The goal is to advertise the idiosyncrasy of independent stores, he said, partly by quoting individual booksellers in each advertisement.

(Mr. Chatterjee said the site's main source of revenue was advertising, augmented by referral fees from some individual booksellers.)

One problem was that the vast majority of the publishers of offensive material operated outside Ireland, leaving only individual booksellers and distributors liable to prosecution.

Unlike adult novels, children's books depend for their retail life on being sold through the recommendations of individual booksellers at the small independent bookstores.

Additional interviews with individual booksellers and wholesalers provided further evidence that the book was in great demand.

In 1961, Grove Press issued a copy of the work and lawsuits were brought against dozens of individual booksellers in many states for selling it.

Items that sell are mailed directly from the individual bookseller's location.

Instead, all payments will be made directly by the purchaser to the individual bookseller.

"Books will continue to carry a recommended retail price, but the individual bookseller will decide precisely what he wants to do with the titles that are outside the agreement," he said.

Daunt certainly seems a little grammatically confused when he argues that the new name reflects the "continued contribution of thousands of individual booksellers" - anyone for Waterstones'?