Why do Canadians pay 40% more for books? Vancouver author challenges Canadian publishers to match US pricing

Sept 15, Vancouver, today as the Canadian dollar reached a 30-year high, Paul Gossen, local author of Business Transformed and a small group of publishers challenged the Canadian publishing industry to match Canadian and US prices on books.

At this media event, the group unveiled a new cover for the leadership book Business Transformed with matching US and Canadian prices and called on other Canadian authors and publishers to do the same.

“The reality is that Canadian book pricing has very little to do with exchange rates. Pricing for most books in Canada is set by the US publishers based on a default formula of multiplying the US price by 38% regardless of the exchange rate,” stated Paul Gossen.

Leadershipinc Press, the publisher of Business Transformed had cover of the book reprinted to match the US price and added a humorous cartoon asking why Canadians pay 40% more for books.
“It is unfair to the Canadian consumer that US buyers purchase the same books for so much less. This forces Canadians to purchase books over the border, further damaging the Canadian publishing industry,” stated Michael Rosenberg, author and president of Author's Choice, an independent Canadian book distributor.
The debate over Canadian book pricing has intensified in the last two years as the Canadian dollar has approached parity with the US dollar. Over that same period there has been almost no change in the price difference for Canadian consumers.

“If just 10% of the Canadian publishing industry accepted our challenge and matched Canadian and US pricing it would push the US publishing giants to lower Canadian prices, revitalizing bookstores, authors, Canadian publishers and literacy rates across Canada,” stated Paul Gossen.

Business Transformed is available in bookstores across Canada including Chapters Indigo and Amazon.ca with the new price of $19.50 Canadian or $19.50 US.


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Paul Gossen, The Breakthrough Coach, is the author of the management breakthrough book Business Transformed. He is considered an expert in new business thinking and has conducted hundreds of breakthrough programs for business leaders and organizations including the RCMP, AMEX Canada, Golder Associates and the City of Mississauga.

Media Contact:
Paul Gossen, Email Media@Leadershipinc.ca, Phone 604 872-4300. Michael Rosenberg, Author's Choice, 905 846 5455, www.authorschoice.ca