The conflict between the Moden-Ketar book publishing house and the Stimatsky chain of stores is intensifying and upping the ante.
After the publisher's books were removed from the chain's stores last month due to unsuccessful negotiations on the terms of the book's sale, the book publisher issued a public letter to the authors this week in which it refutes its claims.
"The situation in the book industry until now was that almost all of the money from book sales (80-60% of the revenue) remained in the networks, and only the small part (20-40%) went back to the book expenses and the payment of royalties to the authors," it says.
Modan accuses that "Stimetsky's financial conditions have no equal in the world. In the post-corona world, this means for us the sale of books at loss prices. After a long period in which we suffered and suffered, we turned to Stimetsky - as well as our other customers - to slightly reduce the profit rates that remain with them We have come to an understanding with all of our clients, with the exception of Stimatsky."
A cynical attack
The background to the opening of the conflict is the increase in paper prices, which have almost doubled, and the cost of producing books.
The publisher accepts that they bear the cost of production and printing and pay royalties, while the chain enjoys most of the revenue from the sales.
Stimatsky's message refers to the situation, but accuses Moden Publishing of exploiting the issue to their advantage.
"The difficulties of the publishers are also our difficulties, but Modan uses the issue of rising prices as a lever to improve attitudes - a cynical attempt to strengthen the book chain it owns."
"We are selling today at a loss price," says the publisher's CEO Roni Moden, in a conversation with her after the publication of the verbal confrontation between the two parties. "Under these conditions, even a successful publisher is forced to sell his books at a loss price. The Stimatskys behave with bullying and violence for the sake of it."
Stimatsky Publishing stated: "The owners of Moden Publishing are strong and established publishers, and the attack on Stimatsky is another move aimed at strengthening the competing chain of bookstores, Zumat Savirim, one-third of which is owned by Moden.
The good of the writers does not stand before the eyes of Oded and Roni Moden.
If that were the case they would not take their books off the shelf.
Once again they are hiding behind the writers' backs."
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