Reading books is a great hobbie, but it can cost a lot of money. People say that books are good for the brain ,but the price is going up so high that most people can’t buy them. Why does books cost so much? A question a lot of book lover ask them self when they are buying a book. Well, I will break it down for you. I will talk about how the price as gone up since 1975 and The “return policy”, I belive that everyone should know about that policy ,because they are practically stealing our money. Also, I will talk about the e-books war between Amazon and Apple.

Percentage obtained from R.R. Bowker, the company of record for information about the publishing industry, show that, from 1975 to 2000, the price of the average hardcover book of fiction went up 200 percent to $24.96. Average prices for hardcover poetry and drama books increased 211 percent to $33.57. Nonfiction hardcovers went up 123 percent to $40.29. The largest increase was in the juvenile category, which climbed 227 percent to arrive at the current average of $18.40. According to Bowker, average price for mass-market paperback fiction has gone up 328 percent (from $1.35 in 1975 to $5.78 in 2000). As a book lover I can tell you that, books are the main reason I don’t have money in my bank account. For exemple a single Harry Potter books cost 16$, it used to cost

The “return policy”

Library such as “Barnes and Nobles” have a “returns policy” with most of the publishing house. In this policy the library pays for the books they buy, but if they don’t sell all of the books they had in store, they return it to the publishing house. For example if the publisher sends the library 100 books, and only 50 sell, the remaining books that the library payed for, are shipped back. Although, most of the returned books get sell to other bookshops or given to charity some of them are destroyed in the process. Unfortunately the cost of these books is included in the estimated price. When the customer buys a book, he’s also paying for a book that will be returned and destroyed.

The e-books war

“People are buying less e-readers than they ever have before.  In 2014 over 12 million dedicated e-ink devices were sold, which is a far cry from 20 million units in 2011.”- The Simon and Shuster CEO.

The Kindle, one of the most sell e-book device, as known better days. From 2007 to 2010 Amazon totally controlled the e-book market. They were able to discount any title they wanted at will and were willing to take a loss to sell their line of e-readers and tablets. They even developed advanced algorithms that price match anyone who wanted to sell a specific e-book cheaper than they did. This all changes when Steve Jobs started Ibooks. People went crazy on Ibooks and Amazon lost a lot of books deal, and so it begging the price war. As the price war was going on, most of the e-books customer stopped buying books. In result Amazon and Apple not only lost money but also a lot of customer.

“When you’re buying a book, you’re not only paying for that book, but you’re also paying for the book that will be returned and destroyed,” Jason Epstein. I think this quote is very important, because it explain pretty much the reason why books cost so much ,and I think they should put this quote in library so people can know about it. I also think that the little war price was not a good idea ,cause not only they lost a lot of customer, but the prince went up for nothing.I do hope this text help you understand a lot more about books and e-books.