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Old 12-09-2008, 12:54 PM   #40
ficbot
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I think the problem is that as customers have seized more control over (and input into) the commercial process in other areas, they expect to do so in this one too, and what the publishers want and expect is fundamentally different from what the customers want and expect. To give you an example, I remember when over the summer, the Canadian dollar hit parity with the US dollar, and Canadian readers started complaining about the much higher Canadian sticker price for books in general. The publishers responded not by lowering prices, but by printing editorials in the paper explaining why the costs were higher, and what the reasons were which we did not understand, and why we should pay the higher prices when we could go on-line and get them much cheaper or get our American relatives to send them to us. And did customers respond by saying 'okay, that makes sense' and patriotically Supporting Canada by paying the higher price? Of course not. And why should they?

So we have every blogegr saying 'it is unreasonable to charge hardback prices' and every publisher saying 'no it's not' and it's a big mess because side A has the actual power to buy or not buy no matter what side B says, but they can't buy if side B doesn't choose to sell...
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