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#106 |
Gentleman and scholar
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#107 |
Still reading
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Sorry I left out, "the biggest".
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#108 |
Zealot
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Very few of the many dozens of Kindle titles on my wishlist have changed price. It's really disappointing and I too hope for an investigative follow up from journalists. Yes, the government was hoping to spin a little positivity their way in the midst of this pandemic, but absolutely the intention was for eBooks to fall in price, and as the biggest seller of eBooks, it is not unreasonable to have expected to see wholesale reductions on Amazon.
It is beyond the pale that publishers can set prices in this way. They cannot set prices for physical products in brick and mortar stores... They can only recommend a suggested selling price. Nintendo fell foul of these rules back in the 90s and since then have never openly even suggested a selling price for their products in Europe. Last edited by Arrghus; 05-04-2020 at 04:45 AM. |
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#109 | |
Interested Bystander
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#110 | |
Resident Curmudgeon
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The reason for dropping VAT on eBooks was to make eBooks cheaper so they will be more affordable and thus hopefully more people would be reading. But that's not happening. The prices are staying the same in most shops. Do the publishers not understand why there is a VAT removal on eBooks? |
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#111 |
Grand Sorcerer
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That's not going to happen.
That's Bertlesmann and they'll keep on buying up roadkill the world over to accumulate ever larger regional operations. Amazon's goal is to become the most *profitable* publisher. And they're already there. They don't publish as many titles as the BPHs but what they publish *sells*. Look at the top seller list at Amazon and it is dominated by APub titles month after month. And their books keep on selling well past the three month launch window. The way they got there was with finesse, not shoveling random stuff out like the BPHs. (The randy Penguin puts out 30,000-plus titles a year, in the US alone). They are the biggest publisher of translated international titles by inviting agents of local best sellers to big for APub translation contracts. They are now so big and so profitable that established authors come to them. Adding more titles is adding chum so they're not likely to bid for S&S or any other vulnerable publisher out there. Last edited by fjtorres; 05-04-2020 at 12:28 PM. |
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#112 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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If the long term result of this is more money to the publishers it's not their doing but rather the publishers'. And governments enduring stupidity; year after year tbey keep forgetting the Law of Unintended Consequences... https://whatis.techtarget.com/defini...d-consequences ...and they forget that humans aren't lemmings who blindly do only what the IdiotPoliticians™ intend but rather act in service of their own best interests. Having allowed publishers to control the pricing retailers can charge consumers instead of only the price retailers pay retailers, governments (and their supporters) can't now turn around and complain when publishers set prices to benefit *their* policies and retailers have no say. Now, add in that agency was *intended* to prevent retailer discounting and ensure ebook consumers pay as much as possible to minimize ebook adoption and protect print book volume. What are the odds those same publishers will drop prices to increase ebook sales? Seriously, the government types should have known better. Agency is tbe gift that keeps on giving. Whatever they thought (or claim) they were doing, what they did was give publishers more leeway on retail prices and profits, especially the latter. Laws don't work in a vaccum: having VATed ebooks for years they created a pricing baseline that people got used to paying. And since the VAT tax is hidden inside the price consumers see (and publishers control) there is no incentive for publishers to drop those prices. The books sold as desired at tbe VAT-ed price, they'll keep on selling equally well without it. But more profitably. If instead of hiding the VAT in the price it were added at checkout, the way sales taxes are, eliminating the government's take would automatically drop the consumer cost. But as is, the retailer has no power; Agency made sure of that. Folks can rant and rave against Amazon and Kobo all they want. The only response they'll get is a shrug. Governments are run by lawyers, not techies or business types; they can hardly be expected to understand things like interlocking systems, driver functions, or Unintended Consequences. It's all too complicated for their pretty little (photo op) heads.. ![]() Last edited by fjtorres; 05-04-2020 at 07:49 AM. |
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#113 |
Resident Curmudgeon
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However, we can vote with out wallets and not buy any eBooks that are not VAT reduced.
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#114 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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It's so they now can have four-martini lunches instead of three. ![]() It's their domain not ours. For now. Last edited by fjtorres; 05-04-2020 at 07:53 AM. |
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#115 |
Gentleman and scholar
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#116 |
Readaholic
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#117 | |
Wizard
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They can, without lying, claim that it is to benefit the royalties paid out to the authors. Without authors there is no books. And I will applaud them for trying to spin it that way. The only ones truly benefitting are the Indies and publishers that are willing to pass on the savings. Especially those that only publish ebooks. Price fixing didn't work out so well last time, I wouldn't mind if they shoot themselves in the foot again. |
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#118 | ||
Grand Sorcerer
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Here in the states, they are giving aid to businesses, anything similar going on in the UK that the publishers could use vs raising prices? |
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#119 | |
Wizard
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#120 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
EU vote this week to set same VAT on ebooks as books | Mort1997 | News | 18 | 10-27-2013 04:48 AM |
Bolivian president removes VAT on boooks | paola | News | 4 | 05-05-2013 10:19 PM |
VAT and books in the UK. | garygibsonsf | News | 2 | 09-07-2008 04:09 AM |