Last year Israel passed legislation placing limits on book-discounting (previously widespread, especially among the market-dominating retailers), and it would be interesting to learn about the consequences of the implementation of this legislation.
Unfortunately, what coverage one finds tends to be along the lines of Sharona Schwartz's New Israeli Law Mandates Price Controls for Books, Minimum Payments to Authors -- Here's What Happened to Sales After Just One Year at something calling itself 'The Blaze'.
While several sources are cited, the only person who seems to have been interviewed for the piece is one "Boaz Arad, the head of the Ayn Rand Center's Israel branch", with predictable results -- quoted at length and offering such helpful textbook economic explanations as:
But good to see Arad 'understands' publishing -- and how authors can become successful ! --, offering helpful and insightful advice such as:
As to the Israeli law in question: more (real) hard data and less ideologically tainted theorizing, please. Please.
Unfortunately, what coverage one finds tends to be along the lines of Sharona Schwartz's New Israeli Law Mandates Price Controls for Books, Minimum Payments to Authors -- Here's What Happened to Sales After Just One Year at something calling itself 'The Blaze'.
While several sources are cited, the only person who seems to have been interviewed for the piece is one "Boaz Arad, the head of the Ayn Rand Center's Israel branch", with predictable results -- quoted at length and offering such helpful textbook economic explanations as:
For example, Arad said, "If I can produce at the rate of $5 an hour -- that's what I'm worth to my employer -- maybe I'm not disciplined, maybe I'm disabled, but if you enact a minimum wage of $6 an hour, it means my employer will lose a dollar on every hour he will have me so the next day I'll lose my job."Much as readers no doubt appreciate the 'lesson' in basic economic theory ... well, there's considerable debate about the effects of minimum wage laws and this simplified version only makes the grade in your junior-high economics class. Beyond that, and more significantly: minimum wage laws are not really comparable to pricing laws of the sort under (ostensible) discussion.
But good to see Arad 'understands' publishing -- and how authors can become successful ! --, offering helpful and insightful advice such as:
Almost the only way for unknown writers to become popular is to put their first book on sale, even to give it for free if possible, to publicize their name and get their audience and eventually make money from their writing,So that's the secret ! Now you know !
As to the Israeli law in question: more (real) hard data and less ideologically tainted theorizing, please. Please.