Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
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Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
#2I have a hard time cognitively justifying most physical book purchasing anyways when internet shadow libraries have most of what I want to read.
Re: Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
#3In my country they put a mandatory minimum price on books because of "muh culture". Of course they could never enforce this globally so it lead to importing cheap books from America and the UK.
Re: Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
#4I have a hard time cognitively justifying most physical book purchasing anyways when internet shadow libraries have most of what I want to read.
What I am hearing is that while you like to read, you do not feel like authors bring enough value to the table for you to actually reward them for their work.
Re: Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
#5I have a hard time cognitively justifying most physical book purchasing anyways when internet shadow libraries have most of what I want to read.
I much prefer reading on paper, something about screens never allow me to get into a deeper state that reading books take me to.
I read a lot on my old Kindles, had a gen 1 and gen 2, it was easier than on a computer but still not the same experience as a book. Years later I had read many books on Kindle that I'd mention to people and... I could never let them borrow them, having physical copies also lets you share your favourite books to people you like.
Re: Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
#6I'm not sure this is the best defense of the publishing industry. That $35 ticket price for a hardcover can be avoided by buying used, renting, or an ebook (if cheaper). It's true that a physical copy grants you perpetual ownership, but the general public doesn't seem to value this that much, especially for a new copy. With the barriers to editing, formatting, promotion, and distribution never being lower, publishers need to make a better case for their form of the product other than "it's not that expensive historically."
Re: Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
#7Textbooks, on the other hand...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textbook#Market
> In the United States, the largest textbook publishers are [four companies]. Together they control 90% of market revenue
> Harvard economics chair James K. Stock has stated that new editions are often not about significant improvements to the content. "New editions are to a considerable extent simply another tool used by publishers and textbook authors to maintain their revenue stream, that is, to keep up prices."
> the primary factor contributing to increases in the price of textbooks has been the increased investment publishers have made in [bundled supplements e.g. one-time-use codes for a website] [...] the publishers' practice of packaging supplements with a textbook to sell as one unit limits the opportunity students have to purchase less expensive used books
Re: Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
#8I have a hard time cognitively justifying most physical book purchasing anyways when internet shadow libraries have most of what I want to read.
What I am hearing is that while you like to read, you do not feel like authors bring enough value to the table for you to actually reward them for their work.
In most cases that is also true, although in rare cases I will buy physical copies of certain books for that reason.
Re: Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
#9Oh god, this argument again?! They used the same argument for video games. "Oh stop complaining about our 80$ AAA video games, because NES games would cost you 60$ back then which is a lot more than 80$ today when adjusted for inflation."
Yes we know, games and books are cheaper today when adjusted for inflation (along with stuff like phones, TVs, washing machines, etc) but you know what isn't cheaper? Everything else that's necessary for living: housing, bills, healthcare, education.
So when people today have way less disposable income at the end of the month due to the massive CoL increases, they're not gonna be swayed to buy your books or games, with the argument that when adjusted for inflation they actually cost less than in the past.
So the game and book publishers need to adapt to the new economic realities of their customers if they want to survive. You can't argue them into buying your stuff via inflation arguments, if they have less money.
Less of an issue with gaming that's self regulating now via massive losses of AAA studios and a surge of indie games but IIRC book publishing is more complex.
Normally, free market competition should fix this, but the problem is, unlike the race to the bottom TVs and washing machines, book publishing isn't always a free market but more of a cartel run by a few mafia monopolies and interest groups.
Re: Books Are Not Remotely Too Expensive
#10I have a hard time cognitively justifying most physical book purchasing anyways when internet shadow libraries have most of what I want to read.
If you don't have the money, you don't have the money. IMHO I'd rather have people without the means pirate books rather than go without. (Though the library is usually an option.)
But if you do have the means, drop the author some bucks for their work. And I can assure you, it's a lot of work. My tip jar doesn't get a lot of action, but when it does, I'm very appreciative. Here's someone who appreciated the work enough to drop me a few dollars for my labors when they didn't even have to.