The major publishers are, quite simply, the best companies in the world at getting print books from authors to readers. Most of the tools at their disposal for making a book a hit are tied to a print world, from buying front-of-the-bookstore placement yes, publishers pay for that to book tours. As the exponential growth of e-books has slowed, some publishers are even whispering their hopes that perhaps the rate of e-book adoption will slow further and print will be viable well into the future.
But meanwhile, on the other side of the e-book price divide are consumers. Publishers have a massive problem with perception of value. And because publishers have been selling print books via the wholesale model and e-books via the agency model, this results in the confusing situation of e-books sometimes costing more than their print counterparts.
With print, Amazon and other booksellers are allowed to charge whatever they want. With e-books, the publishers set the price and e-booksellers aren't allowed to discount. So Amazon, for instance, might discount the print books under the e-book price and publishers have little control over that.
Whether publishers want it or not, change may be on the horizon. Three of the publishers named in the Justice Department suit have already settled and have agreed to variable pricing.
Lower prices seem inevitable. So, what does that mean for those book prices I used to peruse and sometimes buy? Today, that same paperback, adjusted for inflation, would be ….
The very nice paperbacks that were the most costly in ? Adjusted to , they cost …. Paperback Prices from Adjusted to Values. So hold up then, what does this mean? If you want a higher-quality book, well.. Cheaper than any book I saw in the store as a kid. Okay, let me rephrase that. The remaining dollar, split between the retailer and the publisher, would mean that they would need to sell four copies of the book in instead of one to make the same profit as one book in Yeah … starting to see why this is a little impossible and book prices do have to go up at some point?
Now, before we get into a few caveats that throw more wrenches into these numbers, I followed this up with another experiment. One of the chief complaints of this poster was that ebooks should be even cheaper than paperbacks ever were. So I decided to see what the current prices of my ebooks would have been adjusted for , had me found them on a bookshelf.
Sands and storms. You know how young me would have reacted to seeing some of these on shelves for those prices? Even Shadow of an Empire is still cheaper than the cheapest, lowest rate paperback I could have bought in You know, the one with the pages falling out of it?
You know what this chart tells me? My ebooks are priced perfectly. Ultimately, I feel that this adjustment both ways really puts the modern pricing of books in perspective.
Young me would have seen no problem in paying for that paperback with his hard-earned money. Those prices are from 25 years ago. Those prices could order a drink at a bar. Those prices are old. And ebooks? They are cheaper than those paperbacks of memory. By quite a bit. Even the my costliest and newest , Shadow of an Empire is still cheaper than the one-read-and-half-the-pages-are-gone paperbacks I would acquire as a kid.
Okay, with all this said, time for some caveats, some of which were brought up in that online thread. With the angry exclamation marks for drama! They were on the way. I read my first ebook in It came with a game I had borrowed from a friend Outpost 2. Baen launched their ebook service a few years later in Well, books have gotten cheaper to make since then! This one is a good point, but also a misfire.
Yes, books have gotten cheaper to make and manufacture. And quality has gone up. And prices have dropped in-line with those technologies. We call that greed.
See MacMillan for a prime example. Cutting author payouts while selling some of the priciest ebooks in the country on the top-seller lists but still whining? Over the past two decades, widespread discounting has made it seem as if consumers are getting a deal.
Some superstores discount books on the New York Times bestseller list and other selected titles. At online venues, the savings often extend to other hardcovers and trade paperbacks. To compete with larger outlets, independent booksellers have initiated "frequent buyer" programs in which a certain amount in purchases entitles a customer to discounts.
Everyone likes to feel he or she is getting a bargain, but discounting has made it easier for book prices to creep upward while maintaining the illusion that consumers are getting the books inexpensively.
Since booksellers' markups aren't as big as those of other retailers, discounting can be a risky strategy that slices profit margins razor thin; recently, some have thought better of it. After growing accustomed to the sight of and percent-off stickers, suddenly consumers are being charged full price for many types of books, another source of sticker shock. Maintaining the illusion that books are affordable has gotten more difficult. From the point of view of publishers, they're too low.
Besides, publishers are being pressured from above, as well as by consumers. During the s many publishing houses conglomerated or were acquired by large corporations, which forced publishers to be more conscious of the bottom line and their responsibility to stockholders. To Epstein, this is exactly the wrong model for book publishing.
Traditionally, the business was, he insists, never meant to be a moneymaker and should be seen as "more like a sport or a hobby. It was fun and culturally very useful. If you wanted to make money you'd go over to Wall Street. It's not like selling light bulbs. And publishers have been working that way in this country since I don't think it's going to change very quickly. But according to Michael Cader, a longtime book packager and the creator of Publisher's Lunch, a Web site and e-mail newsletter service read religiously by many publishing professionals, book prices must change.
He points to reports that indicate that the total amount of money being spent on books is stagnant while more and more books are published every year. According to Bowker, over , titles were published last year, compared to , in On the right-hand side, there is an option to buy used books as well.
You can certainly get a hefty discount by opting for used books on Amazon. Despite it selling used books, the condition of the books is undoubtedly up to the mark. That is why; it is another great place to buy used books. Half Price Books is a website that sells new as well as used books at a hefty discount.
Not only that, the website has physical stores as well. It means that if you want to visit a store and buy the books, you can do so easily. True to its name, it certainly provides you with books at almost half the price.
That is why; it is a great option to buy books at an affordable rate. Thus, now you are aware of why books are so expensive in Not only that, when you follow my guide above, it will become easier to save money while buying books. You can buy not only physical books at a discount, but I have also listed some other alternatives which allow you to enjoy the knowledge of books without going for physical books.
In a nutshell, my guide above can help you in more ways than one when it comes to buying books affordably. Why are books so expensive? What's Included in This Post.
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