Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
True, but then few authors write different versions of the same book for publication (not talking about prepublication writing and rewriting  ).
But different publishers do publish books on the same topic by different authors. Even the same publisher will publish, for example, several biographies of Abraham Lincoln, each with a different perspective and by different authors.
I suspect that if you could get an author to write the same book but from different perspectives you could get two publishers to publish them. The bottleneck is not the publisher but the author. |
Not my point, it was that the publishers don't compete over the price of
the same book. Their competition is more as the manufacturers than as
wholesalers or retailers, while MSRPs are probably set for each product with
some regard for gaining a competitive position, the actual price paid by the
consumer is -best- set at the retail level.
But, they are not the
actual manufacturers - the authors are. It is the author's efforts and talent
that create the product, readers seldom even care who published a book just
who wrote it. The author is part of the buying equation but not the
publisher.
If the publishing houses were in actual product competition instead of just a
marketing competition, we would have efforts to be known as the house that
provides the highest quality products not just the most marketable.
If the authors could have an open market for their manuscripts and the
publishing houses compete for providing the best book, in the marketplace,
with the authors getting an agreed upon return for each sale, no mater who
is publishing
then there would be some competition to create books that are
published better than the competition.
I believe that the publishers will, soon if not already, come to realize that
the marketing of their books is best handled by the retailer, who has a more
direct connection to the consumer. If not, then the authors may end up
coming to grips with the idea that they can make a direct connection to
their readers and be able to market their production independent of the
publishing houses. In any case, the agency publishers now are having to
deal with setting prices, for the real marketplace, they may be finding that
their visions of being able to sell their books at any price they want to be a
pipe dream. Or at least counter productive.
Luck;
Ken