Over dinner, Matt (who ate the reindeer), Thomas, Mari, a chap called Raymond from Spartacus Publishing and myself chatted about all manner of things, but the Norwegian book world was a popular topic.
In Norway they still have an element of price fixing which we lost in the UK when the Net Book Agreement was scrapped. I can only assume that it still exists in Norway because they aren't part of the EU. Bookshops are limited when it comes to discounting new books. They can only discount them by 12.5% between publication and May the following year. After that it is a free for all. What would it be like if we had that system over here? Discuss.
That in itself is interesting enough when compared to the UK but in Norway the three largest publishers also own the largest book chains. Blimey. Imagine if Penguin or Random House owned Waterstone's. Stranger things have happened. EMI used to own HMV, after all.
The other fascinating nugget was the amount of English language books that sell in Norway. As most Norwegians speak very good English a decent percentage of them prefer to read our books in the original language. Puts us all to shame really. This is so common that when a Norwegian publisher brings a UK author over for a promotional visit they often see the English language version sell just as well - a version they make no money from!
Apologies if all of the above is a bit trainspottery but the publishing types among you might be interested.
For the rest I can report that Matt gave me some of his reindeer and it was delicious. I can also divulge that having set out from my house a six in the morning I called it a day at about half eight and was off to my hotel for some much needed shut eye.
A day of schmoozing and sightseeing awaited on Friday.
Don't forget that WHSmith used to own Hodder Headline, so although this is a bit back to front, the experiment of 'vertical integration' (don't you love the business b0llocks jargon) has been tried here.
Posted by: Chris | April 01, 2009 at 05:20 PM
I had elk at my Norwegian friend's last year. Before going over to her house she warned me: No crying over Bambi. I am not a big meat-eater but it was delicious.
Posted by: nmj | April 04, 2009 at 12:31 PM