Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

I asked this before but will ask again: Why do you think it is then that most nonfiction sells at a ~$20 price point? Publishers’ status quo? Or does this maximize potential for broad appeal?

I think this is what @michael_nielsen is saying when he says that putting a price tag on a book isn’t ideal because its at odds with maximizing social welfare and impact.

In the best of worlds, producing a book is a marginal cost to the author, a rounding error on their path to greatness, but hugely valuable to many readers, as valuable as the author's main line trajectory.

I would keep cost to the customer included as well, $$ and opportunity cost. Non-fiction bloat takes away time and lowers the expected book price. Reminds me of this, stories like Austen's original tweet could be cultural focus points with less noise.https://twitter.com/altimor/status/1137888295310880768?s=21 …

I think this is de facto how a lot of public intellectuals work. Michael Lewis is a highly paid motivational speaker who occasionally publishes a book as a marketing exercise, etc etc. (Without looking it up I assume he’s $50k+ an event.)

Wait, what? You’re saying Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and The Big Short, is primarily a motivational speaker??