Why do books cost so much?

me ^ | November 19, 2001 | Me

[JoeSchem]

Anyone else notice that the price of books is getting absurd? I mean, a paperback that sold for $.50 in the seventies will now go for $7 or $8. That's way out of line with the general inflation rate.

Then you've got the 'trade' paperbacks, which run to $14 on average. It's been a long time since I've bought a new hard cover, but I believe they're going for $25 on average.

It's the free market -- or is it? You would think that the Computer Revolution would drive down the cost of publication, but it seems to be going the other way!

[Age of Reason]

I used to work for Warner Bros. music, and trust me when I say they don't need anymore money. Burn away!

I am with you!

I'd love for the music industry (industry, not art) to be put out of business by the net and high technology.

After all, it was high tech that enabled the music industry to grow to such monstrous proportions.

What high-tech giveth, high-tech taketh away. LOL.

And don't tell me that without the prospects of making millions, there'd be no incentive for people to make music.

Seems to me, the more money musicians make, the worse their music is.

Remember, Mozart was buried in pauper's field.

J. S. Bach lived a comfortable middle class life, which did not discourage him from composing the greatest music the world has ever heard.

[Sandshark]

I work in the college store industry. Not only are publishers raising books far faster than the rate of inflation, they are bundling books with study guides and CD's and other material and marketing it as a value for the student. In reality this is just a way to stop the selling of used books as the extra material is only available as new from the publisher and if the instructor orders all of the bundle, the bookstore can't buy it back and sell it as used.

[firebrand]

Only the 4-color books are printed overseas. Big American publishers use American printers and binders for their standard commercial books. And the typesetting is one of the smaller costs, especially with authors now supplying disks and some publishers making corrections in house to save part of the cost of corrections.

[LibWhacker]

I mean, a paperback that sold for $.50 in the seventies will now go for $7 or $8. That's way out of line with the general inflation rate.

No sir! No way newly published paperbacks were going for $.50 in the 70s. In the 50s, yes, but not in the 70s. Take a look at this paperback, published by Bantam in 1975: Sci Fi, priced at $2.25. You can do a google search to get an average, but I believe this was typical.

Now go over to the GDP Price Deflator to see how much you'd need in year 2001 dollars to make the same purchase, taking into account inflation . . . about $6.23.

[Sandshark]

Usually at a college buyback, if a bookstore pays half for a book, the keep it and sell it as used for 25% off of the publisher's list. In this case, if you pay $100 for a book and your get back $50, they'll sell it for $75. If you get one third or less, the book is either not being used on campus or the bookstore has enough. In this case, a wholesaler is buying the book and they are taking the chance that they can sell it to another store across the nation. All of the prices are based on supply and demand. Remember, this is a price offer. You don't have to sell the book. If you can sell it for more on your own or elsewhere, do so. It's called capitalism.

[jrherreid]

The cost of a trade paperback (production) is around $2.50. Hardcover book is more like $3 to 4 bucks.

[Chemnitz]

I published a 650 page hardcover book with good paper for $10 per copy, printing only 1,000 copies. I had other costs, adding another $4 per copy. Computer paperbacks normally cost $60-$100. It is simple robbery.

[Jeff Head]

In doing the research to determine the pricing for my book,

Dragon's Fury - Breath of Fire

I found that most trade paperbacks are going for 18-22. Here are some examples:

• Two Ocean War by Samuel Elliot Morrison : 24.95
• About Face by David Hackworth : 22.00
• John Paul Jones by Samuel Ellito Morrison : 21.95
• The Battle for the Falklands by Hasintgs and Jenkins : 18.95

Usually you can find these discounted by 15-20% online at Amazon.

Harpdback are going from anywhere between 25 and over 30 dollars these days. Here are a couple of examples:

• The Bear and the Dragon by Tom Clancy : 28.95
• It Doesn't take a Hero by Norman Schwarzkopf : 29.50
• A Most Fortunate Ship by Tyrone Martin : 30.95

My Trade paperback novel, a 450 page tehchno-thriller with 80 illustration is selling now for 19.95. At low volume, and wanting to put it in stores, this is the best I can do and still make any money on the books I whole sale. The printing at the current volume is costing me just over 7.50 per book. Shipping to me in low quantities (50-100) costs around 60 cents per book. My shipping out in minimum groups of twelve to a store costs about 80 cents per book. That's a cost to me (counting nothing for my own time and investment to date) of 8.90 per book. The books stores want a 100% markup to cover their costs and give them a profit. So, 8.90 times two is 17.80 meaning when I sell to book stores I am making about two dollars and 15 cents on each book.

