Chris’s post below notes some disturbing ways in which Amazon seems to be backing out of the academic bookselling business. This would really be too bad if it happened, because online booksellers have been a boon for people wanting access to academic books but without access to New York quality bookstores. So just to make people feel a little better about Amazon’s business plans, you can, in America at least, get a Journal of Philosophy subscription through Amazon. I was rather surprised by this, and it’s a kind of involvement with academic publishing that I hadn’t expected at all from Amazon.
If there starts being competitive distribution of academic journals, this could really put downward pressure on prices. (Of course, I get all of these journals for free through my department, but not everyone has jobs which allow them access to all the journals they want, and this kind of development could be good news for them.)
{ 10 comments }
Zizka 09.20.03 at 9:29 pm
Amazon is never the first place to look.
Almost any book, new or used, can be found via http://www.bookfinder.com. Bookfinder refers you to Amazon, B&N, Powells, ABE, along with everyone else carying a book. They cover the whole English-speaking world (and part of the non-). I’ve got many books from India and Australia.
http://www.abe.books.com is a sort of co-op of independent booksellers and they are especially good on used books, including rare books. http://www.powells.com also has Bertram’s book. B&N has it cheapest, with free shipping if you spend $25 total (i.e., buy another book).
When selling a book, of course, you want to make sure it’s listed by Amazon w/o surcharge).
Jack 09.20.03 at 11:15 pm
Mathematicians nd physicists have most of their best stuff on line for free. Annals of Mathematics is available via Project Euclid and the arXiv. Of course the enormous royalty cheques would have to go.
Patrick Nielsen Hayden 09.21.03 at 1:20 am
I’m baffled by the idea that Amazon is “backing out” of selling academic books. Amazon has never directly stocked most small-press and specialized academic books; they’ve always shuffled orders for most of them over to other distributors, like Baker & Taylor, who ultimately ship you your box with an Amazon return label on it. This is not new.
Alp Aker 09.21.03 at 2:55 am
If there starts being competitive distribution of academic journals, this could really put downward pressure on prices.
I’m not sure this is true. If distributors are competing against each other in distributing the same journal, then a drop in price is only going to cut into the distributor’s profits. But the distributor’s mark-up is only a very small part of the price of most journals.
Individual subscriptions to academic journals are pricey because the scholarly real estate represented by the pages of a particular journal is a good with few or sometimes no substitutes, more of which isn’t easily created (for several reasons, probably the most important of which is the fact that a journal’s standing in the field–which a new competitor would lack and which is difficult to acquire–is such an important part of the nature of the good). This allows something analogous to a quasi-rent to be extracted for the privilege of visiting the journal’s pages. But the publisher is the one doing the extracting, and no amount of competition among distributors is going to change it.
(Insititutional subscriptions–which I grant you weren’t talking about–are outrageously expensive because of an additional factor: the commitment on the part of educational institutions to providing scholarly resources to students and faculty, which massively increases the inelasticity of institutional demand. But notice that competition among distributors wouldn’t affect this either.)
All that said, individual subscriptions to the general journals of a given field usually aren’t that expensive. It’s only the specialized journals that allow for real price gouging. (If I remember correctly, a year’s worth of the Journal of Philosophy is USD 40. Compare that to USD 120 for Kant Studies. And I understand that specialty journals in the sciences can cost in the thousands.)
Brian Weatherson 09.21.03 at 3:30 am
In philosophy the main factor determining the price is the publisher of the journal. The commercial presses charge outrageous prices, and are starting to lose customers because of it. Philosophical Studies is aroun 1300 per year for institutions, and over 500 for indidviduals. (And it’s about as general interest as you get in philosophy.) Journal of Philosophy is under 40 dollars though.
Alp Aker 09.21.03 at 4:03 am
If that’s the major factor as you see it, then I think we may not be disagreeing that much. If it’s the commerical presses that charge the outrageous prices, that would go to confirm my point, since that’s the type of publisher you would expect to seek more rents (if indeed that’s the right rubric to be using; I’m no economist). And this still doesn’t have much to do with lack of competition in the distribution of journals.
I’m shocked by the individual rate for Philosophical Studies though. I wonder if they have any individual subscribers at all.
Kristjan Wager 09.21.03 at 8:30 pm
I’m not sure this is true. If distributors are competing against each other in distributing the same journal, then a drop in price is only going to cut into the distributor’s profits. But the distributor’s mark-up is only a very small part of the price of most journals.
Given how much Amazon demands for selling magazines, I think it won’t affect the profit of Amazon much if they cut the price compared to other distributors.
The problem is that the publishers will loose money if most of the subscriptions are sold through Amazon.
Now I hear the question: “Just how much could Amazon demand? And why would the publishers loose money?” – well, Randall Stickrod, editor of The Readerville Journal (a fine magazine BTW, though it is not being published at the moment, as they are looking for funding), explained it thus:
“For the honor and privilege of allowing Amazon to sell subscriptions for us, they will collect the money and remit to us the princely sum of 10%. So we would get $3.20 for a standard subscription, ship a year’s worth of issues — and lose about ten bucks per subscription, just on mailing costs.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly TRJ declined.
carla 09.22.03 at 8:53 pm
The Seminary Coop Bookstore in Chicago sells online and is a spectacular bookstore. You can become a member by buying a few shares (maybe 3 or 5?) at $10 per, and you get a 10% discount on purchases. Shipping is $4.50 for the first book and $1 per book thereafter. Their address is http://www.semcoop.com.
Heath 09.23.03 at 8:31 pm
Walmart.com is a surprisingly good place to buy academic books. Their prices are typically lower than Amazon, B&N, or Borders.com, and they stock a lot more than you’d think.
Ruth 09.25.03 at 1:35 am
I’ll second the recommendation of the Seminary Co-op, which is often acknowledged as the best academic bookstore in the country. Yes, you can become a member for $30 — but it’s also important to note that you in no way have to be a member to buy from them. In addition to stocking an unbelievable number of titles, the Co-op will special order anything. And their website, unlike Amazon’s, has consistent, informative descriptions of the books written by people who actually know what they’re talking about.
Buy books from people who care about what they’re selling.
http://www.semcoop.com
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