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Found out a paperback costs more to make than the ebook license my club pays at the library
Last week our club picked a 320-page novel and the library ebook copies were all checked out, so we bought 6 paperbacks at $17 each, and then a librarian in Grand Rapids told me the ebook license she buys costs $45 for 2 years. Half of us now argue that paying $270 for books we pass around once is nuts, and the other half say nothing beats a real paperback in your hands. Which side are you on when a book costs more to own than to borrow?
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emmaward5d ago
That $45 for 2 years works out to about $1.88 a month for a whole club to share, which makes the $270 paperback run look even worse. But here's the thing the "real book" side keeps skipping: those 6 paperbacks don't vanish after one read. Our club has a shelf in the back of the coffee shop with maybe 40 books from past picks, and people grab them all the time. So the paperback isn't a one-time cost, it's more like buying a copy the whole group can use for years plus new members who join later. The ebook license actually expires, so after 2 years you've got nothing to pass around. That flips the math a bit, right?
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