27.2.13
Eleven popular bibliophile blogs have issued a common appeal to domestic publishers to drop their prices, in order to preserve literature. The bloggers commend most publishers who have dropped the prices of their back-catalog, but claim that the price of new releases (15-20 euros) is prohibitive.
The bloggers further stress that publishers might be enticed by the “publish anything that sells” logic, which in the long-term will have a detrimental effect on the quality of literature. The authors recognize the “various difficulties, from obligations to employees, the cost of paper, rights, translations and peculiarities of the Greek market, with its language limits and small population” but stress that “in the current crisis, we are obliged to spread books as a goods and not as the privilege of the few”.
The bloggers therefore suggest that publishers take “a bold step: reducing the price of new titles, so that the creative expression of those talented does not waste away” due to the logic of “brute necessity, the ephemeral and salable”.
