4 ms·

It's about time. Now let's see the same trend in eBook pricing. Completely inflated for the moment.

apress 16y ago
Tough for them to do anything about that because of agency pricing imposed by all the major publishers (even Random House recently got on board). Not sure why that's not collusion, but there you go. Separately, with free cloud locker storage and now lower prices, should anyone be buying songs from iTunes anymore?
- danilocampos 16y ago
  Yeah, let the authors sidestep the publishers as time goes on. They'll incur less overhead (dozens of unnecessary salaries that don't exist), keep more money and sell their product cheaper. The publishers will have to fall into line and sell the product at a price more in line with its value.
  - bkudria 16y ago
    The problem is, that is often throwing out the baby with the bathwater: editors. I think self-publishing will only take off after editors begin going freelance.
  - rubergly 16y ago
    I think you're ignoring the fact that there's much more to publishers than just printing a physical copy of a book and shipping it to shelves. There's marketing, editing, screening, etc. Think what looking for books would be like if there was no quality screening or editing and you had to wade through an online catalog of thousands of books of crap just to have the off chance of happening to see a quality book.
    - danilocampos 16y ago
      Oh, sure, that's a valuable service. But it's definitely one that's bloated by way more salaries in the current model than are really needed. Moreover, this is the internet age. People develop direct relationships with people who write things they like. You don't need a publisher to tell you that you'll want to read, say, Paul Graham's book.
- ugh 16y ago
  This only affects all the popular crap and cloud locker storage is not available in Europe.
orijing 16y ago
Maybe Amazon can have a publishing label that hires freelance editors. Amazon already handles a large portion of the publishing role, which is marketing.

Tough for them to do anything about that because of agency pricing imposed by all the major publishers (even Random House recently got on board). Not sure why that's not collusion, but there you go. Separately, with free cloud locker storage and now lower prices, should anyone be buying songs from iTunes anymore?

danilocampos 16y ago
Yeah, let the authors sidestep the publishers as time goes on. They'll incur less overhead (dozens of unnecessary salaries that don't exist), keep more money and sell their product cheaper. The publishers will have to fall into line and sell the product at a price more in line with its value.
- bkudria 16y ago
  The problem is, that is often throwing out the baby with the bathwater: editors. I think self-publishing will only take off after editors begin going freelance.
- rubergly 16y ago
  I think you're ignoring the fact that there's much more to publishers than just printing a physical copy of a book and shipping it to shelves. There's marketing, editing, screening, etc. Think what looking for books would be like if there was no quality screening or editing and you had to wade through an online catalog of thousands of books of crap just to have the off chance of happening to see a quality book.
  - danilocampos 16y ago
    Oh, sure, that's a valuable service. But it's definitely one that's bloated by way more salaries in the current model than are really needed. Moreover, this is the internet age. People develop direct relationships with people who write things they like. You don't need a publisher to tell you that you'll want to read, say, Paul Graham's book.
ugh 16y ago
This only affects all the popular crap and cloud locker storage is not available in Europe.

orijing 16y ago

Maybe Amazon can have a publishing label that hires freelance editors. Amazon already handles a large portion of the publishing role, which is marketing.