An interesting question was brought up on this past week’s Booking Through Thursday about the decision of buying books versus using the library or used book sites such as pbs and bookmooch. You can read my response here. Generally, I don’t buy new anymore, though there are exceptions.
My question to those of you who feel much the same as I do about buying new is, “Where is your breaking point? At what price would you definitely buy versus borrow?” I’ve thought about this a lot, and mine is around $8.00 or less. If publishers were to publish the trade paperbacks at the same time as the hardbacks, and those trades were $8, they’d have a customer. A big customer. I read somewhere online that the cost of a trade is $1.50 for the publisher. Why not just start selling all trades at around $8.00? Would that ($6.50) be enough profit per book to sustain viability for author, publisher, and bookstore? Would the increased volume make up for the loss in price? 
Probably not but I wish it would. I love bookstores. I especially love going to them if they’re an independent like Joseph-Beth in Cincinnati, OH or Lexington, KY; or the now defunct but was oh-so-wonderful Hawley-Cooke in Louisville, KY. I just hope Joseph-Beth doesn’t go the way of Hawley-Cooke.
