The Purchasing Programme for Contemporary Fiction and Non-fiction
Since 1965 Norway has had a programme for the public support of contemporary fiction and non-fiction for adult readers as well as for children and young people. Through Arts Council Norway a purchasing programme was launched, guaranteeing the publishers a sale of a certain minimum number of copies of each book published. The programme has worked well for more than 35 years based on the original principles, although it has undergone some changes regarding how many copies and what categories of books are included. Today the Council buys, on an annual basis, 1 000 copies of about 200 different titles for adult readers and approximately 1550 copies of 110 titles for young people. In addition the Council has since 1991 bought about 50 Norwegian translations of fiction originally published abroad and about 15 titles of non-fiction written for young people. Since the start of the programme all the books have been distributed as gifts to the public libraries, and since the late 1980’s also to 550 libraries in primary schools.
This public purchase programme benefits the publishers, authors, libraries and readers, although in different ways. Knowing how many copies they can rely on to be sold, the publishers’ economic risks are considerably reduced. Because of this guaranteed additional purchase on top of the ordinary sales through book shops and book clubs, the publishers can raise their normal first printing run to 2 - 3 000 copies.
The government also contributes to the authors’ royalties from these books through a refund system, which for instance gives the author of a novel for adult readers a royalty of 20 % from the very first copy sold. If the same author writes a book for children or a poetry collection she can get 22.5 % from each copy sold. The publisher and the Council divide the costs by 10% + 10%, or by 10 % for the publisher and 12.5 % for the Council in the latter case.
The reading public benefits from the programme by finding complete collections of modern fiction in their local public library, however small it is. This makes possible the meeting between a book and its reader, and is really what the program is all about.
Several committees, appointed and run by the Council, read all the books on the programme in order to evaluate their literary quality. If a book does not qualify, the publisher – who delivered the book in the required number of copies within two weeks from the release – must refund to the Council whatever was paid, unless a complaint to a specially assigned board is approved. The author, however, is not economically affected by cancellation of the contract with the Council. This system keeps the main quality control within the publishing houses themselves. In addition – since the book has already been published – the state cannot be accused of censorship, even if the book does not qualify for state support.
The programme enjoys broad support, though being a subject of public debate from time to time. Two recent evaluation reports conclude that it has produced a much-needed expansion of the markets for books and literature in Norway. Because of a small and scattered population, and the unusual situation of three official languages in Norway, a full-scale national book production scheme would be impossible if the market should rule alone. The purchasing programme is a means of maintaining a broad and vital body of contemporary literature for children, young people and adults.
