Day: November 16, 2000

Writers and Publishers Annoyed At Amazon.Com

The other day while ordering some books at Amazon.Com I noticed that the pages describing the books I was interested in also contained a link toward the bottom that I could follow to buy a used copy of the same book. Except for rare exceptions, such as when a book is out of print, I am not interested in used books, but I thought it was a very cool feature that could really help out people with less money or less psychological hangups about used books than me.

According to the Washington Post, this new feature is not going over well with publishers and writers who feel like they’re getting ripped off since they don’t make any money off the sale of used books. Some of the angry commentary against the feature is hilarious.

Author Michael Chabon told the Post,

It’s so irritating. Do they have to put it on the same page? Couldn’t they make it a little harder to find?

Small press publisher and writer Fran Baker said,

I’m not opposed to used bookstores. That’s where you can pick up readers for your new books. But to put a used-book button on the same page as a new title makes no sense. This is bad business for everybody.

It’s simple economics — in highly competitive markets, profits should steadily decline. Welcome to competitive markets, authors and publishers.

The real problem with used books, of course, is that most used books are not in the best condition. You might save $4.50 on a book, but what if it has a left over cigar odor from its previous owner? Yuck.

On the other hand Amazon is also doing this across other product lines and this would make great sense for CDs and DVDs.

How the Media Lies with Statistics

Could Pat Buchanan really have received 3,000+ votes in Palm Beach, Flordia? Of course not, scoff the media and Democrats. To prove it a chart plotting total votes received by Buchanan in Palm Beach has been repeatedly shown on numerous television stations and printed in quite a few newspapers — the chart is very effective since the Palm Beach vote totals dwarf Buchanan’s vote totals in other counties.

In fact the chart is a statistical lie. As the Independent Institute points out, the important thing to know when deciding if Buchanan received a disproportionate number of votes in Palm Beach is to compare the percentage of votes he received in that county compared to the rest of Florida. Plot the chart like that, and the result is unspectacular.

The full press release and explanation behind the plot is at the Independent Institute’s web site, but here’s Buchanan’s votes plotted as a percentage of total votes cast,

Activists May Ask for Re-Count in Massachusetts Greyhound Initiative

Florida is by no means the only state having difficulties with counting ballots. In Boston, Massachusetts, election workers recently discovered 30,000(!) ballots that had simply not been counted. The ballots only affect initiatives, however, and not candidates for elective offices.

Since the initiative to ban greyhound racing in Massachusetts lost by only 65,000 votes, there is some speculation that animal activists might ask for a recount of ballots across the entire state.

The error was discovered when it was realized that in precincts where thousands of people had voted, not a single vote had been cast for any of the ballot initiatives. One explanation being offered is that election officials simply misread the voting machines and didn’t properly record the number of votes for and against each initiative.

A recount would require activists to file at least 1,000 signatures on a petition, unless the margin of defeat for the greyhound initiative turned out to be less than one-half of one percent in which case a recount would be automatic.

Source:

Galvin cites concerns, orders Boston recount. Steve Wilmsen, The Boston Globe, November 10, 2000.