Report by Vivienne Menkes in The Bookseller, 4/4/97
French booksellers stocking English-language titles have implemented a threatened boycott of Oxford University Press titles, after James Arnold-Baker, OUP's secretary to the delegates, refused to reverse a change in the distribution of OUP's ELT list in France (The Bookseller, 7th March).
In a letter to Paul Carpenter and Pauline Bradley of Bradleys Bookshop in Bordeaux*, organisers of a protest letter signed by representatives of 36 outlets, Mr Arnold-Baker said that the contract of exclusivity signed with the Societe Internationale de Diffusion et d'Edition (SIDE), applicable from 1st April, committed OUP for several years. "Even if we wished to do so, we could not reconsider our distribution arrangements for France for the foreseeable future," he added.
This reply has dismayed the booksellers. "Mr Arnold-Baker has chosen to ignore our concerns," Paul Carpenter told The Bookseller. "This initiative threatens the livelihood of many people who have helped them to expand Oxford's sales in France." Anne Warter, m.d. of Paris wholesaler and retailer NQL International, was equally dismayed. "After a quarter of a century of close collaboration with OUP, working really hard to step up sales of Oxford titles in France, I am extremely disappointed to be fobbed off with a few lines couched in such stiff and stilted terms."
Mr Carpenter insisted that the response to their petition would only strengthen the booksellers' resolve. A meeting is already scheduled for 21st April in Paris, when an association of sellers of British books is to be formed to defend their common interests. Also on the agenda is a joint refusal to cooperate in any way with OUP's Paris office, "in view of its close association with SIDE". The boycott applies not only to ELT materials, but to academic, reference and general titles. According to Mr Carpenter, "massive" returns have already been made. "Many booksellers have cleared their shelves of all but the few ELT courses that they are obliged, for the time being, to stock."
The spread of the dispute is causing concern in other OUP departments. "We are very alarmed by this development and by the fact that French booksellers are so upset by OUP's decision on ELT distribution. We hope that they won't carry out their threat to boycott Oxford books," said Simon Wratten, sales director of the academic division. Pointing out that OUP's academic, trade and paperback titles are widely distributed in France, he said: "Customers are bound to suffer if they are not available. Neither we, nor, I suspect, the booksellers, want that to happen." Describing himself as "no expert" on the ELT Division's decision, he nevertheless stressed that "exclusive distribution is the norm rather than the exception in most other European countries. In all those countries the academic list continues to be distributed direct to both retail and wholesale accounts. He claimed that the two systems "coexist quite happily", and insisted that no change was envisaged to the distribution of academic titles. "We certainly intend direct distribution to remain the way we deal with the French market for many years to come," he said.
But the booksellers continue to believe that the decision is short sighted. "We may suffer now," said Mr Carpenter, "but I'm sure that the big loser in the end will be OUP."
* Their full address is Bradley's Bookshop, 8 Cours d'Albret, 33000 Bordeaux, France.
Click for French booksellers take OUP to EC report by Vivienne Menkes, 21/8/98.
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