Escape Artists
The Lounge at the End of the Universe => Gallimaufry => Topic started by: Boggled Coriander on May 04, 2008, 02:43:49 AM
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Maybe I'm showing my complete ignorance of how used bookstores work, but...
If I buy a recently published book from a used bookstore, how much (if any) of my money goes to the publisher?
Is the answer any different if it's a book that was published years ago and had been sitting around on someone's bookshelf for a long time before the used bookstore obtained it?
I'm just curious.
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None. The publisher gets money from the bookstore when it originally buys the books from the publisher, after that it's property and the used bookstore is just re-selling it with nothing going to the publisher. Now, the original sale/stocking can get a little fuzzy, especially because these days publishers and bookstores have weird deals/fall under the same corporate umbrella (for example, B&N does do some of it's own printing for the "classics", i.e. stuff out of copyright).
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Ah. I'm asking because I read this article on book-swapping websites (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/01/ethicalliving.recycling?gusrc=rss&feed=10) and I was intrigued by the quote:
Of course, those churches and charity shops that made money from second-hand book sales stand to lose out, as do the publishing industry and authors. "In the music industry, this kind of thing would be called 'file sharing', and technically illegal," the author Jeanette Winterson wrote of book-swapping sites recently.
"Of course I want people to read my books, but I also want people to buy my books."
...which, it seems, ought to apply to used bookstores just as much as book-swapping. Either way, the publisher isn't getting a cut of the sales.
Note that I am most certainly not saying 'this kind of thing' ought to be illegal! Most of the books I read these days were found in used bookstores. And I wouldn't be averse to trying a book-swapping site.
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Ah. I'm asking because I read this article on book-swapping websites (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/01/ethicalliving.recycling?gusrc=rss&feed=10) and I was intrigued by the quote:
Of course, those churches and charity shops that made money from second-hand book sales stand to lose out, as do the publishing industry and authors. "In the music industry, this kind of thing would be called 'file sharing', and technically illegal," the author Jeanette Winterson wrote of book-swapping sites recently.
File-sharing is not the same thing. If I give away a copy of a book, it is no longer in my possession to be read. If a bookstore sells me a used copy, it is no longer in their stock to be sold. The comparison is spurious. It's more like trading CDs or buying them used.
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I'd argue the publisher got paid up front. One of the reasons hardcovers and trade paperbacks command a higher price than mass-market paperbacks is that they're more durable -- the more expensive formats "hold their resale" better than the cheaper ones.
Copyright is literally that: the right to make a copy. As long as you don't copy the contents by reading them into a recorded file or slapping them on a photocopier, you're not violating anyone's rights, even in theory. The physical medium is the property of the whoever buys it.
As for the comparison with file sharing: What StePH said.
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If this were illegal then college bookstores would not have done it for decades!
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It's called the doctrine of first sale. Once you buy a book or cd from a store you are free to sell it or give it away. You are not free to print additional copies of the material. The used textbook market is a weird case. It creates a sort of arms race where publishers release new editions with small changes frequently to force people to buy new books.
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Thanks for the info! I'm learning something new.
I had another thought about that Jeanette Winterson quote. If she's got that objection to organized book-swapping, how does she feel about having her books in public libraries?
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Who is Jeanette Winterson, and why should I care? :P
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Who is Jeanette Winterson, and why should I care? :P
The article idenfies her only as "author" Jeanette Winterson, so I assume this is her. (http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/)