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Originally Posted by Leaping Gnome
The whole "price is set by the publisher" is a bunch of crap I think.
<snip> It's up to Sony to insure their profits, I can't see them handing that control over to a publisher. |
You're right, it is a bit ... oversimplified, at best, disingenuous, at worst. It's probably more accurate to say that the publisher controls what price they sell the product to Sony, and Sony adds some standard markup on top of it, both to cover whatever costs they have, and for their profit margin.
You're right that bookstore prices vary, but where they vary is actually on their own markup. They like to call it a discount, since the "real" price is there for the world to see on the cover that the publisher applied to the book, and they're charging you less than that, aren't they?
If I recall correctly (from 10 or 12 years ago), that printed-on cover price is a 40% markup from the wholesale price (somebody with more recent knowledge on the matter, please update me!), so when you 'save 10%' at Amazon, you're actually paying 90% of 140%, or 126% (a ~26% markup) of what Amazon paid the publisher for the book. They may, of course have volume discounts too, just to make things interesting.
As for why the ConnStore can't seem to get/keep the prices straightened out, updated, etc., I totally agree with you there, L.G. -- I don't see any question but that the ConnStore is in serious need of a few folks who have ... a better idea of how to set up and run such things.
