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why do books go out of print?

Bigdank

New Member
about a year ago i bought this book from amazon, Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People, for about $10. I looked up the book today and it now sells for about $300. i could not beleive it! why would something like this happen? And, is there anyway to forsee the future of books that are going to go out of print?
 
Because printing books and distributing them to shops costs money. If the publisher thinks it costs more money to keep a book on the shelves than it's worth to them in terms of sales, they stop printing and distributing the book. It happens to all books sooner or later.
 
about a year ago i bought this book from amazon, Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People, for about $10. I looked up the book today and it now sells for about $300. i could not beleive it! why would something like this happen? And, is there anyway to forsee the future of books that are going to go out of print?
Wow. I have this book right in front of me right now. :) I bought it for slightly less than USD$10 very recently.

Hmm, maybe you should come here to get your copy.

ds
 
Because printing books and distributing them to shops costs money. If the publisher thinks it costs more money to keep a book on the shelves than it's worth to them in terms of sales, they stop printing and distributing the book. It happens to all books sooner or later.

The tragedy of that, of course, is that books that are not necessarily going to sell hundreds of thousands of copies won't get the chance to have shelf time so that browsers can see them.

Similarly, one could ask why some authors go out of fashion. It's incredibly difficult to get Thomas Mann's work in the UK now – or at least anything beyond a few of his works. I have to get an independent bookseller to import them from the US for me or get them direct from Amazon in the US myself.

Is Mann somehow less valid an author than he was? Personally, I don't see why. And the same thing has happened to countless other authors – again in the UK, it's difficult to get more than a very few of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels. Now, given the enduring popularity of crime fiction, including the police procedural, why is that?
 
i bought mine from amazon for USD$10 also. Where did you buy yours?
In a bookstore in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. :D

So you're an NLP practitioner? I got my start in an intro given by my company a few months back, and I've been trying to learn more about it since. Fascinating, and useful too. Part of my phase at the moment - very interested in mind hacks and mental/thinking tools.

ds
 
about a year ago i bought this book from amazon, Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People, for about $10. I looked up the book today and it now sells for about $300. i could not beleive it! why would something like this happen? And, is there anyway to forsee the future of books that are going to go out of print?

With respect...that book sounds like it went out of print because it is boring! It might not be, but the title is, well, off-putting shall we say? It sounds like one of those books that, once you put it down, it's hard to pick it up again! :D
 
With respect...that book sounds like it went out of print because it is boring! It might not be, but the title is, well, off-putting shall we say? It sounds like one of those books that, once you put it down, it's hard to pick it up again! :D

You do realize that people also read for knowledge, right?

You probably wouldn't like some of my books either. Some titles:

Continuous Discrete Signal and System Analysis
The Psychology of Computer Programming
Designing Technical Reports
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) Systems in the United States - Ohio
Ordovician, Silurian, and Middle Devonian stratigraphy in northwestern Kentucky and southern Indiana
Pennsylvanian marine Bivalvia and Rostroconchia of Ohio
 
And the same thing has happened to countless other authors – again in the UK, it's difficult to get more than a very few of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels. Now, given the enduring popularity of crime fiction, including the police procedural, why is that?

I don't know. I picked up half a dozen maigret novels from e-bay recently. And "The book people" do 10 maiget novels for £9.99.
 
A few of mine that you wouldn't like as well:
Quantum Physics by Florian Scheck
Kaplan & Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry
Principles of Quantum Mechanics by R. Shankar
The American Civil War: A Hands-On History by Christopher Olsen
 
I don't know. I picked up half a dozen maigret novels from e-bay recently. And "The book people" do 10 maiget novels for £9.99.

Hi PipPirrip,

In essence, I was meaning new copies, particularly in context of things going out of print. I've got all the Penguin editions that were published three or so years ago; they did about a dozen, I think – they've just republished all those; why not publish some more stories instead of such an early new edition?

I've got a second-hand omnibus and I'm just reading one in a Folio Society collection, but it just surprises me that you can't walk up to the crime fiction section in a decent bookshop and find a whole line of Simenons as you would Agatha Christie's books.
 
You do realize that people also read for knowledge, right?

Er....yes I do realise that. Strangely enough, I read for knowledge myself too. My comment was meant to be light-hearted. You obviously missed that - don't be so touchy! And you have to admit, the title does sound boring! If you didn't know, or have a specific interest in the subject, the title doesn't make it sound like the kind of book you'd pick up to browse through, now does it? Be honest!

You probably wouldn't like some of my books either. Some titles:

Continuous Discrete Signal and System Analysis
The Psychology of Computer Programming
Designing Technical Reports
The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous) Systems in the United States - Ohio
Ordovician, Silurian, and Middle Devonian stratigraphy in northwestern Kentucky and southern Indiana
Pennsylvanian marine Bivalvia and Rostroconchia of Ohio

Yep, you're right, I probably wouldn't like them either, or Beerwench's, with the likely exception of the ACW book. :D
 
PhilW said:
If you didn't know, or have a specific interest in the subject, the title doesn't make it sound like the kind of book you'd pick up to browse through, now does it?
Honestly, not one bit. You're certainly right on that point.
 
With respect...that book sounds like it went out of print because it is boring! It might not be, but the title is, well, off-putting shall we say? It sounds like one of those books that, once you put it down, it's hard to pick it up again! :D

some titles are obligations.
 
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