E-Reads™ is
...a trail-blazing reprinter of out-of-print genre and general fiction and nonfiction by leading authors. Our books are available in all e-book formats and paperback. Read the latest publishing news and provocative blogs by top commentators in the traditional and digital publishing fields.
Thin Air
George E. Simpson
It's a mystery that dates back to World War II--what happened to the USS Sturman and its crew. For Naval Investigator Nicholas Hammond, the search will challenge him…and the answers will, like bodies floa...
Shadow of Ashland
Terence M. Green
“THE BOOK YOU HAVE TO READ”–Entertainment Weekly
"Things have to be settled, or they never go away."
Only weeks before she dies in March, 1984, Leo Nolan’s mother shows her son a rose she says w...
The Longest Way Home
Robert Silverberg
"What wonders and adventures he has to tell us," is how Ursula K. LeGuin characterized the world of Robert Silverberg, and in The Longest Way Home, he takes readers on another dazzling odyssey.
Joseph, ju...
Marriage Is a Bad Habit
Ruth Dickson
When Ruth Dickson released her 1967 book MARRIED MEN MAKE THE BEST LOVERS, it went off like a bombshell. Defenders of the “sanctity” of marriage rose up to dismiss her frank, innovative, thoroughly resear...
Orion's Dagger
Paula Downing King
With ORION’S DAGGER, Paula E. Downing presents the thrilling final installment of THE CLOUDSHIPS OF ORION trilogy, which Starlog magazine called “special...a thoroughly engrossing story.” The trio wa...
Fair Warning
George E. Simpson
America is set to finally end World War II with a devastating act--dropping the atomic bomb over Japan. But what if a secret mission was set in place to alter the course of history? In this fast-paced, and i...
Rogues of the Black Fury
Travis Heermann
When a band of shadowy fanatics abducts Javin Wollstone’s little sister, Bella, from his care, his only hope to bring her home is turning to a hard-bitten band of special warriors, the Black Furies, led by C...
The Sudden Star
Pamela Sargent
The appearance of a white star bathing the world in a deadly glare turns Earth into a nightmare of fear and death. Rape and murder are as common as suicide. Medical help is allowed only for certain diseases, a...
Philosophy and the Challenge of the Future
John Lange
The sciences, as opposed to politics and religion, have their roots in philosophy. Philosophy has been spoken of as the mother of the sciences, although she is, in many cases, more of a grandmother or grea...
The Man in the Moon Must Die
Jeff Bredenberg
What do a cunning old man, a code-slopper gone rogue, a pair of lowlife tech-runners, a sexually frustrated AI, and a hermaphrodite underworld boss have in common? They're all out to get Benito Funcitti, ow...
FEATURED TITLES
Our Lady of Darkness
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber (1910-1992) may be best known as a fantasy writer, but he published widely and successfully in the horror and science fiction fields. His fiction won the Hugo, Nebula, Derleth, Gandalf, Lovecr...
The Mommy Chronicles
Leslie Tonner
Follow the adventures of Charlie, an urban three-year-old on the fast track, and his slow-track mommy. In this hilarious volume, Charlie gets a haircut like Sting's, runs up a tab at a baseball game, and pref...
Over There
Robert Vaughan
Volume Two of Robert Vaughan’s stunning American Chronicles follows the tumult of American during the second decade of the twentieth century. The indestructible Titanic goes down in the cold Arctic sea, mi...
Quad World
Robert A. Metzger
John Smith began that morning a perfectly healthy man, but before he knows it time freezes during his morning staff meeting and he thinks he's dying. Has his body stopped or has everything around him? When th...
Hannah's Half-Breed
Heidi Betts
Between Heaven and Hell lies Purgatory, Texas--a town with too few saints ... and too many sinners.
IN NEED OF A MIRACLE
The road to Hell might be paved with good intentions, but David Walker k...
EMT: Beyond the Lights and Sirens
Pat Ivey
This book takes the reader to the front lines of medicine, from a serious automobile accident on a dark country road to a woman in cardiac arrest to a young man with near-fatal gunshot wounds. For these patie...
The Soong Sisters
Emily Hahn
In the early twentieth century, few women in China were to prove so important to the rise of Chinese nationalism and liberation from tradition as the three extraordinary Soong Sisters: Eling, Chingling and May...
