plunging in

[gfish]

I know I should stay clear of Amazonfail, but I just want to say that a publisher which can't make a profit selling $9 etexts (or $5, or $2) deserves to go bankrupt. If amortized editing and design costs are really the lion's share of a physical book, the system is deeply, deeply broken.

(Even applying design costs to the etext version is largely ridiculous. How much design work does an etext need? I'd prefer it as a raw text file anyway, but a LaTeX-generated PDF would also be just fine as well. The only reason for fancy design in the first place is to catch people's attention in a store. Etext selection and browsing is nothing like that, so why bother with it in the first place? Tradition? Snob factor? Anything that can't be seen in the scaled down image of the book cover in an Amazon listing is a complete waste of money.)

I remain unconvinced of the long-term viability of selling data as a business model. But if you want to find a way for authors to make money, don't make it even harder by trying to defend these dinosaurs at the same time.

Comments

[maribou]

My problem is that for YEARS and YEARS they were telling everyone that the reason book prices kept skyrocketing was because of the increased costs of physical things like printing, shipping, warehousing... I heard this as a consumer & as a bookseller.

And now, suddenly, they are saying "oh no no, that's a tiny part of the total price, only about 10 percent." without any recognition that they used to be blaming it for everything. I tend to suspect the current version is the truth, but -

Do they think people are completely lacking in accumulated memory??

[tithonium.livejournal.com]

Yes. Same problem that politicians have.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

I think it was "pulp prices" when comic books went through the roof ... and never came back down.