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This is way some countries like Germany have fixed book prices. They set a minimum price that the book needs to be sold at. This helps authors and also prevent

This is way some countries like Germany have fixed book prices. They set a minimum price that the book needs to be sold at. This helps authors and also prevents smaller book shops from being out competed by price. It is a pretty great system. Sure German books tend to be significantly more expensive than the English counter part but its not like I don't have already enough books in my pile of shame. And for those tight on money there is always libraries.

spacebanana7 2y ago
I don’t think that logic works well with digital goods. Because there is zero marginal cost, you always want more purchases even if the price is incredibly low. And digital goods can be infinitely large. Conceivably the combined works of JK Rowling or Tolkien could be sold as a single unit. Therefore able to cut beneath a minimum price.
- cardanome 2y ago
  The zero marginal cost makes fixed prices even more important. You production cost per unit is basically the cost of creating the book. The more units you sell, the lower the production cost per unit. So bestsellers make bank and are profitable even when sold at extremely low prices. In comparison a book with a limited niche will need to sell at a way higher price to be profitable. People will only buy a fixed amount of books. The idea is to give books of niche audiences a fighting chance. > Conceivably the combined works of JK Rowling or Tolkien could be sold as a single unit. Yes there is always pitfalls and loopholes to watch out for when defining such laws. I don't really see how this adds much to the discussion, as something like that would clearly violate the spirit and intention of the law. If it is legally possible it is because the law is implemented badly. Which could be but is another discussion.
  - spacebanana7 2y ago
    > In comparison a book with a limited niche will need to sell at a way higher price to be profitable. The internet brings a huge amount of people to even the smallest niches. In porn, niche fetish content is pretty much the same price as vanilla stuff on onlyfans, clips4sale etc. There are a couple of exceptions, but when I think about it, they generally correlate to production cost rather than niche size.

spacebanana7 2y ago

I don’t think that logic works well with digital goods. Because there is zero marginal cost, you always want more purchases even if the price is incredibly low. And digital goods can be infinitely large. Conceivably the combined works of JK Rowling or Tolkien could be sold as a single unit. Therefore able to cut beneath a minimum price.

cardanome 2y ago
The zero marginal cost makes fixed prices even more important. You production cost per unit is basically the cost of creating the book. The more units you sell, the lower the production cost per unit. So bestsellers make bank and are profitable even when sold at extremely low prices. In comparison a book with a limited niche will need to sell at a way higher price to be profitable. People will only buy a fixed amount of books. The idea is to give books of niche audiences a fighting chance. > Conceivably the combined works of JK Rowling or Tolkien could be sold as a single unit. Yes there is always pitfalls and loopholes to watch out for when defining such laws. I don't really see how this adds much to the discussion, as something like that would clearly violate the spirit and intention of the law. If it is legally possible it is because the law is implemented badly. Which could be but is another discussion.
- spacebanana7 2y ago
  > In comparison a book with a limited niche will need to sell at a way higher price to be profitable. The internet brings a huge amount of people to even the smallest niches. In porn, niche fetish content is pretty much the same price as vanilla stuff on onlyfans, clips4sale etc. There are a couple of exceptions, but when I think about it, they generally correlate to production cost rather than niche size.