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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25980
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25980
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Booksbyweight appears to be simply a used bookstore with a bulk pricing model.

In the paper world the economic model for books is that the publisher sells copies. The copy then belongs to the person who bought it. They can resell it to whoever they want, including used book stores. The author and publisher receive no further compensation when a book is resold.

Generally speaking, authors and publishers don't receive any compensation when their books are lent out by libraries either, though there are now public lending right payments in some countries. (Pretty small, I believe.)

The model for the digital world is very different. The publisher licenses a right to view individual volumes in a digital library. You can view the copies you license on multiple devices, but you cannot resell the book after you have finished it. There is no used market for e-books.

Another model that is emerging (pioneered by O'Reilley for technical books) is that you subscribe to an entire library of books for an annual fee. The publisher and author than get a cut from the library when their book is actually read. In fact, they get paid by how many pages are read, so you get less if someone reads a chapter and abandons it than if they read all the way to the end.

I think the latter model may actually be the fairest model of all to writers and publishers.

Original score: 6