Well, I cut and pasted the title so I’m sure I didn’t drop the 2.
OTOH, I’m glad the scintillating pun actually worked! 
As with all things in the world of publishing, this will not be happening immediately.
I just heard from them. Probably within six months. Maybe less.
I’m on my way to pick up a copy. 
I just downloaded a ripped copy for free!!!
Not really.
Congrats! The book sounds pretty interesting (though the Amazon link for the pb is inactive right now).
FIFTY BUCKS! [del]I wouldn’t pay fifty bucks to read Genesis in Moses’ own hand![/del] Er, I mean, my, that’s an optimistic price they put on that book. Do you think they have somebody who has analyzed their pricing structure in light of a book’s potential audience and how reducing the price might increase sales so that the same–or more–money will come in? And that increasing the publisher’s exposure to that audience might help move other items from their catalog? Y’know, the way every business except publishing works?
Nah, they’re probably just academics who pulled a standard price of $49.95 out of their ass and blame slow sales on the Philistines who make up the reading public. I assume that, when they start selling it as an e-book, they’ll still charge the same.
Academic works are always insanely pricey. Either to re-coup the costs of printing up copies for eighteen experts in an utterly obscure field or to soak the poor students who are forced by insistent syllabi to shell out for the damn things ;). There are more that a few $100+ books on semi-obscure topics I’d love to buy ( and once in a blue moon I curse myself and actually pull the trigger on one ). Like this damn thing, for instance:
- Tamerlane
I think I may have convinced our school librarian to buy a copy. She’s always asking for input on how to most effectively spend various grant monies. This may not be the most effective use of $50, but since she likes me… 
That’s huge news. Congratulations!
I am now weeping openly.
Congrats on the PB. For the last ten years or so my brain has shut down whenever I try to read anythign scholarly but the subject matter intrigues me so I may just take a flyer on it.
Some time ago I did a reading at a local bookstore and found that the copies they ordered were print-on-demand, and priced higher than the original run. So I asked them why this was the case – if they were Print-on-Demand, why not issue them in paperback? The price would be lower. They didn’t have an answer then.
So when I heard from them a couple of days ago, I was amazed. It had been a long time since my query, and I thought they’d forgotten about it.
Presumably the price will be lower. I hope so – they still haven’t told me, but I can’t imagine them charging the same for PB as hard cover.
The price structure in publishing may seem random, but it does actually make sense most of the time. I am typically told by publishers to make the book fit into a specific number of pages so that they can keep paper costs under control.
When you get into a very specialized market, as Cal did, the total market is limited. People who won’t buy a $50.00 book about the life cycle of Amazon leaches probably won’t buy it for $5.00, either. I was rather aghast when my last techie book hit the streets for $50.00 (and it has since gone up), but the publisher explained their estimates of the total market, and how much in up-front cost has to be amortized over that print run. It’s not just the cost of the paper. It’s the cost of the editor, proofreader, copyeditor, indexer, designer, cover designer, purchasing rights to photos, six peer reviewers, flyers mailed to appropriate schools and stores, advertising, and so forth. The whole process can easily cost the publisher $20,000 (1).
If you can sell 100,000 copies, then you’re only looking at a paltry pair of dimes per book to recover that cost. At 2,000 copies, it’s suddenly $10.00 per book. Mark the price up as the book goes through distribution, and it becomes $20.00 per book. Thus, the $30 book turns into a $50 book.
For highly specialized textbooks, they may only sell 500 before it has to be updated. Now you’re adding $80 to the price, and the $30 book becomes a $110 book. It’s painful, but it’s not arbitrary.
(1) I’m not including the author advance in there, since it’s a draw against royalties, and the royalties are standardized as a percentage of the book price.
And I suppose you don’t want to divide the advance by the time you spent on the book. :eek: I did some research for a friend with the expectation I might get a free copy. With the book costing X and the hours I spent being Y that would work out, per hour, to . . . no, I don’t want to think about it. So I punished her by having her proofread my next Staff Report!
I did that calculation for one of my books. Erk! I went and wrote some magazine articles to make me feel better. The numbers are much better