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Subject:Re: where to buy books From:Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- FS -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Thu, 5 Jun 1997 17:04:28 +0800
Mike Collier - SSG <MikeCol -at- SBSERVICES -dot- COM> said a lot of stuff along
the lines of:
> . . . access to difficult to obtain printed material
> . . . maybe the 20% discount makes up for some of the shipping charges
> . . . a vital relationship between the suppliers and purveyors of
> printed communication is being eaten away
Let me give a recent example:
I heard good things on the list about Sun's book "Read Me First: A Style
Guide for the Computer Industry". I phoned my friendly local technical
bookstore. Not in stock, but they could order it in -- two or three
weeks delivery. Price: $114 (Australian dollars, of course).
The list price for the book is US$30, about A$38.50. So either the book-
shop orders it from the U.S. and charges me $114, or I order it from the
U.S. and pay $43 - $50 depending on how fast I want it.
I like to browse, but that didn't apply here. I knew I wanted the book.
There's no expert knowledge involved. I'm sure they'd never heard of
the book until I told them the title, author, publisher and ISBN. And
all that whopping margin wouldn't have gone to support the bookshop --
most of it is absorbed by the distributor in Sydney and various other
middlemen.
With the $70 I saved, I'm going to buy Karen Schriver's book on document
design, and spend the change on almond croissants from the bakery across
the road. Now *that's* what I call supporting a local business.
Regards
---
Stuart Burnfield
Functional Software Pty Ltd mailto:slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au
ps. From what I've read so far the Sun book is excellent -- I thoroughly
recommend it.
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