If Canadian readers are feeling bored
Oct. 27th, 2006 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicollThey should all write letters to Chapters, pointing out that as long as US publishers continue to price books in Canada as though the exchange rate was still what it was six years ago, there's precious little reason to buy books from a Canadian bricks and mortar store. Buying direct from the US in US dollars is _much_ cheaper.
Although....
If Canadians buy 10% of the books sold in Nearctica and are paying 1.25x US prices (once the actual exchange is taken into account), Canadian readers are disproportionately profitable to someone between the publisher and the bookseller [1]. A US sale of a $7 US book probably includes the publisher getting about $2.80, the distributor about $1.40 and the bookseller about %2.80 (I think). If you sell that book in Canada, the price probably works out to about $10.00 US. I wonder who gets that extra $3?
1: Say, are royalties to the authors based on the US price only?
Although....
If Canadians buy 10% of the books sold in Nearctica and are paying 1.25x US prices (once the actual exchange is taken into account), Canadian readers are disproportionately profitable to someone between the publisher and the bookseller [1]. A US sale of a $7 US book probably includes the publisher getting about $2.80, the distributor about $1.40 and the bookseller about %2.80 (I think). If you sell that book in Canada, the price probably works out to about $10.00 US. I wonder who gets that extra $3?
1: Say, are royalties to the authors based on the US price only?
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 05:51 pm (UTC)A snail-mail letter campaign may work. So might buying from a US source (although that risks CHAPTERS whining to the Federales to make them make it illegal for private individuals to import books).
no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 05:56 pm (UTC)from http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/article/chaptersinc
Indigo Books & Music Inc.,
468 King Street West, Suite 500
Toronto, ON M5V 1L8
I'll follow this up with some actual numbers on price differences from their Web site.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 06:05 pm (UTC)Yup. One thing for sure: if there's loose money slopping around in the system, it don't come to the writers.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 08:17 pm (UTC)I deeply resented that book prices are set 9 - 12 months in advance when I plunked down C $75/per title for a pile of tech books I _had_ to have back in August. C $375 odd later... and it was only 5 BLEEDING BOOKS!!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-28 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-30 02:27 am (UTC)Apple prices its products based on the exchange rate at the time the product is introduced, and then doesn't adjust the price, so some items are 40% more expensive here than in the US. (Maybe this is a subtle ploy to encourage us to buy newer models?) This is particularly annoying with things like .mac, which is 50% more expensive here.
Royalties
Date: 2006-10-30 06:04 am (UTC)I've started buying things online because of the exchange inequity issue.