Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Dead easy. You don't have to buy the book.
When I was a child, I learned that I couldn't have everything I wanted. As an adult, I learned to prioritize and make choices. Since I can't have everything I want, what do I want most and what am I willing to pass up?
So it is with books. I can't have all the books I want. Not only do I not have enough money to buy them; I don't have the time to read them if I could buy them. So when I go book shopping, I keep time as well as money in mind, and buy what I most want to read now. I may pass on a book because the price is more than I want to pay, but I don't feel I'm being gouged.
They are free to publish at whatever price they choose. I am free to decline to buy at that price. If enough buyers are willing to buy at their price, they make their target numbers, and have no particular reason to cut the price for me. So it goes. I don't take it personally, and don't feel like I'm getting shafted, because I'm not.
Discounts are used by retailers to attract traffic. They hope to make other sales to people who come in the get the discounted item, or to make up what they lose in margin by volume and generate more total revenue and profit, or both. Not all books get discounted. Most of the stuff I buy falls into the "not discounted because we hope you'll buy it at regular price when you come in to buy the discounted title" category. I don't particularly expect discounts, don't feel entitled to them, and don't get upset if they aren't there. They are a happy circumstance, and not a matter of inherent rights.
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Dennis
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If a retailer is offering me a 30% discount for any book in the store, then I feel entitled to
that discount. I don't feel entitled to have everything discounted, just the ones that are offered to me and that I could get if the publisher didn't refuse to allow it. I don't feel entitled to any discount from the publisher, but I do feel entitled to buy at a discount if the retailer wants to sell it at a discount.
And I didn't buy a book recently specifically because of that, not because I couldn't afford it or didn't have time to read it.