As the Canadian dollar picks up against its U.S. counterpart, retailers and readers are noticing there is still quite a difference between the Canadian and American list prices on books.

Publishers set the prices and print them on new books, often months or more than a year before books hit the shelves.

But Steve Budnarchuk, past president of the Canadian Booksellers Association, said Wednesday that ongoing negotiations between publishers and booksellers over the past year are starting to result in lower prices on new books.

Books coming into Canadian stores last fall and winter were about 25 per cent above the U.S. list price, Budnarchuk said, which was acceptable, given the exchange rate at the time. With a strengthening dollar, he said, he's expecting to see lower prices this fall.

"We'd like to see a price point of no more than 20 per cent above U.S. list, in order to be fair, and to have the consumer be able to accept the pricing," Budnarchuk said.

Neil Murphy, a spokesperson for Indigo Books and Music, Inc., said the company has also been working with publishers over the past year to amend the prices of some books.

"When we have a firm concession [from the publishers], and when we have firm discounts, we will take immediate action to pass those on to our customers in the most meaningful way possible," Murphy said, adding that the company does offer ongoing discounts and promotional programs.

Comic book retailer sells using U.S. sticker price

And for the almost three years now, Toronto-based comic-book retailer Silver Snail has bypassed the issue by selling new comics and books from Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image comics publishers at the American cover prices.

'Canadian prices [on comic books] were always ridiculously, three or four dollars above what the American price is.'—Michael Dillon

While the American comic-book prices are adjusted from month to month, those companies haven't been paying attention to the rising Canadian dollar, said Silver Snail buyer Michael Dillon.

"Their Canadian prices were always ridiculously three or four dollars above what the American price is. We thought it just made more sense money-wise to just sell at the American [price]."

There may be alternate solutions to the book and comic-book pricing differential, but industry-wide discussions and agreements would have to take place to change the system.

The Canadian Booksellers Association has said it's willing to ask for "invoice-level price adjustments."

Proposal would see sellers with power to adjust prices

"Just tell us what the price will be, we'll sticker … I'd like to think that we're prepared to re-price books as the prices drop, but ultimately they are waiting for the publishers to reset the prices of the books," Budnarchuk said.

Budnarchuk suggested that removing cover pricing from books and having retailers apply the Canadian prices themselves as they do in other industries could solve the problem.

"As the dollar rises and falls, you can adjust [the prices] more quickly … we'd be happy to see prices improve for the consumer, even if means more labour for us to cover sticker books," Budnarchuk said.
  
Sales of periodicals and other printed matter grew by $25.8 million in 2006 to $2.8 billion in 2006, with $7.61 of every $10 in culture goods imported by Canadians from the United States being spent on writing and published works.