Quote:
Originally Posted by Ankh
The big names of the publishing industry do behave like we do not matter, and are waging an undeclared war on their customers, on us. They are offering what most of us don't want, a hardback edition at ever increasing prices, claiming that anything else would be... what was the phrase? Ah, "the death of art".
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Yep. I totally agree that your perception matches that of a lot of people. What I'm pointing out is nothing has changed. There was ALWAYS a premium price for new release books. There has always been a set of customers willing to pay a premium price to read the book NOW verses later.
No one was all that upset. It's just the way things are. It's also the way things are in a whole lotta other industries like movies.
It did not matter to the publishers that millions of folks weren't willing to pay the new release price. You didn't matter before, and you don't matter now. What matters is that millions of people ARE willing to pay the premium price.
How did this "business as usual" become "the publishers are waging war on us"? Amazon. Amazon decided to buy market dominance by subsidizing the price of new release popular books. Now the paperback crowd (folks like me) could live the good life of a new release book buyer on a paper back budget. Happiness all around.
Well, happiness except for the publishers who were witnessing the value of their business being undermined. So they stood up and STOPPED Amazon and put the "new release price" back into place -- a place that was lower than hard backs but higher than paper backs.
Oh the travesty! Oh the wailing! The publishers are doing us WRONG! We DEMAND our paper back price for new release books!
Well, hate it break it to "you" fine folks. You didn't matter before, and you don't matter now. The publishers are quite happy to sell their product for more than "you" are willing to pay because OTHERS are willing to pay that price. LIKE ALWAYS, you'll simply have to wait until the book is not as desirable as when it's first released and you'll get your "not as desirable" price. Just like ALWAYS.
Lee