We have lost 50% of our open bookshops since the birth of online bookselling
and it almost impossible for the 50% who are left to be price competitive.
Interestingly enough, while the number of open bookshops have been cut in half the amount of people calling themselves booksellers has skyrocketed.
Within this tornado little cottage industries have popped up trying to capitalize on the Amazon effect.
There is the whole Scoutpal culture where a PDA device and the Amazon database combine to remove much of human element from handling and pricing books, "Bookscouting with Scoutpal is like hunting with radar" is how they sum it up on their homepage.
This same technology has revolutionized the thrift store industry as well. The book departments are an ever increasing source of revenue for these charities. I recently visited the new book operation at the Goodwill here in Seattle and witnessed a literal book factory where over 100 orders a day are being processed from online sales channels.
Then there is the used book industry and how almost all the major inventory software programs for booksellers are tied to Amazon's database for bibliographic information. The problem is that many times the information is not correct and ends up polluting the marketplace.
The other significant Amazon induced consequence has been the downward price pressure on the price of books. In many instances they have plummeted.
There are now a whole new breed of penny pinchers, legions of "sellers" offering thousands of books for a penny apiece. A penny! How can they survive? The answer - $3.99.
That's the shipping fee that Amazon charges the buyer and reimburses the seller. For the average paperback that is an easy $1-$2 profit for the seller.
And out of the depths of this apparition comes Pretty Penny Books, a website that gathers all the penny books being offered on Amazon. They are currently listing over 300,000 books. You can also subscribe to specific subjects via an RSS feed "so you can get immediate notification when books that might interest you become available."
They also offer you these words of encouragement:
"Please remember to support these one penny books sellers! They don't make a whole lot of profit on these books, so be nice and leave great feedback."
I never thought I would live to see the day where the term profit was associated with something priced a penny.
We can only go up from here.
They also offer you these words of encouragement:
"Please remember to support these one penny books sellers! They don't make a whole lot of profit on these books, so be nice and leave great feedback."
I never thought I would live to see the day where the term profit was associated with something priced a penny.
We can only go up from here.
4 comments:
I sympathize with you. I do sell books on Amazon and when I see the going price for a really go d book (or fairly good book) going for a dollar, I click off right away. I can't imagine being an author and seeing my book go for that price. Market versus real value, I guess.
I feel bad for the penny sellers. They must work quite hard to make a few bucks. Sort of like 'if you can't tie knots, then tie lots'. Let these guys sweat and toil to make their $30 bucks. I'll sell one book through my Clicks & Bricks business and make a nice $40 profit. To each his own. Like any business there are those who work hard and those who work smart, we try and combine the two.
As a person who enjoys reading but realistically doesn't expect to keep a paperback book forever (I mean "Why?!") I use amazon to sell books I bought and read once. I am not able to compete with the "Penny a Book" folks on price, but I focus on service and Accuracy in the item descriptions.
They must have volume discount for postage because there is no way to pay retail postage and make a $1 book at a penny. Trust me.
I sell on amazon too and the people that sell book on amazon for .01 only make maybe .25 because of amazon fees (thy would have to have a pro account and sell a lot to make that much though) also they would have to get shipping supplies free. and a massive supply of donated books to make a living.
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