Quote:
Originally Posted by Fluribus
They are in subjects that the vast majority of people don't care about.
|
Most bestsellers are in subjects that the vast majority of people don't care about. One reason for this: If even one percent of the literate humans buy a book, it is an enormous bestseller.
The arguably bestselling book of all time (Tale of Two Cities) was written about the French Revolution, sixty years after it ended. I suspect that even when Dickens published this title, the vast majority of people didn't care about it.
Now, I realize that many people buy
A Tale of Two Cities because it is required reading. But I think the principle generally applies. I am not interested in sadomasochism. Ditto for most of humanity. But there is a big enough minority to support some humongous sales figures.
Anyway, Amazon, in the OP statement, doesn't just say $9.99 is the at-release-time price limit for "specialized titles." That perhaps wouldn't mean much, because, as I've implied, most books are for a specialized audience. But Amazon also clearly implied that, if it gets what it seeks, only a "small number" of eBooks (and I think eBooks are the future of books) will be allowed to be priced above $9.99 at release. And that means lots of books I much like will no longer be published, or (maybe more likely) will be published with less advance research and editorial care.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
If Amazon's assessment of the situation proves correct, BHP's revenue will increase and they can pay all the big advances they want.
|
That's true, with the emphasis on the word "If." In the first part of this post, I started from the vantage point of believing that Amazon's case for $9.99 or below being the sweet spot was shown, in previous posts, to be too weak to take seriously. If you don't accept that Amazon pulled a fast one by supplying statistics barely relevant to their argument (by ignoring form factor shifting between eBook and paper), you won't accept my subsequent arguments either. That's fine -- I'm not here to bash people into submission.