MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Write-in campaign claims that no readers were harmed by the agency model

caleb72 · 05-15-2012, 03:59 AM

There is a certain amount of fungibility in book purchasing. A Twilight book bought at Amazon is pretty much interchangeable with one bought in Barnes & Noble. If Little Brown ceded publishing rights to Haper & Collins, there would be a certain fungibility between the Little Brown release and the H&C release.

I agree that not any book will do for a large majority - but any Twilight book may do.

Having said that, no Twilight book will do for me. But for the sake of using the existing examples...

So I guess it depends on whether you think each book/title/work should be considered a commodity in its own right - ie reasonably fungible, or whether we can only play this game looking at all books collectively.

I would think the collusion at hand increases this notion of fungibility because you remove price differences for individual titles as well as the inherent content interchangeability.

05-15-2012, 03:59 AM	#48
caleb72 Indie Advocate Posts: 2,863 Karma: 18794463 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Melbourne, Australia Device: Kindle	There is a certain amount of fungibility in book purchasing. A Twilight book bought at Amazon is pretty much interchangeable with one bought in Barnes & Noble. If Little Brown ceded publishing rights to Haper & Collins, there would be a certain fungibility between the Little Brown release and the H&C release. I agree that not any book will do for a large majority - but any Twilight book may do. Having said that, no Twilight book will do for me. But for the sake of using the existing examples... So I guess it depends on whether you think each book/title/work should be considered a commodity in its own right - ie reasonably fungible, or whether we can only play this game looking at all books collectively. I would think the collusion at hand increases this notion of fungibility because you remove price differences for individual titles as well as the inherent content interchangeability.