In May, Boulder Book Store will begin charging fees for author events. According to DailyCamera.com, attendees can expect to pay $5 to $10 for admission. Each ticket will be accompanied by a $5 coupon towards the cost of the book or any purchase the day of the event.

Owner David Bolduc emailed customers to explain: “Publishers place certain expectations on us when we host events, and so in order to continually attract authors, we must fulfill these expectations. Oftentimes, in return for sending an author to a bookstore, publishers expect us to attract a certain number of people and sell a certain number of books.”

Is it fair for bookstores to implement this policy? The store typically hosts 170 events per year. One May event features popular teen writer Sarah Dessen. The top of the event page currently proclaims: “this event is free & open to the public.” With this new policy, perhaps that won’t be the case anymore. (via BookTV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post was updated for clarification.