Quote:
Originally Posted by carpetmojo
I think it's a bit early for Martin's tome, isn't it ?
|
It's a reflection of the way price interacts with inventory costs. If a book is a best-seller (or expected to be one, as in this case) the distribution chain is setup to move large numbers of copies rapidly, because they know that those are going to be sold. After a while, as the book drops out of the best-seller charts, it becomes catalogue stock and joins the ranks of the hundreds of thousands of books which still sell, but not in the quantities that provide economies of scale in their distribution. Finally, the publisher cuts their losses on the copies left from the last print run and dumps the book at a bargain price to clear inventory.
So the price of a book can start at £12.50, move up to £25 after a few months, then drop to a few pounds after a year or so. This is all related to the costs of inventory and distribution, so doesn't apply to ebooks.