Literacy begins at home
Sir: Brian Alderson is right to draw attention to Britain's 'ailing bookshops,' to the prevalence of more profitable sales lines in many of these, mid to the lack of such outlets in many towns (SPECTA. 70R, 2 June). Books, after all, can be borrowed free, unlike handbags and paper-clips. On the same day as Mr Alderson's article appeared, a letter from Miss Christina Foyle appeared in The Times, making much the same point, and drawing attention to the crippling effect of Selective Employment Tax on many booksellers.
Few people are probably aware that this tax, through one of its more curious quirks, is levied twice on most books. Book publishers, like news- raper and periodical publishers, appear in the sic aS 'manufacturers.' The criterion in practice, though, was the existence in the same 'establishment' of printing plant. Whereas some newspapers qualified, others, like the Observer, didn't The Government rightly recognised that discrimination of this kind between manufacturers in direct competition with each other would be harmful (their word), and exempted newspapers and periodicals which had not originally qualified from the tax. But many book publishers, against whom the tax discrimin- ates in exactly the same way, were left to bear its full burden, and the Government has so far refused to rectify this anomalous situation. What exactly does it hope to achieve? A shake-out of publishers into the printing industry to produce fewer books from fewer publishers to sell through fewer book- shops? In the export field, book publishers account for almost twice as much as newspapers, periodicals and general printing put together.
The primary function of book publishers is to publish books, which does not necessarily involve printing them, and one book publisher competes against another in exactly the same way as one ngwspaper competes against another. It is the pub- lishers who finance books, edit, design, promote and export them, not the printers. Publishers are as vital a cog as any other in this particular manu- facturing wheel.
Jill Mortimer ne Publishers Association, 19 Bedford Square, London WC1
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