Thursday, April 10, 2008

Stealth book price increases

I went to my favorite book store last weekend. I was looking for some titles that had been recommended by the nice folks at Murder by the Book in Houston via their regular emails.

It took a few minutes, but I noticed that quite a few of the books I was looking for were in what's called "trade editions." This is a format that is a bit larger than the normal "mass market editions." Trade editions are more expensive than mass market editions, probably because they are historically printed in smaller quantities.

Here's my thought:

The trade edition has the same text as the mass market one, but costs around twice as much. It's doubtful that production/shipping or materials cost justify a price doubling. So if he mass market printings are phased out in favor of the trade editions (as seems to be happening), it's more profitable for the publisher. I doubt the author is seeing any of that extra income. Possibly the book store sees some of the extra monay.

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