Average Book Prices '98
By Lillian N. Gerhardt, Editor-in-Chief -- School Library Journal, 3/1/1998
| Children's & YA BooksAverage List Prices | ||
| 1988 | 1998 | |
| All titles | $13.15 | $15.99 |
| Preschool/Primary | $13.41 | $15.80 |
| Grades 3-6 | $12.94 | $16.03 |
| Junior High | $13.36 | $16.14 |
The box above is a snapshot of what's happened over the last 10 years with the publishers' suggested list prices for new, general trade books in library or reinforced bindings. The average suggested price of a new book for young readers rose by $2.84.
The per pupil allocation for library books would have had to rise by about 30¢ per pupil every year for the last 10 years -- just to run in place. School Library Journal's national survey of expenditures for all resources in school libraries for fiscal year 1995-1996 (SLJ, October 1997, p. 28) showed the median allocation per pupil for library books to be a mere $6.73, and that school library book budgets have generally remained static since 1994.
Last year on this page, I predicted that the 1998 average list price for all grade levels would go to $16 and beyond and take no satisfaction at all in coming within a penny of that forecast with this year's survey of the spring '98 catalogs. The big bounce in average suggested prices has crept up on the student population bulge. Last year, new titles aimed at grades 3-6 were listed at a suggested average price of $15.81 -- now up by 22¢. In 1997, that average for junior high titles was $15.75 -- now up by 39¢.
Gary Ink, Research Librarian at Publishers Weekly, shared findings on average per volume prices for hardcover and trade paperbacks as of the end of 1996, the latest available:
Hardcover
Adult Fiction: $22.89
Adult Nonfiction (all subjects): $50.00
Trade Paperbacks
Adult Fiction: $12.35
Adult Nonfiction (all subjects): $22.46
Juveniles: $8.30
Administrators preparing book budgets need to stay aware of some other library book-buying costs, too, such as those attached to the purchase of shelf-ready books from book wholesalers.
As nearly as I can determine from children's book publishers, most give wholesalers a quantity discount of about 50 percent. Thus, a title listed at $16 costs the wholesaler about $8. The wholesalers can jack up their asking prices to the suggested list price or beyond. Libraries are stuck with the now-you-see-it, now-you-don't short discount on titles the publishers claim are bound in library or reinforced uniform trade bindings. (It's a long-running bad joke on libraries considering the fragility of these bindings.) Cataloging and the other extra services that make a book shelf-ready cost an additional $4 to $6 over the wholesalers' charge. That can bring the cost of a shelf-ready book to $20 or more.
Book selection is what librarians do to insure that their young customers don't get shortchanged on quality reading. In the last 10 years, the number of new general trade books for young readers issued annually grew from 3,000 in 1988 to over 4,000 in 1998. So, after you've built your book budget, go after the scheduled time you need to spend the money wisely.
Renée Olson
Editor-in-Chief
rolson@slj.cahners.com
