Amazon Is Eliminating List Prices

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The vast majority of books in B&M bookshops in the UK are sold at the cover price.

Indeed?
On this side of the pond it's the opposite...for hardcovers.
Paperbacks mostly sell for list but hardcovers almost always get at least get a 10% discount, even in non-chain stores. The B&M chains usually do 25-30%.

Considering the chains get 45-50% off list (or even higher, these days) that makes list pretty much meaningless. Well, except as an instrument to depress royalty payments...

Dunno if your publishers pull this kind of thing:

http://kriswrites.com/2016/07/13/bus...sdealbreakers/

...but for the Manhattan Mafia it's a way of life to artificially boost the list price so the price they charge chains qualifies for "deep discount" clauses and they boost their take while depressing the author's cut.

Kinda explains why so few titles "earn out".

[DiapDealer]

I honestly never look at the list price anymore (never really did with pbooks in a B&M store in the pre-ebook era, either). It's been irrelevant to me for decades. I know what price I commonly pay for things, and use that to gauge any potential "deals" (though most of my decisions are predicated on "I want this, and it's a price I'm comfortable paying"-type of criteria).

Are typical readers really that easily manipulated by list-price inflation tricks? I think it's more a publisher/retailer/author game (like @ftorres mentioned) than a tactic to trick consumers. In the U.S., the price printed on the book has been drastically different than what a store has sold them for a long, long time. So who are the poor, huddled masses of buyers being fooled that we suddenly need to "protect" from this heinous manipulation?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

So who are the poor, huddled masses of buyers being fooled that we suddenly need to "protect" from this heinous manipulation?

Twelve year olds...?
No, today's tweens are too savvy... They won't even buy magic beans or sea monkeys.
Let me think... Eight year olds?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Twelve year olds...?
No, today's tweens are too savvy... They won't even buy magic beans or sea monkeys.
Let me think... Eight year olds?

Everybody should buy sea monkeys. And everybody should pay for a ticket to see the "Six Foot Man Eating Chicken" at the carnival (even if you know full-well what you're going to see beforehand).

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Everybody should buy sea monkeys. And everybody should pay for a ticket to see the "Six Foot Man Eating Chicken" at the carnival (even if you know full-well what you're going to see beforehand).

Can I have magic rocks too?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Twelve year olds...?
No, today's tweens are too savvy... They won't even buy magic beans or sea monkeys.
Let me think... Eight year olds?

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Everybody should buy sea monkeys. And everybody should pay for a ticket to see the "Six Foot Man Eating Chicken" at the carnival (even if you know full-well what you're going to see beforehand).

Sea monkeys are real

[Red Falcon]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Sea monkeys are real

Is that a picture of you, Tubemonkey.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Red Falcon

Is that a picture of you, Tubemonkey.

Yep; a banana boat capsized and I'm heading a salvage team recovering its cargo