Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
Using Amazon as an example of books available for sale might be a little bit suspect academically.
The above statement is problematic for me in that if the books were truly randomly selected, would these figure not be reflected in brick and mortar stores.
I have been in a lot of bookstores, both new and used and have yet to see one that books originally published 75 years ago outnumber newer works. I am sure they exist as specialty shops, but are probably few and far between.
[snip]
Basically the gist of the article is that if the book is free more people will try and exploit it. Nothing really wrong with that any more than other forms of legal exploitation such as selling something way above market price to people to stupid to know better. Not something I would do or approve of, but not my decision to make. Caveat Emptor.
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Yeah, there are significant problems with using Amazon as his sample, one of which is that *a lot* of people will publish their own editions of public domain books and try to get 99c for it. If you look for works by Jane Austen, you'll find dozens (more; I stopped counting) of editions of the same thing, all from people who have repackaged PG copies of Austen's work as their own and are trying to sell them for 99c.
Here's my favorite cover, BTW:
