How book biz dug its own Amazon grave

[Jacob]

Amazon isn't the enemy of small publishers, the ISBN numbering system hurts them more than anything else. As for why publishers don't direct ship, that shits expensive.

Also, publishers are that great either, you should see their markups.

How? 

there are different buying levels. 1 ISBN is like 150 or something, buy 1000 and you pay 1 dollar each. The whole ISBN thing is geared to major publishers.

Uh... registering for an ISBN is free in Canada. At least it was when I dipped my toes into self-publishing.

[HVC]

Amazon isn't the enemy of small publishers, the ISBN numbering system hurts them more than anything else. As for why publishers don't direct ship, that shits expensive.

Also, publishers are that great either, you should see their markups.

How? 

there are different buying levels. 1 ISBN is like 150 or something, buy 1000 and you pay 1 dollar each. The whole ISBN thing is geared to major publishers.

Uh... registering for an ISBN is free in Canada. At least it was when I dipped my toes into self-publishing.

the Canadian one ( CISS if I recall correctly) is free, but I don't know if it's internationally recognized. The company I work for prints mainly for American companies (or " Canadian companies" owned by American companies) so I'm not sure how much our customers use CISS.

[garbon]

I think the North Koreans are also developing ISBNs.

*vomits so hard they can hear it in the cheap seats*

[HVC]

Actually I think isbns are national, so I guess books for sale in Canada would be fine, but not the us. I wonder how publishers deal with multinational sales? 

[MadImmortalMan]

What's the value in having the numbers?

[derspiess]

People will love the upcoming novel tim gets a mace in the ass by Monc E. Butt

Pre-ordered.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

there are different buying levels. 1 ISBN is like 150 or something, buy 1000 and you pay 1 dollar each. The whole ISBN thing is geared to major publishers.

That's pocket change.  Its $0.015 per book for a run of 10,000.  If your margin is so tight as to make that an issue, you have bigger problems.

[Eddie Teach]

But suppose you're a niche author like Monc E. Butt, hoping to sell 150 copies to friends and Languishites at a buck a piece, that just wiped out your entire gross.

[Grey Fox]

But suppose you're a niche author like Monc E. Butt, hoping to sell 150 copies to friends and Languishites at a buck a piece, that just wiped out your entire gross.

You self-published and don't buy ISBNs.

[Ed Anger]

People will love the upcoming novel tim gets a mace in the ass by Monc E. Butt

Pre-ordered.

I'll plot the sequels.

[mongers]

Under Amazon's marketplace model, nearly all 2nd hand books tend towards 1 penny in price. 

It's not solely their doing, it's just a continuation of something that started more than 15 years ago; easy internet searching for titles means near perfect knowledge of the current market price. 

So since then we've seen a gradual accumulation of 'clout' with Amazon, as first the small independents go, then most of the high street chains.

That still leaves a lot of people trying to off-load books into one marketplace, where price it all but king.
Don't believe me, just list a book on Amazon, someone will undercut the price, if it's a big dealer it'll happen in 30 minutes. Then watch as someone else, maybe a private seller undercuts them by a penny. 

But there'll always be several others to undercut that, so watch the market price race to 1 penny, and the marketplace for that book will end up with numerous people all selling at 1 penny and hoping to make something back on the fixed $4 (not sure what it is in USA) shipping fee.
Which again favours the few big recyclers/dealers who've heavily discounted shipping rates.

The upshot of this is that other than rarities, specific niche titles, the vast majority of books are now worthless, there only remaining value is the actual written contents or maybe the emotional attachment you have to them. 

[derspiess]

I used to be able to dump a lot of old books on half.com before ebay bought them.  Sometimes I got more than what I paid.  But yeah, those days are long gone.

[Valmy]

The upshot of this is that other than rarities, specific niche titles, the vast majority of books are now worthless, there only remaining value is the actual written contents or maybe the emotional attachment you have to them. 

Woah the Capitalists really have hung themselves on their own metaphorical rope....at least in this one industry.

[Jacob]

the Canadian one ( CISS if I recall correctly) is free, but I don't know if it's internationally recognized. The company I work for prints mainly for American companies (or " Canadian companies" owned by American companies) so I'm not sure how much our customers use CISS.

CISS = Canadian ISBN Service System

It's the way you register for an ISBN in Canada, and it's free.

[Valmy]

Canadian ISBN, so worthless they cannot even give it away? 

Sorry I find it funny that a dude who works in publishing in Canada knows basically nothing about it.