4 ms·

I would totally buy his book if I didn't find the prices of tech books to be completely absurd. I remember how for 15 years VHS movies cost from $79.95 to $119

by bugsy 15y ago

I would totally buy his book if I didn't find the prices of tech books to be completely absurd. I remember how for 15 years VHS movies cost from $79.95 to $119.95 because they figured their only customers were video rental stores. The problem was they were selling each movie once for $80 instead of selling it 500 times for $20. Since fixing their flawed pricing model, far more movies are sold than before, to the point that rental stores have all but disappeared. Could a similar thing be happening with books? Perhaps they are pricing for library use, where many users are expected to read one book. Or perhaps they are targeting captive audiences like in colleges where impoverished youth are shaken down. Usability failure? Market failure? Or smart pricing model? I'd buy a decently bound paperback as is being offered of this length and interest for $9.95 to $17.95. But I won't pay $35-44, not even close. The question is, how many others are out there like me that represent lost sales. Maybe I am the only one. In that case, $44 is the right price. Or why not even $99.

LukasMathis 15y ago
I didn't set the price, but I will note that tech books typically only sell small numbers, regardless of price. It's a small target market.
- bugsy 15y ago
  It's only a small market if your publisher keeps telling himself that. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Sure there are tech books on antenna design for satellites that don't sell many copies. But there are other topics that are of far more board interest. Usability is one of them. As of May, 2002, the U.S. Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics says there are approximately 562,700 computer programmers in the U.S. That's just one job title and the field has grown since then. There's also software engineers, web designers, programmer-analysts, etc. Easily a couple million jobs. Paperback like you have there costs $2.87 to print in quantity 3000 in Singapore. There's a lot of flexibility in working with the price. I would experiment with it but that's just me. Presumably your publisher has experimented. But maybe he hasn't. Perhaps he assumes that the potential number of people interested is less than 2 million. Perhaps he thinks it is 100 or 200. I bet it's more than that though.
  - LukasMathis 15y ago
    Fair enough. You make a good argument. Maybe lowering the price would increase revenue; I don't know.

by bugsy 15y ago

LukasMathis 15y ago

I didn't set the price, but I will note that tech books typically only sell small numbers, regardless of price. It's a small target market.

bugsy 15y ago
It's only a small market if your publisher keeps telling himself that. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Sure there are tech books on antenna design for satellites that don't sell many copies. But there are other topics that are of far more board interest. Usability is one of them. As of May, 2002, the U.S. Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics says there are approximately 562,700 computer programmers in the U.S. That's just one job title and the field has grown since then. There's also software engineers, web designers, programmer-analysts, etc. Easily a couple million jobs. Paperback like you have there costs $2.87 to print in quantity 3000 in Singapore. There's a lot of flexibility in working with the price. I would experiment with it but that's just me. Presumably your publisher has experimented. But maybe he hasn't. Perhaps he assumes that the potential number of people interested is less than 2 million. Perhaps he thinks it is 100 or 200. I bet it's more than that though.
- LukasMathis 15y ago
  Fair enough. You make a good argument. Maybe lowering the price would increase revenue; I don't know.