Amazon's upsetting the publishers again

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by sabredog

This sounds a great idea. Many is the time I have had to ring around to used book stores in an increasing radius to track down an out of print title. Be great if a facility was in place to order a print on demand of a wanted out of print book with some funds going to the author.

Why not use the internet to find used books? Abebooks..?

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Why not use the internet to find used books? Abebooks..?

I do and for many years. But why spend a high price on a out of print book when there could an option to buy a PoD version?

[Ninjalawyer]

Originally Posted by Rob Lister

If Amazon they can print back list titles (where are they getting the source data for that?) then they can print new books just as easily. I can see where the publishers might have a few reservations with ceding that responsibility; they become dependent on Amazon.

Additionally, if Amazon can print the back-list books, why can't the publishers print them just as easily...cheaper, since they have the existing infrastructure? Many of them don't even copy-edit the ebooks correctly. Wouldn't they have to do the exact same copy-editing for PoD?

Presumably they are getting the source data directly from the publishers.

As for publisher printing, it would probably still be cheaper for Amazon to print as the publishers would still incur the cost of delivering books to Amazon's warehouse. Also, if Amazon is printing books for several publishers, they may end up printing far more books than any one publisher, resulting in savings due to economies of scale. Of course, the publishers don't want to give Amazon on advantage, and they would still need to maintain their printing and delivery infrastructure to retail their books in non-Amazon stores.

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by sabredog

I do and for many years. But why spend a high price on a out of print book when there could an option to buy a PoD version?

Don't know how it is in Australia but here in Germany it is usually not a major problem to get out of print titles very cheaply from various internet trading platforms, Amazon itself probably being the dominant one. These books tend to be new or hardly used and are usually much cheaper than a newly printed book.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Why not use the internet to find used books? Abebooks..?

Or, indeed, Amazon. That's where I buy most of my second-hand books these days.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

Don't know how it is in Australia but here in Germany it is usually not a major problem to get out of print titles very cheaply from various internet trading platforms, Amazon itself probably being the dominant one. These books tend to be new or hardly used and are usually much cheaper than a newly printed book.

I vaguely remember hearing that some of the pbooks sold as used in Germany are actually discounted new books. The used tag being just a workaround to the prohibition against discounting.

[Giggleton]

So Amazon wants to sell every book ever written, or that will ever be written.

That's fine, as long as the creator gets a cut right??

[petrucci]

This is rather interesting. It suggests that Amazon is making a significant enough profit from low volume items to warrant going to the trouble of arranging for POD rather than forgoing the sales. Most mega companies just opt to force the popular items down everyone's throat and make a huge profit. I think that it is indicative of the fracturing of the culture. Thus, we see lots of niche styles of music, websites, and types of books.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

Don't know how it is in Australia but here in Germany it is usually not a major problem to get out of print titles very cheaply from various internet trading platforms, Amazon itself probably being the dominant one. These books tend to be new or hardly used and are usually much cheaper than a newly printed book.

Postage is a killer for Amazon. I find eBay to be cheaper postage wise than either ABE or Amazon. I purchased my first book online from Amazon around 1999.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Postage is a killer for Amazon. I find eBay to be cheaper postage wise than either ABE or Amazon. I purchased my first book online from Amazon around 1999.

You wouldn't think so if you lived in the beautiful Sandwich Isles, I just got an order from Amazon, and the shipping and handling was just a bit under ten bucks US. The price of a USPS flat rate carton is about five dollars. So where did the other five dollars go? Yeah, I know; handling!

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Or, indeed, Amazon. That's where I buy most of my second-hand books these days.

I use www.bookfinder.com. They index Amazon, Abebooks, and many others.

UK note: www.bookfinder.co.uk leads to Waterstones! The British equivalent of our www.bookfinder.com is instead http://www.justbooks.co.uk/.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by wodin

You wouldn't think so if you lived in the beautiful Sandwich Isles, I just got an order from Amazon, and the shipping and handling was just a bit under ten bucks US. The price of a USPS flat rate carton is about five dollars. So where did the other five dollars go? Yeah, I know; handling!

Parcel air post rates from the US are very expensive now, compared to the UK. It often doubles the cost of the purchase.

[Kumabjorn]

BK (Before Kindle) I moved from making my purchases at US Amazon to UK Amazon simply because of customs and S&H. Buying books from US doubled the prize once S&H was added. Even checked the boxes, same size but if five instead of four books then it went up $8. Unfortunately some titles weren't available in UK so I still had to get them from US. The savings on S&H from going Kindle is staggering.