Full disclosure: I worked briefly for InterVarsity Press (IVP) in Canada on two occasions and in two separate locations, and I’ve always told people that of all the non-profit Christian organizations I worked for, they were the one which treated me the best. It didn’t hurt that I also loved what they were publishing in the ’70s and ’80s and the way their publishing brand integrated with their campus ministry.
But that was then, and this is now.
In Canada, every $1 U.S. increase in suggested list prices results in a $1.50 increase here. In the last several months we’ve watched the price of their flagship brand — Lifeguide Bible Studies — escalate from $15.49 to $16.49 to the current $17.99. (Exchange rate calculations with the major distributor here also affect the price.)
I have great difficulty reconciling what IVP has become — first editions are almost always now in hardcover — with the IVP I worked for. I would like to — naively perhaps — believe that a non-profit doesn’t embrace profit as the central motive, but watching IVP’s price points like a hawk over the years, this is truly a different publisher.
I’m sure they have a response. Something about rising costs, no doubt.
But why not set fixed Canadian prices as does Zondervan, Thomas Nelson, Waterbrook Multnomah, etc.? Why not have conservative exchange rate as does Zondervan and Baker Book Group? Why not have International Trade Paper Editions (ITPEs) as does HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Baker Book Group, Charisma House, etc.?
The answer is simple: These companies are entirely U.S.-focused and can’t see the ramifications in Canada for continually increasing prices.
But the reason Canada gets ITPEs in the first place is because we don’t have the U.S. mentality about books. Culturally, the Canadian customer stands somewhere between the U.S. and the U.K. model (where in the latter, just about everything is softcover.) There’s a sweet spot for pricing, and if publishers venture too far beyond it, consumers often walk away.
All that, plus the possibility that with sales now being concentrated among significant key players, the list prices are an artificial construct. (If I tell you the study guides are $30 and offer them at 40% discount for only $17.99; it sounds like a bargain, right?)
Today I’m faced with contacting customers who use the Lifeguide line regularly to tell them they need to go back to their participants and tell them the money they collected was insufficient.
And then I’m going to tell them about some other Bible study product lines wherein I think they’ll get more bang for their $17.99 CDN buck.