Have you noticed how book prices have been creeping higher every publishing season? The publishing industry doesn’t think we care about, or even notice, the difference between a US$26 book and a US$30 book.
According to Dennis Loy Johnson’s article on AlterNet, (Johnson also publishes the excellent Moby lives website) there are several reasons why book prices are so high.
Citing the US$8 million advance Charles Frazier received from Randon House for a one-page “idea” for a second novel, Johnson writes that outrageous author advances undoubtedly contribute to the problem.
Barnes & Noble chairman Leonard Riggio blames the publishers, calling the list prices established by publishers “abominations” and claims to be taking “decisive actions” to force publishers to give the bookstore chain bigger discounts. The first B&N “decisive action” has been to publish its own cheap editions of works that have reverted to the public domain, market them heavily in the front of every Barnes & Noble store, and shelve competing titles in the hinterlands (if the competing titles are stocked at all).
The publishers are, without exception, staying publicly quiet on the issue. In private, they’re seething. It’s simple to do the math. Barnes & Noble recently settled a lawsuit that claimed the bookstore chain coerced independent publishers into giving B&N higher discounts—allegedly as high as 60%.
At that rate, Barnes and Noble is making significantly more off each sale than the author and the publisher combined.
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