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If you’re heading for your nearest branch of Waterstones, the biggest book retailer in the UK, in search of the Duchess of Susse

admin2023-03-14  3
问题     If you’re heading for your nearest branch of Waterstones, the biggest book retailer in the UK, in search of the Duchess of Sussex’s new children’s book The Bench, you might have to be prepared to hunt around a bit, the same may be true of The President’s Daughter, the new thriller by Bill Clinton and James Patterson. Both of these books are published next week by Penguin Random House (PRH) , a company currently involved in a stand-off with Waterstones.
    The problem began late last year, when PRH confirmed that it had introduced a credit limit with Waterstones " at a very significant level". The trade magazine The Bookseller reported that Waterstones branch managers were being told to remove PRH books from prominent areas such as tables, display spaces and windows, and were " quietly retiring them to their relevant sections".
    PRH declined to comment on the issue, but a spokesperson for Waterstones told me-. "Waterstones are currently operating with reduced credit terms from PRH, the only publisher in the UK to place any limitations on our ability to trade. We are not boycotting PRH titles, but we are doing our utmost to ensure that availability for customers remains good despite the lower overall levels of stock. We do this generally by giving their titles less prominent positioning within our bookshops. We are hopeful with our shops now open again that normality will return and that we will be allowed to buy appropriately. Certainly, our shops are exceptionally busy and book sales are very strong. The sales for our May Books of the Month surpassed any month since 2018. "
    In the meantime, PRH authors have been the losers—as have customers, who might expect the new titles from the country’s biggest publisher to be prominently displayed by its biggest book retailer. Big-name PRH authors may suffer a bit, but it’s those mid-list authors, who normally rely on Waterstones staffs passion for promoting books by lesser-known writers, who will be praying for an end to the dispute.
    It comes at a time when authors are already worried about the consequences of the proposed merger between PRH and another big publisher, Simon & Schuster—the reduction in the number of unaligned UK publishers is likely to lead to fewer bidding wars, lower advances, and more conformity in terms of what is published. And one wonders if PRH would have been confident enough to deal with Waterstones in the way it has if it weren’t quite such a big company (it was formed with the merger of Penguin and Random House in 2013) and likely to get bigger.
    "This is all part of a wider change towards concentration of power," says literary agent Andrew Lownie. "The publishing industry talks about diversity in terms of authors and staff but it also needs a plurality of ways of delivering intellectual contact, choice and different voices. After all, many of the most interesting books in recent years have come from small publishers. "
    We shall see whether that plurality is a casualty of the current need among publishers to be big enough to take on all-comers.
Why did Waterstones shops retire PRH books to their relevant sections?
选项 A、To make them easily noticeable.
B、To comply with PRH’s requirement.
C、To respond to PRH’s business move.
D、To arrange them in a systematic way.
答案C
解析 根据题干中的 retire PRH books to their relevant sections 定位到第二段，其中提到“水石书店分公司经理收到指示，将企鹅兰登书屋的书籍从桌上、展示区和橱窗等显眼的地方撤走，并"悄悄地把这些书籍放入与其相关的类别中’”。前文提到企鹅兰登书屋（PRH）和水石书店（Waterstones）正处于对峙状态，那么Waterstones撤掉PRH出版的书籍就是因为其和PRH的商业之战，故正确答案为C。将书籍从桌上、展示区和橱窗等显眼的地方撤走，是为了让人不容易看见，不是为了让人容易注意到（easily noticeable），A选项与文义相反，故排除。文中并未提到PRH’s requirement（企鹅兰登书屋的要求），B选项属于无中生有，故排除。D选项的“将其有条理地摆放”是对文章内容的曲解，文中是说将 PRH 书籍从店里显眼位置上下架的事，而不是有序摆放书籍，故排除 D 选项。
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