4 ms·

The problem is that bookstores charge too much money. Borders will sell my book for $49 when it comes out, whereas you can preorder it from Amazon for around $

by bphogan 16y ago

The problem is that bookstores charge too much money. Borders will sell my book for $49 when it comes out, whereas you can preorder it from Amazon for around $22 which is about what it costs to buy the ebook copy right from the publisher. Then my book won't sell because it's too expensive, so we'll have to buy it back from Borders and I'll get charged against my royalties for a "return". It's not e-books, it's that the prices are too high. Amazon has every book Borders has, and if I ship the thing overnight I still end up with a cheaper copy than it would cost to buy it across town. Going out of business is the result of not meeting customer demand, either in terms of relevance, quality, or in this case, price.

electromagnetic 16y ago
There's the additional problem that a traditional book store has huge advantage in selling limited edition signed copies of books, which I've seen in local book stores many times, but I've yet to see in a big name book store. I remember seeing a Charles Stross book selling for around $50 signed. I saw a signed Nights Dawn Trilogy for what would have been $400... all used books. I wanted to ask what the signed (second edition IIRC) copy of The Colour of Magic was going for, but I didn't dare as it was locked up behind the counter and I knew I'd want it!
w1ntermute 16y ago
> The problem is that bookstores charge too much money. What exactly do you expect them to do? Do you have any idea of the overhead of running a bookstore? It's easy to say that Borders should match Amazon's price, but if you take one look at an Amazon fulfillment center, you'll see a gap that simply can't be closed.
- shpxnvz 16y ago
  What exactly do you expect them to do? Do you have any idea of the overhead of running a bookstore? I suppose he expects them to go out of business. The cost of operating a bookstore is irrelevant to the buyer - if the overhead is such that they can't either compete on price or otherwise differentiate their product or experience to justify the cost difference, then abandoning the business model seems like the only choice.

by bphogan 16y ago

electromagnetic 16y ago

There's the additional problem that a traditional book store has huge advantage in selling limited edition signed copies of books, which I've seen in local book stores many times, but I've yet to see in a big name book store. I remember seeing a Charles Stross book selling for around $50 signed. I saw a signed Nights Dawn Trilogy for what would have been $400... all used books. I wanted to ask what the signed (second edition IIRC) copy of The Colour of Magic was going for, but I didn't dare as it was locked up behind the counter and I knew I'd want it!

w1ntermute 16y ago

> The problem is that bookstores charge too much money. What exactly do you expect them to do? Do you have any idea of the overhead of running a bookstore? It's easy to say that Borders should match Amazon's price, but if you take one look at an Amazon fulfillment center, you'll see a gap that simply can't be closed.

shpxnvz 16y ago
What exactly do you expect them to do? Do you have any idea of the overhead of running a bookstore? I suppose he expects them to go out of business. The cost of operating a bookstore is irrelevant to the buyer - if the overhead is such that they can't either compete on price or otherwise differentiate their product or experience to justify the cost difference, then abandoning the business model seems like the only choice.