Amazon Buys the Washington Post’s Totally Hip Book Reviewer (satire) First it was Goodreads….then… (be sure to watch the video’s gruesome climax!) April 8, 2013 by birdie Uncategorized 2
No penny books
I get this piece was satire but wanted to point out the reference to penny books on Amazon. Amazon does not sell books for a penny. Third party sellers on Amazon sell books for a penny. And they don’t really sell the book for a penny. It is all an allocation of the shipping cost they receive.
The cheapest you can buy a book for and actually get it to your house is $4. ($3.99 shipping + 0.01 for the book).
Using the right shipping service and depending on the weight of a book a book can be shipped as cheaply as $1.25 – $2.00. Sellers count the difference as profit. So really they sold you the book for $1.26-$2.01.
Bigger point
Bigger point is that penny books are used books. Anytime someone purchases a used book the author gets no money even if the used book is sold for $100. Sales of used books takes money away from authors. The friends of the library sale you hold that sells used books is doing the same thing. Taking money from authors.