Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
That's the point: you consider it to be ridiculous, but nonetheless they sell. Hardbacks truly are the cash cow for publishers, and that's why hardbacks and paperbacks are windowed.
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Hardbacks are profitable, if the audience who buy at the high price is large enough. I guess the main factor for buying hardcover is that the book is new. Of course there are the people who buy hardcover because they strongly prefer it. But I guess most buy it, because they want to read the book now.
At least in germany, there are many books never sold as hardcovers. I think the pool of people who would buy them is just to small to make it profitable. Many genres are like this, only the highest profile authors sometimes get a hardcover (like Pratchett).