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I'm guilty of the worst offense a writer can commit these days, you know, at least according to the Author's Guild of America. I don't buy new books. I haven't bought a new book in years, actually. I buy all my books used, usually for less than five bucks, and am of the opinion that the only people who can buy their reading material brand new are Rich Folks. This puts me in an odd position because I have two books out there, and so should naturally want to encourage all of you to purchase those books for full cover price, yes? The only problem is, in all honesty, I wouldn't buy my own books for full price. Well, one of them anyway. Lifers, my novel published through Creative Arts Books Company last year, retails for $13.95. I'm proud of the book, and it's a nice package, but crickey! $14 plus tax? I'd laugh all the way to the exit if I saw a similar book in a store. I mean, you can go on and on about the costs of publishing and vanishing margins and all that, but $15 or so for 149 pages of fiction by a guy you've never heard of - I'd rather buy five beers during happy hour, and pick up a used copy a year later for $2. My other book, the self-published The Freaks are Winning is a bit more reasonably priced at $9.99, but I'd rather it was $5. I wasn't the only person involved though (Tower Records printed it, and didn't charge me anything, figuring they'd make money selling the book in their own stores - bless ‘em), and I suppose I know less about pricing and market forces than your average pet rock, so I can't complain. All I know is, if I saw Freaks in a store for $9.99 I'd think twice about it, but for $5 I'd probably take a chance. Maybe not. I am a cheap bastard, after all. Used books are the greatest bargains in the universe. No matter how old a book is, it's lost very little of its value. The words on the page are still there. You might get some brittle, acid-eaten pages that break apart when you dog-ear them, but generally speaking for $1 at The Strand I get the same thing some chump paid $15 for in 1999. Of course, I recently bought a copy of selected short stories by Melville for $1 at The Strand that originally cost 95 cents about 30 years ago, so it ain't all gravy, bubba. You win some, you lose some. I buy about 2-3 books every two weeks, sometimes coming across a cache of really good books and buying 10 in a week, sometimes going a month without seeing anything worthwhile. If I bought 10 books a month in Barnes and Noble, I'd have spent anywhere from $100 to $250 which, for those of us who live paycheck to paycheck, is a lot of money. If I could only buy new books, I'd be unwilling to try anything risky like a new author, or a different kind of book. For $1 I'll give anything a spin, and this allows me to broaden my horizons a little. The Author's Guild, however, kinda sorta feels that making it easy for people to buy used books is a Bad Thing. "Amazon.com's used book service does damage to the publishing industry, decreasing royalty payments to authors and profits to publishers" they say, although they're also quick to point out that they're not against used books, just against having them right there on the Amazon page with the new ones, often not even true used books but review copies which show up within weeks of the books debut. On a cold, economic hand, this is absolutely true: if you're interested in buying my book and go to Amazon to get it, seeing that link for a ‘like new' used book for $11 is pretty tempting. On the other hand, I'd do the same thing, bubba, so how can I fault anyone? I'd rather you read my book for cheap than not at all because $15 is ridiculous. So there you have it: I would not pay full price for my own book. Make of that what you will. I think it's common sense: I like being published not for the supposed riches it will bring me, but because someone else offers to foot the bills and do the hard work of producing and distributing my book. I don't grudge the publisher the chance to make a buck off of my work - that's pretty much the exchange, I think. But I'm not going to suddenly become ultra-capitalist and demand that everyone do what I'm unwilling to do: pay in full for overpriced stuff. Even if it does mean I have to keep my day job. Well, maybe someday Hollywood will back a dumptruck of money into my front lawn and buy the movie rights, yes? They can do what they like with the book, I wouldn't care. I'd be too busy diving into the huge piles of cash. Until then, you know where to find me. Jeff |
June 14, 2002