Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
HarryT,
I think some people are trying to make mountains out of ant hills. Sugar ants not fire ants.
It is nothing new or different that new releases and best sellers are almost always priced higher.
The only conspiracy is that the companies are capitalizing on PROFITS, because they know the average consumer will pay their prices.
Oh wait, that isn't a conspiracy. It is smartly running a business.
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That would be a reasonable explanation...if their revenues were in fact growing. They aren't. It might be a reasonable move if it improved their competitive position in the market but it isn't.
What they are seeing is double digit revenue declines in their higgest margin format and no offsetting increases in their lower margin format...
...and the market is still growing and they aren't growing with it, so their share of sales (and market power) is declining...
...and their suppliers are seeing less income and are starting to (oh so quietly) ask for a bigger share of the declining pie...
...and they are publicly complaining they aren't getting as many good manuscripts to choose from...
...and they are publicly complaining about having to dish out bigger advances for the "good" manuscripts they do see...
...and the one good bit of news keeping them from truly dismal financial results is the (faddish?) boom in adult coloring books...
These aren't supposed to be stupid people so when they engage in clearly self-defeating behavior against all advice, one has to wonder what they could possibly be thinking. And, lets face it, they do have a track record of conspiracies.
(Shrug)
I'm not about to speculate about why they are behaving as they are. I have my own ideas of what drives them but it really doesn't matter. The facts and trends are the only things that matter. And those are public knowledge.