captcalhoun wrote:
book stores are idiots if they think trades are better. bigger books take up more shelf space, means fewer copies, means fewer sales. even if they do charge more for a TPB. someone could go in looking for Treason and intend to buy something else and not find Treason, then decide buggerit and buy nothing.
|
Having worked in retail management for most of my adult life, I have some insight on this.
There are two metrics that almost any retail business looks at.
Dollars per hour. Dollars per transaction.
Bookstores like trades over mass-markets because selling a trade is going to mean better stats on both of these. A hardcover is almost
never an impulse buy. A mass-market is often an impulse buy. A trade falls somewhere in between.
Yes, some people who would buy a mass-market won't buy the trade. That's basic economics. There's a point where a certain percentage of buyers drop out of the market. So, yes, trades will see lower sales. However, the profit on a trade is higher than the profit on a mass-market. So a publisher can take lower sales, yet make more money on the trade.
Bookstores also know that trades sell less than mass-markets. But because of the higher profit margin, they can sell less, maintain (or increase) their profit,
and maintain better numbers on the dollars-per-hour and dollars-per-transaction metrics.