Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
Why do you think they will sell 50000 copies of all books sold for $0.50? The number sold of most old books that is re-published are much lower than that. And books is not a product with perfect plasticity.
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It's partly because, unlike physical books, the product exists where the demand is. Ultimately, books should never again go 'out of print' - they'd always be available to consumers in a digital store and generating income for their authors (or their authors' heirs). Bookstores don't need to guess at how many copies of a particular book to buy - there's always enough digital copies to meet demand.
Naturally not every book is going to sell 50000 copies. But I'd be interested to see a market in 50 years where the demand isn't just based on the hype a particular book generates. If I were to walk into a B&M bookstore with at least one copy of every book ever printed, the last thing I'd be looking for is the latest Clancy or Dan Brown.