Ok, lots of issues in this thread. 1) volume discounts aren’t what they once were. You can print 100 for nearly as cheaply as you can print 10,000 – at leat the margins have shrunk, which is great. 2) getting into B&N and other bookstores is a MASSIVE expense becuase the distribution networks are expensive to join and they operate as a kind of copyright-backed monopoly in league with big publishers, and the effort virtually never pays, so thank goodness for digital distribution. this is what keeps the prices low. 3) the econ in one thing is incredibly complicated but suffice it to say that our right to post it online is not clear enough for us to take the risk and fight for it.
Thanks for the explanation, I am just disappointed as the economics sections of these stores are filled with nonsensical publications like Krugman’s “The Return of Depression Economics”. The high quality covers Mises puts on their books really makes them jump out as opposed to their older bindings you see on Amazon which is a shame because they could sell well.
The free online PDFs though over time will have a significant impact. As I do not have to convince anyone to buy the book to read it. This may turn out to be our best weapon to combat economic ignorance. Thank you for providing this.
On Economics in One Lesson I found a PDF from FEE online…
Note the publication date and copyright information on that PDF. It was published long ago by FEE “by special arrangement,” whatever that means. I suppose there is nothing wrong with talking about this publicly. That book when through two editions, the second of which was certainly renewed by the estate and then by contractual arrangement landed with the current publisher of the later edition. The first edition that we publish is another matter; we also do this “by special arrangement” with the publisher of the later edition. I have my suppositions about “ownership” of this – I think it is held by FEE and I’ve told Larry Read this, but in this game, the deep pockets always win. I don’t think there would have been any conflicts over this book at all were it not for the IP fanaticism of another pseudo-libertarian organization (not Cato and certainly not the wondeful FEE) that hoped to bring out another edition but then actually failed to do so. Suffice it is say that this book is not entirely rescued from IP hell but we helped it along in a big way. In another ten years or so, all bets will be off, and all “owners,” psuedo-“owners,” rent seekers, and deep pocketted IP looters will be unseated for their perches of power and the book will finally be free for all.
I started reading Austrian economics as the result of the suggested reading list in Ron Paul’s The Revolution: A Manifesto. The first book I read was Rothbard’s “What Has the Government Done to Our Money?,” which I enjoyed due to its logical structure, starting from “Crusoe economics” (a term I had never heard before).
However, I think Woods’ Meltdown is currently the best book to grasp a new reader’s attention, because so many people are curious about the “housing bubble” and other economic problems of our times. Meltdown directly answers those questions and provides an introduction to Austrian economics, which will leave the reader hungry for more.
Hazlitt’s “Economics in One Lesson” is also an excellent book, sadly, the title will probably not spark the attention of adults who have already taken college economics classes.
Well do you think it would be possible to get any LvMI books into Borders or Barnes and Noble? At least Murray Rothbard’s “America’s Great Depression,” for example.