The Authors Guild is lambasting Amazon for promoting the sale of used books. Amazon has been offering this service for about a year, and evidently (though I’ve not gotten any such note) been suggesting to folks who recently purchased new books there that they can also sell them.
It’s this latest offer that has the Authors Guild all a-twitter, since its members only get royalties from the intial sale.
Well, sorry, guys and gals. If I have a choice between buying a new paperback book for $8 and a used copy for $3, guess which one I’m going to buy.
Not that authors are necessarily behind the cost of paperbacks, but, frankly, if a book didn’t hold my interest enough to make me want to reread it, or keep it to share with Margie, or loan to a friend (the horror!), I don’t feel any great moral obligation force someone to buy another new copy.
Enter any number of Amber List arguments right here. [smack!]
[sighing] When I can afford it, I’ll buy new paperbacks. I’ve bought two hardbacks “new” in my entire life. One of them I bought at the airport because I was desperate for reading material. One of them I bought (same author) because I didn’t want to _wait_ for the paperback and it was kind of a recognition that the author had “made it mainstream.”
On the other hand, buying books used has sponsored more of my new paperback sales than anything else: if I can buy the used version of something and like it, I’ll buy new copies for family and friends.
tell the author’s guild to put the pressure on to keep books in print for longer than six weeks. then we talk.
Another good point. Quite a number of used books I pick up via Amazon are only available as used.
Why didn’t they get mad at the used book only sites like alibris? I often have to go searching for books for work that were only in print for what seems like 5 minutes, and the used book sites are some much easier to navigate than 40 local used book stores (who often have no idea of what books they have on hand).