Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Publishers will price at what they think the market will bear.
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From my point of view it isn't the way that they do the pricing that is the problem; it is the way that they justify it. The argument starts with: we sell the books to the big retailers at half-price, and ends with: so you see, we barely make a profit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Manufacturing costs are generally about 50 cents - $1.00 for PBs, and perhaps $2 for HCs.
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So then explain to me the price of a second edition of a public domain book. All they have to do is make a new cover and print it. So the prices will show what the publishers think that the buyers will pay, with no connection with the actual costs. And we see that the hardcovers are more expensive than the paperbacks, because most buyers consider that the hardcovers are worth more, and are willing to pay more.
So now we get to ebooks, and we can fit an entire library on a microSD card, and we know that at least the cost of printing and shipment has to go away, and there are lower risks for the publisher. But now we are told that it was all just a misunderstanding. Hardcovers don't cost that much more to make. It's just the privilege of getting the book faster. But then what is the point of printing hardcovers of public domain books?
And this doesn't explain the price of textbooks.