Publishers, booksellers, agents, and authors are fretting that a pricing battle between Wal-Mart and Amazon is taking prices for some titles so low that it could damage the industry.
(From The New York Times)
The story "Price war over books worries industry" published October 17, 2009 at 1:58 PM is no longer available on CNET News.
I'm sure they drove a dump-truck full of money to her door for anything she should put down on paper. You know, I wish a publisher would drive a dump-truck full of money to MY door. Then I would write a self-help book describing how to get publishers to drive dump-trucks full of money to aspiring writers. And in that book I would probably fill chapters with words like Maverick and Rogue. It would be a best-selling, I tells ya.
Only best sellers huh? Perhaps this would be a good time to point out that if the only things selling are "best sellers" all of them are no longer best sellers. I think this mind set is pretty absurd.
People will buy what they want to buy. If it be at the front of the store highlighted or otherwise. If I want to by some "no name" book I'm going to buy it on the merit of it's price compared to my desire to own it. The price of other books will have no effect on that decision.
I disagree. As a person who really only buys paperbacks, I look at 10$ and say "whoa, that's expensive" for fiction. (The high prices of eBooks make me leary. You can't even loan them out, and they're more expensive than paperbacks.) I pretty much wouldn't even consider buying a fiction that's over 15$. With non-fiction, however, I've always had a higher price point before I say there's no way I'd buy something, probably because my experience there started with reference books and text books. The prices of other books certainly do influence whether or not I think something is expensive, and therefore whether or not it's worth my money.
First fiction and non fiction don't matter in this. That's a straw man. Both are getting the same treatment. Well unless you consider anything Palin says fiction, but that's a different issue :)
Second these are not paperbacks. Their hard cover. Frankly I buy books based on their size.
Plus quality of content like I said already. If you don't buy books simply because of their price you may not deserve to read them in the first place.
I'm using fiction and non-fiction to illustrate how my past experience of buying cheap books versus expensive books has influenced my perception of the value of books as a whole, and how it might influence other people's. I don't see a straw man in that. Personally, I find hardcover books to be highly inconvenient in the first place, and won't buy them unless they're cheaper than the paperback version, or I have no choice.
As far as "not deserving to read them" because I base a large part of what I buy on price (which is ridiculous in the first place because, wait, are you saying poor people don't deserve to read books because they can't afford them?) I have this thing called a library that I can go to for books that are too expensive. Or I can, you know, wait, which is more my thing.
the folks working at $10 an hour cannot afford $10 books. This could be the biggest market share once publishers get over the greed principle! There are not that many folks making 50 thou a year . . .
Best selling authors who can pre-sell are the few people already rich off the industry, and they will continue to get rich even if their margins drop. They make money on advances and volume. Few will cry for them if they make one fewer million dollars in their lifetime. "Regular" authors just "make a living" off of writing, and if their book has resonance, they can make the real money off of selling the rights for film/television. Discounting best sellers doesn't impact that one way or the other.
It's similar to the music industry. The biggest bands can sell so many albums, even low prices won't impact them. The rest of the artists make money on concerts.
Actually, with the rise of the internet lately, that is not true anymore. A musician can make money of selling his music online, but he has to realize that: 1. It's got to be CD or better quality, 2. That he doesn't need a big 'publishing house' to sell it anymore, and 3. That he is not going to make 'megabucks' off it, he is still going to have to do concerts (though maybe not as many) to supplement his income.
What do they expect. If you let a dime store sell your property, it ends up going for a dime.
If the book industry doesn't like the prices these companies are selling for, then stop selling books to them. Simple as that.
Or really get a brain and contract a minimum price. Of course, they can always just bend over for Amazon and Walmart...oh yeah, they're already doing that....
Tommy Jordan, the man who shot his daughter's laptop for YouTube, gets a visit from police and child protection services. Oh, and Good Morning America.
The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500 could make its debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, according to a leaked promotional image.
RIM isn't doing much to innovate its handset designs, so maybe it should call up designer John Anastasiadis, who has a pretty interesting concept for a BlackBerry.
LOL... How is Sarah Palin writing a memoir at her age, and how did she decide to give it that name?
Thanks for the heads-ups, CNET!
I can order extra copies and give it to my liberal friends for Christmas.
People will buy what they want to buy. If it be at the front of the store highlighted or otherwise. If I want to by some "no name" book I'm going to buy it on the merit of it's price compared to my desire to own it. The price of other books will have no effect on that decision.
Second these are not paperbacks. Their hard cover. Frankly I buy books based on their size.
Plus quality of content like I said already. If you don't buy books simply because of their price you may not deserve to read them in the first place.
As far as "not deserving to read them" because I base a large part of what I buy on price (which is ridiculous in the first place because, wait, are you saying poor people don't deserve to read books because they can't afford them?) I have this thing called a library that I can go to for books that are too expensive. Or I can, you know, wait, which is more my thing.
It's similar to the music industry. The biggest bands can sell so many albums, even low prices won't impact them. The rest of the artists make money on concerts.
If the book industry doesn't like the prices these companies are selling for, then stop selling books to them. Simple as that.
Or really get a brain and contract a minimum price. Of course, they can always just bend over for Amazon and Walmart...oh yeah, they're already doing that....