{"id":305,"date":"2010-03-18T09:04:54","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T14:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/?p=305"},"modified":"2010-03-18T09:14:15","modified_gmt":"2010-03-18T14:14:15","slug":"like-cats-in-a-gunny-sack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/?p=305","title":{"rendered":"Like Cats in a Gunny Sack"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, they’re at it again.\u00a0 Nice article this morning in the New York Times<\/a> on the battle between Amazon and Apple over e-book prices.\u00a0 It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I favor competition and freedom of choice, and for you to have choice, there has to be more than one player.\u00a0 Plus–honestly–people need to be reminded of all the manpower\/woman-power hours that go into making a book.\u00a0 Consumers can not and will not see that if there is a) one distributor who b) sets ridiculously low prices that c) do not accurately reflect the sheer number of people behind the curtain.<\/p>\n

Does it cost less to produce an e-book?\u00a0 Yes and no.\u00a0 Sure, distribution costs will go way down.\u00a0 You eliminate waste, a ton of dead trees, etc., etc.\u00a0 (But that won’t stop people from WANTING books–REAL books–and so publishers will still have to produce them.)\u00a0 Further, to get a book to the stage where anyone would CARE to distribute it, in whatever venue, is a hugely time-consuming and costly affair–months and months and months of work.\u00a0 And we won’t get into the blood, sweat and tears part . . . or the fact that Amazon wants to bully everyone into one-stop shopping without bothering to pick up the trash in the aisles.\u00a0 (I’m talking about books getting one-star ratings on the basis of PRICE.\u00a0 PRICE<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 And no amount of hand-waving gets them to pull those kinds of reviews.)<\/p>\n

Want to hear something interesting?\u00a0 Doctors . . . we’re ethically bound NOT to discuss what we charge with one another.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Gee, well, it’s called price-fixing.\u00a0 You, the individual doctor, set a price on the basis of what you think you’re worth (and overhead, etc.).\u00a0 If it’s too high–no one will come to see you (or can come to see you for long).\u00a0 If it’s too low, people will decide there must be something wrong with you. It’s all about relative perceived value–and value is a highly individual decision and dynamic.\u00a0 One of the most interesting conversations I had with the parent of a long-time patient was when she told me that I ought to raise<\/em> my prices, not only because I would be in-line with what everyone else was charging (I didn’t know, of course, and wouldn’t dream of asking) but because she felt I was worth it.<\/p>\n

Did I raise my prices?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Because–to be very honest–while what she’d said was flattering, I really felt that my ear and my brain were only worth so much.\u00a0 Plus, when you’re a psychiatrist, that typically means people are seeing you pretty often, and that can be a huge drain.\u00a0 But I digress . . .<\/p>\n

So, make every book the same?\u00a0 Wrong-o.\u00a0 Because they’re not.\u00a0 That’s like saying that a five-year-old’s painting is “worth” the same as a Rembrandt.\u00a0 (Yeah, but, gee, aren’t they both paintings?\u00a0 Hmm . . . a real head-scratcher there.)\u00a0 Some books ARE worth more than others–and the ones that are I will happily pay for, just as I know that a wonderful meal at the local Thai place is WORTH more–was tended more, given more care, more imagination–than, oh, Burger King. \u00a0 When I want a Whopper, I know where to find it.<\/p>\n

Currently reading Hate List<\/a> <\/em>by Jennifer Brown<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, they’re at it again.\u00a0 Nice article this morning in the New York Times on the battle between Amazon and Apple over e-book prices.\u00a0 It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I favor competition and freedom of choice,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-reading","wpcat-11-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilsajbick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}