The Right to Read campaign asserts that everyone has the right to read the same book, at the same time, at the same price. The ‘same time’ didn’t initially strike me as particulary significant but I hadn’t considered Harry Potter. Personally I wouldn’t queue at midnight for any book, just to read it as soon as possible, but plenty others would. Kids (and adults) want to be part of that, regardless of the quality of their sight.
One of the RNIB achievements that they are particularly proud of is getting Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince published as the first ever novel to be released simultaneously in Braille, large print and standard print. Apparently the publishers weren’t keen on releasing the novel to be transcribed before publication and needed to be reassured with promises of padlocked transcription rooms.
You can now get the Deathly Hallows in Braille from Amazon. But from the looks of it the same price mission still has a way to go.
Guy Garfit | 10-Nov-08 at 10:26 am | Permalink
It is very difficult, but not impossible, for publishers to issue large print books at the same price as the regular edition.
The main reason for this is that the large print edition, apart from being about 30 per cent larger, will have a miniscule print run and so economies of scale do not apply.
One way that they can publish at the same or similar price as the regular edition is by using a print-on-demand printer such as Lightning Source. By issuing the large print edition in paperback, at the time of the hardback, the price can be comparable. Print-on-demand editions save on warehousing and need only be printed when there is a definite order.
What is not possible is to price a large print edition at a similar price to a mass market paperback edition.