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Stephen King’s new face of evil: predatory pricing: UPDATED

When you’re an author of Stephen King’s stature, you can afford to be direct. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly (where the mega-selling author is also a regular columnist), King had a message for retailers who are selling prestige titles at steep discounts: “It’s time to give the smaller bookstores a little breathing room (although not much chance of that, with Walmart offering Dome for nine bucks.)”

King’s new novel, Under the Dome, set for release Nov. 10, is indeed being sold for $8.98 at Wal-Mart and Target, which are engaged in a price war with online retailer Amazon. The big box stores are selling King’s hardcover (which has a cover price of $35 U.S.), along with nine other titles by brand-name authors, as loss leaders. The move is expected to adversely affect the bottom lines of independent booksellers, who are heading into the all-important Christmas selling season.

The American Booksellers Association has approached the Department of Justice about the matter, claiming that Wal-Mart and similar retailers are engaging in “illegal predatory pricing.” From EW:

In a letter released [last Thursday], the ABA went on to say that the practice was “damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers.” A top publishing executive tells EW: “They had no choice. Bookstores are simply under siege. On one side, they’re facing the threat of e-books, and on the other they’re staring in the face of these three ugly superpowers.”

Meanwhile, the Toronto Star reported on Friday that similar deep discounting was not being implemented north of the 49th Parallel:

Andrew Pelletier, vice president of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart Canada, told the Star Friday morning that the company takes “a Canadian approach” to retailing based on “what is good for the Canadian market” that often differs from how Wal-Mart operates in the United States.

“We are two different countries. The U.S. approach is based on their marketplace,” he said. Wal-Mart Canada also doesn’t sell books online, he said.

Canadian politesse notwithstanding, it may be only a matter of time before consumers here start demanding similar price cuts. In any event, the ABA’s letter contains a dire warning: “The entire book industry is in danger of becoming collateral damage in this war.”

This post contains material that has been corrected. The quote concerning “collateral damage” was contained in the ABA’s letter to the Department of Justice. It was erroneously attributed to Canadian Booksellers Association executive director Susan Dayus. Quillblog regrets the error.