The Genesis Quest
Don Moffitt
After intercepting a message from Earth, Nar scientists have learned the secret of human life. The alien species understands everything about human technology and culture and uses this knowledge to build on...
Thirty-Three Teeth
Colin Cotterill
Dr. Siri Paiboun, one of the last doctors left in Laos after the Communist takeover, has been drafted to be national coroner. He is untrained for the job, but this independent 72-year-old has an outstandi...
Dead Roots
Nancy J. Cohen
A haunted hotel, a family curse, mysterious Cossacks, hidden treasure, murdered guests--what looked to be a routine family reunion is turning into a serious Bad Hair Day indeed. One that's trouble all the wa...
The Parasite War
Timothy R. Sullivan
A combat veteran leads a rag-tag group of survivors in an all-out war against invading aliens!
The world's cities have been destroyed by a ghastly holocaust from space. The few remaining souls eke o...
A Promise of Roses
Heidi Betts
Megan Adams needs to save her stagecoach line, and she's ready to personally face the outlaws who constantly ambush it. But she wasn't prepared for the handsome outlaw that will try to make her his accomplice,...
Down the Stream of Stars
Jeffrey A. Carver
A great interstellar migration has begun, down the gateway known as the starstream. Remnant of the Betelgeuse supernova, the starstream is a grand, ethereal highway deep into the Milky Way. It is also a liv...
The Dream Vessel
Jeff Bredenberg
An enticing new world awaits--but getting there's half the battle. Destroying a ruthless dictator, it turns out, was easy by comparison. Merqua's Revolutionaries find themselves landlocked, and the only hope...
The Psychic Power of Animals
Bill D. Schul
Pets are more than companions. The animals we share our lives with are channels to another world. Documentation exists that proves animals do indeed possess a sixth sense. Discover the mysterious and fantastic...
The Black Gondolier and Other Stories
Fritz Leiber
Announcing a new collection of stories by Fritz Leiber. Assembled here is a selection of Mr. Leiber's best horrific tales, many of which have been virtually unobtainable for decades. From the riveting "Spider ...
Posts Tagged ‘used books’
This picked up from Andrew Sullivan’s “The Dish” blog on The Daily Beast.
There’s No Place Like Here: Brazenhead Books from Etsy on Vimeo.
If you don’t know what “vigorish” means, ask your bookie. He’ll tell you that whether you bet for or against, win or to lose, he makes money. His “vig” is a commission levied on both buyer and seller.
To make money coming and going? That’s about as sweet as it gets. Ask Amazon. Whether it’s a new book or a used one, Amazon makes money, and in the case of used books it makes lots of it.
We know that Amazon makes a profit from the difference between what it pays to the publisher – the wholesale price – and what it gets from the customer – the retail price. Nothing notable there – unless you happen to notice that for many titles there are two kinds of “new.” One is Amazon’s own new book. The other is a new book offered by another dealer. What’s with that?
It turns out that professional dealers buy books wholesale from publishers the same way Amazon does. These dealers then offer them for sale on Amazon, which hosts the dealers, presumably for a fee or commission. For example, I’m looking at an E-Reads title with a list price of $21.95. Amazon sells it new for $15.80. But several dealers hosted by Amazon are also selling it new for a $15.79, a penny less than their host.
Doesn’t Amazon mind being undercut? Obviously not, because it is making money on its competitors’ sales as well as on its own. But how much?
We don’t know for sure, but we can glean an idea from the fees it makes on the sale of used books. Again by way of example, the same title that dealers are selling new on Amazon is also being sold used on that site for the same $15.79. We happen to have it on the word of a dealer who left an anonymous comment on our website a few months ago that “Amazon charges marketplace pro merchants 15% of sales plus a closing fee of $1.35 per item.” On that $15.79 book Amazon makes $3.72, not counting the $39.99 monthly fee Amazon charges professional dealers for hosting them. If you’re not a pro Amazon tacks an additional $.99 on the sale.
And let’s not forget that Amazon owns Abebooks, one of the leading used book merchants in the world. So the used book business is a very good one for indeed for Amazon.
We’re not sure Robert Frost had Amazon in mind when he wrote, “That would be good both going and coming back,” but he certainly would have appreciated the company’s double-edged advantage in the marketplace.
Richard Curtis
