Not all books are "creative works"... ever looked at the price of a notebook? You can get notebooks as low priced as 10 for a buck, but if you want decent paper, or one that is made to last, it runs about $5-10. Some nice notebooks are running as high as $15. Space wise, most big box bookstores are devoting more space to those than to SF.
So yes, you *can't* just pretend that the paper is free. Nor is the binding, nor the shipping costs. And from a bookstore's point of view, those notebooks are a lot less trouble to deal with. They can mostly sell on the basis of fashion, and no one will complain if a particular style vanishes.
Bookstores are in business to make a profit. In the case of an indy bookstore, if the owner doesn't make a profit, they don't get to eat. For a big chain, the scale is a bit different, but if they don't make their sales numbers, ultimately everyone is out of a job. The distributor and publisher also have to be out to make a profit. Same reasons.
The author is one of the easiest people to squeeze in the whole chain. They tend to not watch the bottom line like a hawk, and in some cases it's easy to convince them to take less pay for the sake of vanity or publicity. (see also: Author's Guild settlement)
I love novels as an art form, but the plain fact is from a commercial point of view, they're a commodity. Losing sight of that fact makes it a lot harder to figure out how best to make the author money. And since I *want* authors to make money... I have to look at the business side just as sensibly as I'd look at any other way of making a living by art. That means looking at the retail basics, and doing things like counting fixtures, find the discount areas, and in general see what's selling.
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mmmag
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Date: 2010-02-14 12:59 pm (UTC)So yes, you *can't* just pretend that the paper is free. Nor is the binding, nor the shipping costs. And from a bookstore's point of view, those notebooks are a lot less trouble to deal with. They can mostly sell on the basis of fashion, and no one will complain if a particular style vanishes.
Bookstores are in business to make a profit. In the case of an indy bookstore, if the owner doesn't make a profit, they don't get to eat. For a big chain, the scale is a bit different, but if they don't make their sales numbers, ultimately everyone is out of a job. The distributor and publisher also have to be out to make a profit. Same reasons.
The author is one of the easiest people to squeeze in the whole chain. They tend to not watch the bottom line like a hawk, and in some cases it's easy to convince them to take less pay for the sake of vanity or publicity. (see also: Author's Guild settlement)
I love novels as an art form, but the plain fact is from a commercial point of view, they're a commodity. Losing sight of that fact makes it a lot harder to figure out how best to make the author money. And since I *want* authors to make money... I have to look at the business side just as sensibly as I'd look at any other way of making a living by art. That means looking at the retail basics, and doing things like counting fixtures, find the discount areas, and in general see what's selling.