Slashdot Mirror
Amazon & Used Books II: Bezos Strikes Back
theodp writes: "Last week's call for authors to de-link Amazon from their sites has reportedly prompted Jeff Bezos to fire off a letter to all Amazon Marketplace sellers, asking them to help out by sending e-mail on Amazon's behalf in response to the Guild's call for Amazon to stop placing prominent used book ads on each title's main web entry and soliciting new books purchasers to resell their books through Amazon shortly after purchase.
Bezos wants everyone to be 'super-clear' that Amazon.com is supportive of and good for authors, indicating that Amazon's steep discounting of new titles and royalty-less sales of used books are two examples of how Amazon helps the book industry and
authors. Good to see Jeff's found a new cause, since it looks like he's done with up patent reform."
"Bezos wants everyone to be 'super-clear' that Amazon.com is supportive of and good for authors," - so that's why the Guild of authors wrote:
"Amazon's practice does damage to the publishing industry,.."?
Video Game cheats, hints a
Libraries already pay extra for books because they loan them out (at least they do in the U.K. anyway).
Video Game cheats, hints a
If I go to a book signing an author I do not expect the author to tell me to check the book out of the library. I fully expect them to try to get me to buy a book from the book store they are signing in front of. I don't feel they are against libraries or used books for doing this.
This doesn't make them "anti-library" any more than the Toyota dealer not sending customers to Tony's Used Toyota Dealer makes them anti-car-rental-agencies or anti-used-cars. It's common business practice not to recommend customers shop somewhere else!
What the guild is saying is that Amazon by pushing used book sales on the same page as the new book sales for recently released books damages an authors sales by pushing customers to used books. Authors should consider linking to Barnes and Noble or some such site instead of referring potential readers to Amazon.
There is no slippery slope here, move along.
I think the guild is well within their rights to try to maximize their sales by referring potential customers to new book sellers (where they make money) rather than to used book sellers (where they don't). I think Amazon is well within their rights to push their used book sales.
Frankly this whole thread is pretty stupid.
Go to www.addall.com to do a mass search online for the cheapest book (this includes half.com, B&N, Borders, etc.)
Go to www.addall.com/used in order to find even better deals. This searches mom and pop sites and helps you find things that are out of print.
I have bought so many books this way. Almost all of the prices BEAT any used price that you'll get at Amazon, Half.com, etc.
Quality paperback and hardbacks cost about the same to produce. What you see in lower paperback prices is what is called by economists "price discrimination," that is, an attempt to cherry pick those willing to pay a higher price (hardback buyers) and still include those who only are willing to pay a lower price (those willing to wait for the paperback version.)
The only way to get paperbacks for $5 is to print them on crappy paper, with the cheapest binding, or go the Dover route and forbid bookstore returns.
And as for profit margins, 99% is laughable. Funny, on this marvelous invention called the Internet it is possible to look up profit margins on publishing companies and find out, for instance, that Penguin books, for instance, had a 12.9% operating margin in 2001. This with what they call a "record year" on the bestseller lists.
I was happy to find my Photoshop book [associate link] available used through Amazon. $45 new is too much for students and the book is now 3 versions out of date anyway. But at reasonable used prices people still buy and like it and the fact that its still talked about puts me in a better position to negotiate the next edition.
The used price of a new (as in not-yet-outdated) tech book is a useful indicator of much people value it. Horrah for people's ability to dump crappy books. It will encourage better writing.
They don't pay extra for them in the U.S. I used to work at one and we frequently ordered new books from Amazon, as a matter of fact. They (this was roughly two years ago) gave libraries a nice discount on top of the discount they already gave for anyone who happened to buy the book.
Everyone seems to think the authors are trying to outlaw used books. They are doing no such thing. They don't like the fact that Amazon is selling used books almost immediately when the new ones go on sale (and I can understand their frustration with this). The Guild's response is to encourage it's members not to link to Amazon, but rather one of the other online bookseller that does no do this. It makes perfect sense for them to do this. Why send people to site where they may end up buying a copy of your book used (and you will get no money from it) when you can send them to another online bookseller where this isn't likely to happen? They don't like how Amazon is doing business, so they are trying to send their business elsewhere. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
This is not necessarilly true. There are five states of books not in the hands of happy readers: new on the shelf; in the trash/recycle bin/fireplace; bought new then put on sale as used; considered non-sale by the store, with cover ripped off to prevent resale, and eventually either destroyed, sold in that state for dirt-cheap, or returned to distributor/publisher (rare); and finally, written off as a non-sale to the publisher, then sold in new condition anyways at dirt-cheap.
The first two conditions we don't care about.
Right of First Sale protects the 3rd condition (bought new, resold used). This is still, probably, what most used sales are.
The worrysome issue is when the new-store retailer has written-off the book as damaged, destroyed, or after a limited time, unsold. Sometimes the retailer and publisher can negotiate a lower royalty rate for unsold books (books are never returned anymore because shipping costs are too prohibitive; this is unlike cds, b.t.w.)...this results in the bargain-bin setups at BN and Borders.
But when the retailer has written off a book as unsold and the publisher doesn't want it back (as noted, they never do), the retailer is supposed to damage or destroy the book themselves. The author's guild is worried that Amazon may be taking books they've written off as unsold and selling them as used anyways (which is probably illegal under breach of contract, or at least really really bad form). This results in amazon selling new-quality merchandise at no royalty to distributor or publisher (or author), directly in competition with still selling the book at full price as it is still in their system as being "in print", but would require ordering from the publisher again.
Or at least, that's my interpretation of the guild's concerns...
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
There are all sort of ways that such technology can affect the book market...
If Amazon can make the used book market very liquid, people will be willing to pay more for a new book, since they know they can resell it.
If we can develop a DRM technology which is effective and respects fair use, authors can sell directly to their readers, and publishers will go out of buisness.
Finally, if new technology means that we can meet the demand for reading material with fewer authors, then the authors should adapt to the new society (i.e. get another job) rather than the society adapting to them. Imagine if, 200 years ago when our society was 50% farmers, we had banned new agricultural technology on the grounds that it might mean having fewer farmers.
I spend between USD$4-6,000 annually on books, 90% of those purchased new. For storage and interest reasons, I don't keep them all. Previously I took them to the used book store or the library give-away.
Now I sell some fraction of them (in the several hundreds a year) on Amazon -- the rest go to my traditional local outlets. So I ask: what's the problem? The money I get goes to buy other (typically new) books. The books would have ended up at a used bookstore anyway. Many of the sellers on Amazon are used bookstores themselves (including Powells, the famous bookstore in Portland).
Amazon is being criticized for making it even easier to do something that people have always done: sell and buy used books. Yes, let's go punish all those companies who introduce efficiencies in the marketplace. How dare they! Used bookstores promote more widespread reading and allow people to investigate authors that they would not (yet) pay new book prices for.
Used book sales may cannibalize some small part of new book sales, but it's got to be minimal. After all, we don't see the big box booksellers collapsing from the market pressure of all the little local used bookstores -- quite the opposite.
You are mistaken. Libraries in the UK (and certain other countries we have reciprocal agreements with) pay what is called a PLR (Public Lending Right). Basically a record of which books have been borrowed is kept, and a small fee is paid for each one.
His letter to the Authors' Guild is at http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/1291