Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Exchange rates don't equal purchasing power.
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Not quite true. As the dollar improves over the USD, imports cost less, so prices of physical items such as books should come down in price. However in Australia that is rarely the case. The recent articles on Teleread by Blue Tyson outing hatchette and Macmillan's price gouging practices is quite revealing.
When the AUD hit and went beyond parity against the USD mid 2011, there was a huge upsurge in online purchasing. It was unprecedented, causing many retail lobby groups to run crying to the government demanding additional taxes for online purchases so as to protect retail's cosy little "slug the customer" environment they have enjoyed for several decades. A recent study has confirmed that Australians are dealt price increases over 150 percent, some times more.
As I mentioned in my OP, online purchasing knows no boundaries. So the djinn is very much out of the bottle and for Australian retailers ripping off customers with huge mark-ups, the end is nigh.
I also believe that the mainstream publishers are going to lose more and more authors to self publishing as those authors realise they can make more per book selling online.