Used books, big business
I heard about the fuss that the Authors Guild is kicking up about used book sales, but the little that I'd heard led me to believe that they were opposed to all sales of used books, which seemed kinda silly to me, so I didn't explore it further.
But it turns out that (a) I was wrong about what the Guild is objecting to, and (b) perhaps used-book sales aren't as minor a component of the book-purchasing economy as I had assumed.
First, to clear up the Authors Guild issue: According to their site, they're not opposed to used book sales in general at all; what they object to is specifically Amazon listing used books on the same page as new books, thereby presumably siphoning off some of the market for the new books. (Apparently it's become common for reviewers to sell their free review copies as used books before a book is even published; the author gets no royalties on such sales.) The Authors Guild also does not advocate libraries paying royalties to authors, despite what Jeff Bezos apparently implied.
As for used book sales, a New York Times article makes clear that used-book sales on the Net are huge business these days. I had no idea. The author of the article, despite seeing review copies of his own book sold at half price online a month before the book's published, is cautiously optimistic; he seems to think that used-book sales will spur a general increased interest in books, which will cause more new books to be published and sold. Could be; I'll be pleased if so. But I'll also be surprised.
I do think that the sale of used copies of out-of-print books is a wonderful thing. Despite the article's claim that it's easy to get any book you could possibly want these days on the Net, there are still books that I've been looking for for many years and have never seen a copy of. The chance of a publisher ever reprinting some of these books is extremely slim, so I'd be happy to take what I could get, if I ever found a copy. But a "used" copy of a book that hasn't been published yet, for which the author gets no money, seems pretty sketchy to me. On the other hand, the author of this article is again pretty cheery about that; he indirectly makes the point that there really aren't that many review copies of books out there, compared to a full print run, and losing royalties on a few copies may not be that big a deal.
Anyway, the most interesting thing to me about the article is the notion that the Net is driving neighborhood used bookstores out of business; they just can't compete. I again had no idea. That's rough—besieged on one side by the giant megachains, and on the other by individuals selling stuff online. I like used bookstores; I'll be sad to see 'em go.