Are books too expensive?

[iansales]

I just came back from a charity shop with five books - three collections by Brian Aldiss, from 1985 and in perfect nick; a Don DeLillo hardback; and a DH Lawrence omnibus.

I have two cardboard boxes filled with books I've always wanted to read which I've picked up cheap in charity shops...

 

[biodroid]

In South Africa we only have 3 book retailers and not much competition between them as some hardcovers go for R280 and paperbacks can go up to R150

 

[Montero]

Yikes, used the currency converter - £13 for a paperback.

I'm over an hour's drive from any bookstore large enough to have a sf section, so I buy from Amazon.co.uk. What I notice is that the US printed paperbacks tend to be of the £5 region and many of the UK ones are £7+. (Though not all, Solaris re-prints are cheaper.)

CDs - well I'm mostly buying Naxos classical music, so that is £5 too.

 

[Montero]

Going back to the original title question. It comes back to can the people in the whole production chain make a living from it. (Writer, publisher, artist, printer, distributor, seller.)

I don't really know enough about the details for an answer to that.

If we do move to some form of electronic book, distributed on CD or download, which has the potential to be cheaper for the reader, then that's all the artists, printer, papermakers, hard copy distributors stuffed.

 

[GOLLUM]

As Diggler has alluded to, books in OZ are fairly expensive. Luckily there are plenty of good online deals available and being in Melbourne we're blessed with a multitude of top quality second-hand bookstores and markets in addition to boutique literary shops and the larger bookstore chains. If you are prepared to shop around you can get some pretty decent discounts on most books I've found; usually upwards of 50%.

 

[nixie]

My last purchase of new books from the high street.

Glen Cook's Black Company £14.99, Waterstones

Dreamsongs George R.R Martin £2.99, The Works.

I always browse in The Works as sometimes you can pick up some bargains, I can go months without finding anything but every now and then I find some gems.

Stephen Donaldson's Mordant's Need £1.99 and Fatal Revenant £2.99.

The large stores never seem to reduce prices.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

There's a reason most of my books are secondhand. I don't need them brand new to enjoy them, and used books tend to be far cheaper than they would be new.

 

[nixie]

I do buy a lot of second hand but I also try when ever possible to buy new. For the simple reason authors don't get a cut of the used priced and most authors I think struggle to scrape out a living.

 

[paranoid marvin]

In the UK , most (mainstream) novels tend to sell initially for a lower price than at later times , as high-street stores compete to grab buyers.

cost of CD vs novels - well CDs (I would imagine) cost an awful lot less to produce than do books (especially hardbacks) ; then again CDs are easier to pirate meaning (relatively) lower sales

As for value for money - as others have said a good novel is worth whatever you pay , while a poor one is worth nothing.

There are millions of novels that have been written ,and there are countless pages of quality reading waiting to be read in second-hand bookstores and libraries across the land. You could spend the rest of your life reading great works of literature without the need to ever go out and buy a new one.


I actually feel quite sad and in awe when I go to my local library and bookstore , knowing that there are literally thousands of novels there that I will never know existed , simply because there will never be the time to read them . Maybe hidden away amongst the many shelves there is one that I would find to be a life-changing experience , one I would cherish for the rest of my life and would affect me so much on an emotional scale that it would change my outlook on life forever ; and it will sit there undiscovered until the day I die

 

[dask]

Whatever the reason, new books are too expensive, at least for me, whether hard or paper bound. Perhaps my memory isn't serving me well but it sure seems like it was easier as a high school student buying a new fifty or sixty cent paperback than it is now as a full-time employee spending seven, eight or even nine bucks on the same thing. Unless it's something really special I buy second hand and bargain hunt constantly.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

What ever the reason new books are too expensive, at least for me, whether hard or paper bound. Perhaps my memory isn't serving me well but it sure seems like it was easier as a high school student buying a new fifty or sixty cent paperback than it is now as a full-time employee spending seven, eight or even nine bucks on a new paperback. Unless it's something really special I buy second hand and bargain hunt constantly.

Well, maybe you had allowance back then that would allow for spending a dollar or two at a time, and then there's the lack of bills, generally, as a high school student.

I used to be able to spend every dime I ever earned on books, new and used. I shamefully haven't bought one for quite a while now, since before I broke my leg....and that was seven months ago.

 

[dask]

I think you're right. No allowance (and no bills either) but I did make book and comic money helping school friends with their paper routes, so it wasn't as if I was completely broke, just close to it. It still seems like it was easier to scrape up fifty cents back then than it would eight dollars today, but I can't be sure --- I'm not a real kid anymore.

 

[iansales]

There's two discussion here, and they don't have much in common.

In the UK, we had the Net Book Agreement, which artificially kept the price of books high. It was abolished in 1997.

In the US, there was no NBA, so prices were purely market-driven. You did have Thor Power Tool Company v Commissioner in 1979, however.

 

[Moggle]

I believe new books are too expensive, however with that said I think used books are dirt cheap! I used to buy comic books which cost $3 a pop for 25 pages of drawings and I think they've now gone up to $4 an issue. A paperback for $8 is nothing compared to that. The used book market greatly offsets the cost of new books so there's really nothing to complain about.

 

[iansales]

Problem is, none of those who actually created the book - the writer or publisher - gets any money from the sale of used books.

 

[chongjasmine]

I find the price of books in general to be quite affordable. Books cost around S$16-20, and better quality books may cost around S$30-40 over but books are still comparable cheaper than shoes, bags, electronic goods etc. The price of games, I find, costs more than books.

Maybe the relative expensiveness of books may be due in part to its production cost. It is much cheaper to produce a CD than a bunches of papers.

 

[Vladd67]

Problem is, none of those who actually created the book - the writer or publisher - gets any money from the sale of used books.

Well in any used market the original creators don't see any of the money. It would seem that the software industry seems to be determined to kill off the used game market by introducing security measures which mean only the original owner of a game can use it making it worthless as a second-hand item, I can see the same thing happening with ebooks so they cannot be passed on or shared.

 

[Connavar]

Problem is, none of those who actually created the book - the writer or publisher - gets any money from the sale of used books.

Thats why i dont buy second hand books of my fav authors when the book is in print which often they are. I want the writer to sell more,see his good work is supported. Too many writers has been dumped by their publishers over the years for lack of sales.

Second hand books are for me only authors i havent read before or a very rare book of a fav author i could never buy as new.

 

[iansales]

Given the existence of the second-hand market - for books, CDs or DVDs - it makes DRM seem hypocritical. Except, of course, when you sell on an electronic copy, you can keep one for yourself. Abd you can sell it "second-hand" multiple times. You can't do that for a paperback book. Which is not to say that I'm for DRM.

Conn, I support my favourite authors - well, those in print - and many of my friends by buying their books when they come out in hardback. But I also buy a lot of second-hand books - first editions of old writers whose works I collect, for example.

 

[Moggle]

Problem is, none of those who actually created the book - the writer or publisher - gets any money from the sale of used books.

Not directly, but indirectly they do, because the sale of used books helps to sell new books.