{"id":318,"date":"2012-10-05T16:52:27","date_gmt":"2012-10-05T20:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kristinjanz.com\/?p=318"},"modified":"2012-10-05T16:52:27","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T20:52:27","slug":"what-books-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/?p=318","title":{"rendered":"What books cost"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday, Donald and I went to hear my friend Max Gladstone<\/a> read from his new book Three Parts Dead<\/em><\/a>, at the Harvard Book Store<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 I bought a copy of the book so Max could sign it (and so I could read it, obviously).\u00c2\u00a0 I purchased the hardcover from the Harvard Book Store even though I would have preferred to buy the Kindle e-book.\u00c2\u00a0 I have too many books, and I don’t have shelf space for all of them in my apartment.\u00c2\u00a0 However, I was there, and I\u00c2\u00a0figured that\u00c2\u00a0the Harvard Book Store would be more likely to give Max the opportunity to do readings upon the release of future novels if they sold a lot of copies.<\/p>\n

I paid $24.99 plus 6.25% sales tax for the hardcover, for a total of $26.55.\u00c2\u00a0 Just out of curiosity, I checked the price on Amazon.\u00c2\u00a0 $11.99 for the Kindle.\u00c2\u00a0 $13.58 for the hardcover.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if I didn’t fall for Amazon’s “buy more stuff you don’t need to get free shipping” ploy, it would have been only another $3.99 for shipping, for a total of $17.57.<\/p>\n

The Harvard Book Store has the following on the bottom of the register receipt I received:<\/p>\n

How much money stays in your community when you spend $100?
\nAt a locally owned business: $68
\nAt a chain store: $43
\nAt Amazon: $0<\/p>\n

I do care about supporting local businesses (I buy most of my produce, at least late spring through fall, at a local farm.\u00c2\u00a0 I buy most of my meat from a Massachusetts farmer.).\u00c2\u00a0 I think independent bookstores are an asset to a community, in part because they can connect authors with readers, face-to-face, at events like Wednesday’s reading.\u00c2\u00a0 I have serious concerns\u00c2\u00a0about Amazon, from their blatant attempts to monopolize bookselling and publishing, to reports of unfair labor practices in their warehouses<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t begrudge the Harvard Bookstore my $26.55.<\/p>\n

But I question whether guilting people into buying things they didn’t want (hardcover vs. e-book), at a 50% premium, is, in the long term, a sustainable business model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday, Donald and I went to hear my friend Max Gladstone read from his new book Three Parts Dead, at the Harvard Book Store.\u00c2\u00a0 I bought a copy of the book so Max could sign it (and so I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[210,143],"tags":[158,212,211],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookstores","category-publishing","tag-amazon","tag-e-books","tag-harvard-bookstore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kristinjanz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}