Categories: Antidepressants.Antiviral.Anti-allergic/Asthma.Blood Pressure/Heart.Skin Care.Mental HealthWeight Loss.Antibiotics.Antidiabetic.Stop SmokingStomach.Anxiety/Sleep Aid.Pain Relief.Eye Care.Mens Health.Vitamins/Herbal Supplements.Womens H…

In my exotic foreign country, we pay a lot for books too. There are actually laws that require bookstores to ask publisher’s cover price, including import costs etc., and there is a good reason. My local bookseller would never survive if s/he had to compete with the mass-market bookvendors who press at the gates - it’s FNAC here, maybe Borders or something there…? The cynical among us would say, what do I care, just give me those rock-bottom prices, and minimal choice from among only the very top sellers.

I’d rather spend a little time with my neighbourhood libraire, who knows me and my interests, who keeps thing aside for me, who can spend time discussing the wares with me, who can find me books I didn’t know about yet, who engages me on the influences of the Lumières on modern Syrian fiction, which I find out later was the subject of her PhD dissertation. Paying a higher margin on books keeps me in contact with another grade of book dealer, and is cheaper than psychoanalysis.

And that goes for kids books too. And if I’m really desperate, Amazon.com has finally figured out how to ship overseas, though it does nearly double the cost of the book. Why don’t we work on bringing down shipper’s costs and import duties, rather than booksellers’ miserable margins?

Another factor (of what, I’m not sure yet…): I have in my neighbourhood: Normal bookstores, which have French and Swiss-French publications, and usually a German and Italian section as well, and usually an English section; if that doesn’t work, I also have English-language bookstores, and Spanish, Portugese, and Arabic within a 500-meter radius of home. Keeping all of that on hand must be a little more costly than limiting your stock to the top-ten bestsellers.

Quality before quantity before price, and let people earn a living without buckling under to generic market forces. Seems like authors and publishers could find some solace here.

I think I agree with Carol’s “maybe not.”