BOOK lovers have been urged to buy Christmas presents early this year due to fears of a worldwide paper shortage.
It comes as stores started stockpiling projected best sellers due to fears restocks will not arrive on time for the festive season.
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Waterstones chief executive James Daunt said colour printing comes from Europe or the Far East and delays are likely.
He explained that if a book is selling well in autumn, usually publishers have time to order more copies for Christmas, but due to delays this year, any extra volumes may take longer to arrive.
For this reason, the company is getting ready by ordering extra copies of volumes such as J.K. Rowling’s The Christmas Pig, he said.
Other books being stockpiled include Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and The Sun.
Mr Daunt told The Telegraph: “Supply chain delays, which are the cause of the paper shortages, therefore will impact only the speed of reprinting additional copies, should any individual titles sell unexpectedly well.
“The further away the printer, the longer the likely delay.
“In practice, this means some colour printed books – cookbooks, some gift books – will be most at risk as some of these are printed in the Far East.”
Bookshops may also experience delays in book deliveries due to haulage issues.
Waterstones said the issue is unlikely to affect black and white volumes as they are mainly produced in the UK.
A spokeswoman for Waterstones told The Telegraph the chain is well stocked and shortages may only affect “a few isolated titles where sales are unexpectedly high”.
The Sun Online has contacted Waterstones for comment.
Earlier this month, Rishi Sunak warned families will battle shortages this Christmas as there’s no “magic wand” to fix the delivery crisis.
The Chancellor said Brits could face delays in getting their turkeys because of a lack of truckers to drive supplies to supermarkets.
He told BBC Radio 4: “We’re seeing supply disruption, not just here but in lots of different places, and there are things we can try and mitigate, and we are.
“But we can’t wave a magic wand. There’s nothing I can do about the decision by a country in Asia to shut down a port because of a coronavirus outbreak.
“But be assured we are doing everything that is in our control to try and mitigate some of these challenges.”
SHORTAGES
The lack of delivery drivers also caused an energy and fuel crisis, with people queuing for hours at forecourts to fill up their cars.
Supermarket shoppers also complained about pasta shortages in some stores, with experts warning prices could go up as a result of a poor harvest.
Jason Bull, director of Eurostar Commodities, said:
“We should be under no illusion climate change is causing this. It’s crazy. I’ve been doing this for 17 years, but I’ve not seen this before.
“It’s because of the durum crop – pasta is made with durum wheat and the biggest exporter is Canada.”
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