Member Voice| Member Long Xiaowen: Standardize the order of the book distribution market

Because it is cheap and convenient, it has become a habit for many young people to choose books in physical bookstores and buy books online. However, it is this convenient way of consumption that has had a huge impact on physical bookstores... During the Fifth Session of the 13th CPPCC Municipal Committee, Long Xiaowen, member of the CPPCC Municipal Committee and deputy secretary of the Party Committee and general manager of Beijing Distribution Group, expressed concern about this.

Long Xiaowen, member of the CppcC Municipal Committee, deputy secretary of the party committee and general manager of Beijing Issuance Group, is speaking

"The low discount dumping of books on the Internet has seriously squeezed the profit margins of the entire book industry and restricted the high-quality and sustainable development of the book industry." Long Xiaowen said.

As a practitioner of physical bookstores, Long Xiaowen has always paid attention to the low discount of online book sales in her research. She found that in the process of selling books with live streams, the price of books was reduced to 3 to 50% off, which was close to the hard cost of normal book products.

"The price of 500,000 books is as low as less than 10 yuan, and 100,000 books are 1 yuan books." Can such online book sales really revitalize the book industry and make the physical book publishing industry develop better? Long Xiaowen's heart drew a question mark.

With this question mark, Long Xiaowen walked into one physical bookstore after another, publishing house, and distribution company. I also enter the online book sales live broadcast room as a visitor. Asking, recording, buying, comparing, and deriving such a set of data.

The average book price of publishers across the country rose from 15.9 yuan in 2000 to 48 yuan in 2020.

Having nearly tripled in 20 years, Long Xiaowen's concerns are not unreasonable. She is well aware that publishing is a knowledge-intensive industry, and the reduction of profits in the entire industry makes it difficult for publishing houses to finely polish out good publishing products.

In this regard, Long Xiaowen suggested that standardizing the cost accounting and price setting of book publishing, that is, ensuring a reasonable profit margin in all aspects of publishing and distribution, is conducive to the development of the industry, and makes the price tend to be reasonable, so as to ensure that the people have the ability and conditions to obtain the required books and enjoy the benefits of reading.

At the same time, the form of book publishing is regulated. The use of lightweight paper, less hardcover and other ways to publish books, the promotion of pocket books, library books and other forms, not only reduce the waste of resources, but also reduce the unreasonable burden of readers. It is also necessary to limit the discount on book sales, and set a discount guidance price for new books, old books within a few years, and old books more than a few years, and neither offline nor online can break through the guidance price in various forms, resulting in book discounts out of control.

It is also necessary to limit the discount on book sales, and set a discount guidance price for new books, old books within a few years, and old books more than a few years, and neither offline nor online can break through the guidance price in various forms, resulting in book discounts out of control.

In addition, the public cultural service functions undertaken by physical bookstores should be supported through government procurement of services.

Long Xiaowen said that the physical bookstore is not only a place to sell books, but also a symbol of urban civilization and a place for readers' hearts, and reasonable pricing and regular publication of high-quality books are precisely the key to "lighting up" physical bookstores.