Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
One issue with the free market arguments and the maximizing profits arguments is that we don't live in a free market. Books are a clear example of this.
|
No, books are a clear example of the fact that we do live in a free market. The book market (in the US) is more free than most markets.
Quote:
Publishers sell books, not words. If it was a simple matter of selling words, we wouldn't be interested in top-seller lists. We would be looking at reviews instead. If a book received a good review from a reviewer we trusted (i.e. one that reflected our tastes) we would simply buy the most compelling book that we were willing to pay for.
|
This is meaningless distinction. Publishers sell books and words.
People read reviews all the time. But people are also interested in best-seller lists because that is also a type of review. I.e., the fact that more people bought this book than that book is some evidence of that book's merit.
Quote:
But it only works that way for people who love reading for personal reasons. As soon as someone wants to read for social reasons you are stuck reading a particular book from a particular publisher. Publishers want to take advantage maximizing their profits, so they introduce a form of scarcity: they limit what they publish to high priced formats.
|
I don't think that there are many "social" readers at all. Almost everyone who reads reads for personal reasons.
As for scarcity, that's part and parcel of the free market.