Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
This is one part of the definiation from Merriam Webster ( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commodity)
I presume this is the part of the definition to which you refer. It seems to me that if books were not a commodity before the Kindle and self-publishing (and they were even then) they certainly are now. Isn't this what the large publishers feared and expressed through Authors United with all that rubbish about devaluing books. They thought by keeping supply limited and prices high books would avoid books becoming a commodity in this sense. Of course, as you suggest, the answer is not black and white. But in my view books were a commodity even then and are even more so now. In fact, with the advent of self-publishing, classically so. And the attempts of Big Publishing to differentiate their own products on the basis of quality have so far been a dismal failure. |
Neither cars nor books are commodities.
Food is a commodity. Oil is a commodity.
Cars and books can be luxuries.
This discussion is fun.