Update on Book Markets

Folks,

I don't consider myself a teacher, although I do enjoy explaining how
international trade
works, and learning more about it. I do not consider myself a writer, although
I have a book
on Amazon that sells better than hundreds of thousands of other books there
(Amazon
updates sales rates daily (I check occassionally) , and I've seen mine as high
as Amazon's
3,824th best seller for the day, which means it was a better seller than
millions of books).

I love lookng at how things work, especially when they are revolutionary.
Clearly Jeff Bezo's at
Amazon has spotted the unfairness in the publishing industry, because he goes
straight at it
and offers remarkably empowering means to writers.

It is as if Amazon has taken the chief complaints of writers about publishers,
and is working
his way down the list, from top to bottom, solving the writers' problems. I am
wondering if
amazon is not so much a bookstore as a service company, dedicated to writers
(and
musicians, and filmmakers, etc).

Recently amazon made it easy for writers to become a supplier to amazon, each
writer selling
his own books, with amazon acting as retailer. Publishers and wholesalers have
had such
wretched lock on distribution that writers would get little for their work.
Copyright law
benefits the publishers and the wholesalers, never the writer.

Amazon has always welcomed people to compete with amazon ON amazon. What
retailer
would allow a competitor to come in and compete on the retailer's premises?
Unheard of,
until amazon. Amazon of course gets a cut of every sale, but what are your
chances of
walking into Saks and saying "let me sell Louis Vuitton luggage with your
luggage, and I'll
give you 10%..." ... ain't gonna happen.

I see amazon selling my book for $25.95, and other bookstores selling it for
less, on amazon.
Both Amazon and these other bookstores get the book from the exact same
wholesaler, at
the same price, about $15.00. I know this because I get sales reports and can
trace retail
back to wholesale. Amazon charges $25.95, and usually free shipping, these
others charge
around $20, plus shipping. The wholesaler buys my book from the publisher, who
prints it.
These bookstores sell my book on amazon as new, for less than amazon, on amazon!
They
sell quite a few copies, and stock it for quick delivery. Amazon stocks it as
well.

(And to just make it weirder, Barnes and Noble owns my publisher, but B&N.com
does not
stock my book, they only order against orders!) (My book sells regular retail as
well, with
University Bookstore in Seattle having sold a few hundred copies at $25.95).

So, this week I fired my publisher (a B&N subsidiary), became a vendor to Amazon
(they buy
from me for their warehouses instead of from the book wholesalers) I guess I am
now a book
wholesaler too, and I am running this under Seattle Teachers College, Inc, a
corporation I
own.

Yesterday I received express 20 copies of my book printed in Hong Kong, pulled
out of a
shipment of 1000 books that will eta 6 Nov. These will land warehouse value at
about $3.00
per copy. They are superior in quality of production, paper and ink to what was
made in USA.

There are reasons for this: one way the government controls the press in USA is
to dictate
paper content and ink composition. the rules are as silly as the EPA declaring
"sand" as a
hazardous material (it's true), but the effect is the price of paper and ink is
far higher in usa
than anywhere else. USA pays the most.

Labor is not cheaper in hong kong for printing books, because the labor factor
is moot.
Printing is computer and mechanized intensive work. I visited the Hong Kong
plant last April,
and was sorry for America. The expensive part of all this is management, and
Hong Kong has
excess capacity in world class management, therefore management is cheaper
there. (World
class management is in very short supply in USA, so it is too expensive).

But back to the economics: Amazon will list my book for $25.95, sell it for
something like
$18.00 per copy, and pay me about $12 a copy for my book. As I said, I pay
about $3.00 a
copy. So last week I got about a buck royalty for each copy that sold on amazon
for $25.95,
and next week I'll get about $9 a copy for each book that sells on amazon for
about $18.00.
At the lower price on amazon I suspect I'll be getting more $9.00s than I was
ever getting
$1.00s.

This is no big deal, it is just an example of how one person, Bezos, acted on
what everyone
knew to be a scam (USA publishing and bookselling) and came up with a better
way. I too
decided it was wrong, and drove a truck thru the opening amazon created.

Also this week, after topping off the oil in my car at Jiffy-Lube, I walked into
a high end home
furnishings store and blew passed the receptionist alarmed at the carpets under
my arm. I
wandered around until a nicely dressed fellow said "may I help you?" I dropped
the carpets at
his feet and said "an artist has designed these carpets, and had these samples
made in China.
She says stores like your will sell these carpets. Is she dreaming?"

He replied, "I am not the buyer, just a designer. Here is the buyers name and
number. But if
he will not buy them, I have clients always looking for new and interesting.
Can I take
pictures for them to see." "Sure, and just contact the designer direct if you
want any made..."

As soon as I can find time, I'll meet the buyer, and let you know what he says.

Folks, this stuff is easy... must get going!

John

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