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Comment by revorad | Hacker News Reader

The same book is available for $25.56 on Amazon (vs $44.95 on No Starch and O'Reilly). How can Amazon afford such a huge discount on a new book? And how does O'Reilly survive with such competition?

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I've got a (small-compared-to-Amazon) online bookstore, and publisher's discounts to retailers like me generally range from 30-50%. I imagine that Amazon, with their volumes, gets more favorable terms. Supposing they get a 50% discount from the publisher in this case-- I imagine they are getting more, but bear with me-- that means that they are making $3 on the book, net postage (since they charge the customer a separate fee to cover the postage and handling). $3/sale is not a lot, but multiplied by X million, it adds up.

O'Reilly survives because as a publisher, they are making money on every book sold, whether you buy it directly from them or through a retailer. Their direct retail sales are just a sideline.

This book should be eligible for Amazon's free super saver delivery.

I've sold some books in the past, mostly for fun and to learn about online retail. I'd love to have a chat with you about your experience. Can I email you somewhere? Or if you don't mind, could you please drop me a line? (see profile)

it's a mystery! but i'd recommend buying it directly from No Starch because you get the free ebook and swag, plus more money goes directly into my mouth this way

Just wondering, why didn't you choose to self-publish the book through Amazon or Lulu?

i just liked writing it and i put it online for people to red. it never really occurred to me that people might buy it until no starch approached me

That's great. I wish you much success.

Thanks for your awesome book, I'm using it plus Project Euler right now to learn functional programming.

No Starch seems pretty aggressive on that recruiting front. I can't speak for them and of course I can't guarantee anything, but if anybody has an idea for a good, publishable technical book and the chops to write it, the threshold for pitching it to them seems to actually be negative, in that they will actually go around and proactively contact people.

Also as the homepage says you can get it at 40% off at No Starch if you enter 3L3PH4NT as a promo code.

As an O'Reilly member I seem to have a standing 2-for-1 book deal, so I just batch up my orders. I really like their ongoing updates and early releases and the DRM-free formats are a big plus.

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