On my site I sell them for the same price (stores will be reluctant to buy from me if I am underselling them) and I make good money on each of those sales, although my costs are higher there because I put the books in individual shipping packaging (around 60 cents per book) and the shipping at individual bulk rates is higher (around 1.75 per book).

If I can get to a point where I am buying thousands of books at a time, I can lower my prices significantly and still make more money. That's one goal.

Of course the dream is for some big publishing house to pick it up and do a mass printing and publication all over the country. In that scenario, the print costs go wat down, but you add several "middlemen" between the author and the buyer. An Agent who wants their cut, a publication house who wants their cut, and then the retailer or maybe even a distributor in front of the retailer. All of them want a piece of the pie. So, even though in mass production the print costs goes way down (maybe around 2 dollars per book), you have a lot of people trying to share the 17.95 that is left over and some of them investing heavily to do so. Usually the author in such a scenario gets very little per book. But you don't need too much per book if it sells hundreds of thousands of copies, or millions.

Hope this helps. This is what I am discovering as I try and publish my own.

[JoeSchem]

Youre wrong. Paperbacks did not cost .50 in the 70's.

Well, my copy of Walter Lord's Night to Remember cost fifty cents and was printed in 1974, and that's what I'm going on.

[Ciexyz]

The cost of paper has gone up, is the justification that the publishing industry will give you.

I'm looking forward to picking up a large number of books that a friend bought for me using a forty percent work discount.

[JoeSchem]

Keep in mind the price level doubled in the seventies. Books in 1970 that cost much less than one dollar cost much more than two dollars by the 1980s.

[Sandshark]

That's because you are a captive buyer. You HAVE to buy the book. In addition, you generally HAVE to buy it at the monopoply campus bookstore

It is very rare that the campus store has a monopoly anymore. Most colleges have off campus competition. At Arizona State, there are four off campus stores. Most internet sites such as Big Words, E Campus or Varsity Books have either gone out of business or are in financial difficulty becuase of too deep discounts. The publishers set the list price. College stores may add some to the price for shipping and handling, but not much. A new book generally has a margain of 20%. Books are one of the least profitable items in a college store. Clothing has a 100% margain. In other words, your $100 new textbook cost $80 from the publisher. A $75 used book was $50 from buyback or a used dealer. A $50 sweatshirt was $25 or less from a clothing manufacturer.

[lds23]

I figured out the trick of college textbooks. They don't change the content much, but they change the order of the questions at the end of each chapter. So when the prof says "do the odd numbered problems from 1-15", if you don't have the latest edition, you're up the creek.

[P-Marlowe]

Well, my copy of Walter Lord's Night to Remember cost fifty cents and was printed in 1974, and that's what I'm going on.

Your book was written in 1955. Thus it was not a new book. It was in the realm of a classic. You can still get reprints of classics in paperback for about $3.50. New paperbacks in 1974 were usually well above $1.00 each.

Additionally your 1974 book is about 200 pages and the average book today is well over 350 pages.

[JoeSchem]

I did some research for self-publishing regarding my science fiction novel, which should peg in around 120,000 words (no illustrations). It looked like iUniverse.com could do it for about $14. I thought print-on-demand was out of line, but from the description of your experience, it sounds like they're pretty reasonable.

[stlnative]

This is my favorite place to get the best price on books.
They search about 15+ online bookstores to tell you has the best price and shipping.

Best Book Buys

[Johnny Crab]

For REALLY good deals, buy the books that are not being sold this year OR ones the publisher printed too many of. About one-third of my entire library came from this bargain book dealer: http://www.hamiltonbook.com/cgi-bin/hamiltonbook.storefront/

[nutmeg]

BUMP to read later

[JoeSchem]

A Night to Remember sold for $.50 then, and sells for $7 now. I am comparing apples to apples. You also seem to think that page count linearly correlates with cost, but it doesn't.