their senses and allow proper competition again.

Many thanks,

Simon Veness

Hi Simon
I am with you, what a cheek. So we can no longer buy the Brits Guide (an excellent book by the way) or the Unoffical Guide to WDW by Bob and Len at WHS?

What about Juz's family guide?

Its a shame WHS have done this deal. There are still lots of places to buy good travel books but a lot of people do pop into WH Smiths to pick one up esp when they do 3 for 2 (in fact I saw Len's book on 3 for 2 the other day there).

Cheers and good luck
Criag

KonkyWonky

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

With regards to this boycott you are so vehemously calling for, can I safely assume that you yourself are boycotting WH Smiths and refusing to let them sell your books in their high street stores and via their website?
...

Classic, and I think I know the answer to that one!!!

bagand96

Tojo_Ralph wrote:

With regards to this boycott you are so vehemously calling for, can I safely assume that you yourself are boycotting WH Smiths and refusing to let them sell your books in their high street stores and via their website?

Priceless! I also imagine Simon will be asking his publisher's to remove the link to WH Smith from his book's homepage


To Simon, out of interest, what percentage of the annual UK Travel Guide market is accounted for by sales from WH Smith stores at airports and stations?

I'd be interested to know the extent to which WH Smith are alledgedly "denying" people access...

PolishBigSpender

I wonder how WH Smith would feel if one of their suppliers was openly protesting about the company on internet forums?

SimonVeness

Hi Craig - at the moment, this exclusive deal with only Penguin titles is JUST confined to WHS Travel outlets (about 464 of them around the country), not their High Street stores. But, to my mind, they could well be testing the waters to see if they can get away with allowing one publisher a monopoly. If they can establish a precedent with a 72% discount level from a publishing behemoth like Penguin, few (if any) other publishers would be able to compete with that and it would be disastrous for the guidebook business. Happily, the UK media see it for what it is, and the deal is also being investigated by several MEPs as anti-competitive :T