Four Books

[Mark Nornes]

On Jan 21, 2008, at 7:49 AM, Jim Harper wrote:

> I personally don't see who is going to pay that kind
> of price for a used book- but when you're charging
> ?150-200 a copy, you don't need that many people to
> buy it.


These prices are one thing that drove David Bordwell to publishing the  
Ozu book with us at CJS Pubs, that and the fact that none of the  
academic presses would touch the book because of the thickness and the  
200 photos.

In any case, what I've heard is that the online booksellers are  
exploiting the people who need a book immediately and want it on their  
shelf?imagine, say, a production company or tv network that needs it  
for researching a film. They don't have a library, but they do have  
research assistants that are paid by the hour and a budget for  
collecting research materials. Maybe your local used bookstore is  
selling the Ozu book through Amazon for $300,  but if you walked down  
the street to the shop you could pick it up for $20.

Markus