Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeseraph
I bought Harry Potter books 1-4 in the boxed set the day after I finished reading Philosophers Stone. And I bought the hardcovers of 5-7 every single launch day.
I buy the books at full price that I am anxiously waiting for. Not waiting for anything right now because my interest right now is in older fantasy and science fiction from the 80s and 90s. But I won't have people telling me I don't buy books. Yes I went to the library, yes I went to discount book stores.
But its because I'm on a tight budget, low class budget, not that I'm cheap. I buy the books that matter the most to me. I'm in the process of going through every single Heralds of Valdemar series in chronilogical order and I'm buying them as I'm ready to read them. By the time I've bought the last ebook a new one will be out. And I'll have spent hundreds of dollars.
I'm willing to spend money; but on the books that are important and the authors who I come back to time and time again.
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I, on the other hand, have only a minimal interest in Harry Potter and would never pay $25 or $30. I might try another one (I read the first book) if it were $5 or so. I wouldn't expect to get that price on a new release!
Publishers have typically made their money from the new releases in hardcover, then from the mass market paperback release a year or so later, plus the money from library sales.
They have made absolutely no money from used book sales, yard sales, and loans from one friend to another.
They appear to be clinging to that model even though hc and pb sales are declining. However, they are not taking advantage of ebooks to compete with the used book market, which they could do if ebook prices were lower.
If the new release were priced just below the hc, then just below the pb when that was released, and when the book goes into backlist, the ebook price dropped to compete with used books, publishers would be competing in all three areas instead of just two.