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The Best Book Trade Organization in the Worid? LOGOS The best book trade organization in the worid? Klaus Saur Unlike the US, the UK and most other major pub­ lishing countries, Germany has only one book trade organization. The Borsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels represents both publishers and book­ sellers. Among other facilities without parallels in other countries, the Borsenverein owns the Frank­ furt Book Fair, the Verzeichnis lieferbarer Biicher (Germany's equivalent of Books in Print) and the Founder of K G Saur Verlag of Borsenblatt (the equivalent of the UK's The Book­ Munich, a leading bibliographic seller or the US's Publishers Weekly). and reference publishing house, This structure has historical origins. The Klaus Saur is today both the Borsenverein in its present form is in principle the direct descendant of a body founded in 1825 in Managing Director of his epony^ Leipzig, long pre-dating the formation of book trade mous publishing house and a organizations elsewhere. The Borsenblatt fiir den Vice President of a division of Deutschen Buchharvdel was launched by the Borsen­ Reed Reference Publishing. Saur verein in 1834. One of the Borsenverein's greatest historical achievements, if not the greatest of all, was President of the Bavarian was the founding of the Deutsche Biicherei (Ger­ Publishers Association from man Library) in 1912. At that time, the Borsen­ 1982 to 1988 and is currently verein also bought out five competing bibliographies Chairman of the Publishers and unified them into the Deutsche National- bibliographie. This national bibliography has been Committee of the Borsenverein kept up to date by the Deutsche Biicherei and pub­ and Chairman of the Boards of lished by the Verlag des Botsenvereins ever since the Frankfurt Book Fair and the 1913. German National Library. He The Deutsche Biicherei was not, strictly was awarded Doctorates by the speaking, a national library, since it was limited University of Marburg in 1985 exclusively to the collection and recording of Ger­ man-language literature and translations ftom Ger­ and the Simmonds University man into other languages. When the Borsenverein College of Boston in 1991. was re-formed in Frankfurt in 1946, one of its ini­ tiatives was to found the Deutsche Bibliothek, the Deutsche Biicherei remaining in East Germany. In 1990, the Deutsche Biicherei and the Deutsche Bibliothek were amalgamated. To this day, three of the nine membeis of the supervisory board of the Library come from the Borsenverein. Six of the twelve members of the Library's advisory board are publishers and six are librarians, the chairmanship 120 LOGOS 4/3 © WHURR PUBUSHERS 1993 The best book trade organization in the world? alternating between librarians and publishers. ers, wholesalers and retail booksellers. This means, Among other historical innovations by for example, that the average trade discount is the Borsenverein were the clearing house for orders much higher in Germany than in the UK or the and payments, established at the end of the last US. The Borsenverein is in effect a three-tier orga­ century, and the first university chair for book trade nization which takes care of the interests of all management, established at the University of three of its constituents and promotes cooperation Leipzig in 1910. The Borsenverein was also respon­ among them. sible for the first college devoted entirely to teach­ Confining my investigation to publishers, ing the arts of publishing and bookselling (the I have attempted to tabulate eight different com­ Reichsschule des Deutschen Buchhandels) and for parative costs for publishers in each country with the Booksellers Trade School (Deutsche Buch- turnovers of DMlm ("small") and DM 10m handlerschule), founded in 1946 in Cologne (now ("larger"). The rough US/UK equivalents of these located in Frankfiirt). figures are $600,000/£400,000 and $6m/£4m. In brief, everything to do with the pub­ lishing and distribution of books in Germany is 1. Membership fees either controlled by, or had its origin in, this single Small American publishers pay twice as much organization. Its central task is the same as that of to join their representative organization as the publisher and bookseller organizations in other small German or British publishers. Larger countries: to provide professional counsel to its American publishers pay three-and-a-half members, to support their interests in the public times as much as their German counterparts. sphere and to promote a climate in which political The British equivalent is about three times as decisions affecting the book trade favour the wel­ much. This comparison favours the Borsen­ fare of the book. Copyright, taxation and resale verein even more than the figures suggest price maintenance are also high on the Borsen­ because the German membership fee includes verein's agenda. membership in one of the eleven state-based organizations and numerous free services for which the other associations charge extra. Small Larger In the light of these all-embracing activi­ Borsenverein DM 2,150 DM 7,380 ties, one might expect the members of the Borsen­ AAP 4,500 26,000 verein to be substantially more content with their PA 2,260 22,600 organization than their counterparts in countries (The Borsenverein represents about 100% of where the institutions of the book trade are seg­ German publishers' turnover, the AAP less mented and less powerful. However, ever since I than 50% of the American and the PA about became a member of the Borsenverein in 1965, I 70% of the British.) have been surprised how many members find it fashionable to complain about how little the 2. Subscriptions to trade journals Borsenverein does and how expensive it is. The Assuming that a small publisher takes out one more I have travelled to other countries, the less I subscfiption to his trade journal and a larger have understood this. Today, with thirty years of one two, the comparative figures are: international travel behind me, I am ready to affirm Small Larger that the Borsenverein is the best book trade organi­ Borsenblatt Free DM 350 zation in the world. Publishers Weekly DM550 1,100 To substantiate my argument with scepti­ The Bookseller 420 840 cal colleagues, I have attempted a cost comparison between the Borsenverein, the US's Association of 3. Advertising American Publishers (AAP) and the UK's Publish­ Assuming one full-page ad for each million ers Association (PA). A precise comparison is very DM of turnover, the comparative costs are: difficult because the Borsenverein includes publish­ 121 LOGOS 4/3 © WHURR PUBUSHERS 1993 .
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