The reason they are in the backseat is that protectionist legislation prevented them from trading in India. The end result is that Indian book prices are quite high for a country with largely third-world living standards.
Indian book prices, especially for foreign books which are published in India, is quite low.
http://www.flipkart.com/feynman-lectures-physics-mainly-mech...
Price: Rs 236
http://www.amazon.com/The-Feynman-Lectures-Physics-Vol/dp/04...
Price: USD 38(about Rs 2100)
That's almost a 10 fold difference. The paper quality isn't good, it's mostly paperback[1], but paying 10 folds for a hard cover isn't worth it. Books which aren't published locally(imported) are an issue. Prices are too steep compared to books which are published here.
http://www.flipkart.com/algorithm-design-manual-0002/p/itmdy...
Price: Rs 5163
[1]: In the examples above, both books are low quality paperback books.
Books which are published in India are quite cheap(especially if they happen to be popular). Most of the pearson books are LPE(low price editions). Books from other publishers which are published here(marked for the Asian subcontinents) are cheap. Foreign books being cheap is the norm, not the other way round(unless they are imported).
But most of the novels, and other books that I know are definitely expensive.
Text books are not the only books. And of course it also depends on the definition of cheap.
But pirated books sold on by footpath hawkers sell like hot cakes only because many foreign best sellers are generally expensive.
I don't have special shops to buy books for free, and I am not referring to LPE editions only. I am saying most of the foreign books are LPE whether explicitly or implicitly. They do compromise on paper quality, printing and covers.
> But most of the novels, and other books that I know are definitely expensive.
An average novel costs me 350. That is by no stretch expensive. Sure you can get a "lord of the flies"(or may be not; I mostly see Chetan Bhagats and Sidney Sheldons) on a pavement for 50 bucks, but that doesn't mean 350 is expensive.
> But pirated books sold on by footpath hawkers sell like hot cakes only because many foreign best sellers are generally expensive.
Pirated books are cheap doesn't mean most of the foreign books aren't reasonably priced.
Surely if you measure cheap by what starts at 350 rupees. A lot of things get cheaper.
You keep changing stance - most foreign books are not cheap(they are), technical books aren't the only books(no they are not; fiction is cheaper, non-fiction is a bit higher), and lastly 350 isn't cheap. Doesn't my very first comment in this thread has 236 termed as "quite low"? If your basic objection is 350 isn't cheap for most books, why bother with the needless arguments about foreign books and novels.
One way competition reduces prices when sellers start undercutting each other in the first case. That doesn't apply to books in India. No one is making astronomical margins on books which can be cut down.
The other reason prices reduce is when competition leads to reducing production cost. It can be because of expanding market, technological improvements, improving supply chains.
Amazon may be able to make some difference in establishing better supply chains. But beyond that I do not see how they can help reduce the book prices in India. There has already been enough bloodbath in the online book retailing in India, so lack of competition is hardly an issue.
The "end result" thanks to "protectionist legislation" is not as straight forward as people imagine.
If it was wouldnt Alibaba have been allowed to buy Yahoo ;)
For others, this is how it always happens here in India.
On the other hand when the books are priced well. There is actually sweet spot for which Indian consumers will happily pay. For example I can quote of Rashmi Bansal's books. Especially 'Stay hungry, Stay Foolish'. It was priced so well, I hardly saw any pirated books on the footpaths people were more than happy to buy the book.
Compare this to say with a book like "Seven habits of highly effective people' there was a time when hawkers on the footpaths would have something 100 copies always stocked because the original book was expensive and pirated ones sold like hot cakes.
You won't believe this, a while back I would visit Avenue road in Bangalore and one round with foot path hawkers could give you a hint on the best sellers in the market currently.
Funny thing about that book, you can buy it legitimately at ~90 and even street vendors(pirated copy sellers) usually sell it at 50+ and people still buy :-) I think they never got that taste of that feeling when you read a book, hold it your hand, travel with it and then over the time appreciate the crease on it and dream passing it over to your bloodline hoping they would love reading books.
Anyway, I still feel bad having to pirate any book or film or songs. Very bad. Though my next statement is technically incorrect but there are times I can't avoid pirating a book.
I have reduced my music piracy. I've reduced/ the number of songs I listen to around ~ 7GB (almost all of them 320kbps or 8-20 MB on an average). Out of them around 4GB I've purchased and to be honest a lot of them is from Flipkart's 10 day freebie bonanza, but I've purchased from other sources a lot and I must say that A 7-9 Rupee DRM free song is a deal sweeter than saccharine so I like a song and I buy it. I can even go a lot more if the cost goes directly to the artist or most and I do it. Like Indian Ocean's music. I hope in a few months I'll not have any pirated song on my pc or phone. I use Spotify so that also covers a lot.
I've not have any good and affordable[1] alternative for fils. I hope sth like Netflix/Hulu comes up in India or even a good DVD/BRay rental online shop which offers quality with a price. The ones we have don't have many worthwhile films int heir inventory.
Yes, you are right - pricing does affect privacy, in a positive way to check it. However there are people who would just pirate! Piracy is imprinted on their minds and they never bothered to check whether it's a necessity and or is there a mid-way like a friend who stopped using WhatsApp the day his 1 yr trial was over, he just had to pay INR 55 for another year. Though I should have been this judgemental, still active in piracy myself.
[0] Publisher, distributor, agent etc
[1] Again, this is my point of view and someone else can just say I can buy the movies at INR 500 a dvd and this is just an excuse to pirate.
And it used to decide to crash from time to time and then it would simply stop streaming and buffering and you couldn't do anything about that.
There's a new player in town CatchFlix. Haven't checked them.
There's also BoxTV which worse than them all.
And range sucked in all of them.