Does anyone else find it crazy that you can walk into a bookshop and be charged £9.99 for a paperback novel that took the author a year to complete, but £17.99 for a completely blank notebook?
Replies
But the notebook has such a pretty cover.
jul 22, 2025, 5:42 am • 1 0 • view
THIS!!!!!!
jul 22, 2025, 11:22 am • 1 0 • view
Wow, now that you made me think about it, that is fundamentally wrong!
jul 22, 2025, 5:03 am • 2 0 • view
I agree. Never thought about this absurdity.
jul 21, 2025, 11:50 pm • 2 0 • view
And POS humans make millions or billions off writing trash; and use that money and publicity to get elected to high office, or to attack gay/Trans/questioning children. Trump and J.K. Rowling are the same person.
jul 22, 2025, 5:31 am • 1 0 • view
I do! 🤪
jul 21, 2025, 8:08 pm • 3 0 • view
Or 5.99 for a get well soon card
jul 21, 2025, 7:33 pm • 89 2 • view
Text: get well soon. I bought a notepad for work with the money I didn’t spend on your card. 😉
jul 21, 2025, 8:47 pm • 18 1 • view
Yes…cards suck. I always tell people to save their money and just tell me how they feel haha…every birthday I give the person a hug, and thank them for something I appreciate about them.
jul 21, 2025, 10:05 pm • 15 1 • view
Could just take any piece of paper. Write get well soon on it and then whatever message you wish. Just make a card. Its cheap as hwck bit achieves the same thing. And is actually more thoughtful because you took time to write it.
jul 22, 2025, 4:52 am • 4 0 • view
Sure, either way, my point is we don’t need to buy someone else’s words to express our feelings for those we care for. Just tell the person how you feel, it’s more meaningful and costs nothing.
jul 22, 2025, 6:33 pm • 1 0 • view
I love this soooo much.
jul 22, 2025, 4:40 am • 2 0 • view
But for 5.99 the recipient ALSO gets to debate with themselves for weeks about whether it's appropriate to throw it out yet
jul 22, 2025, 7:17 am • 30 0 • view
This is why I have a very large drawer especially for received cards. Therefore I only debate monthly on what to do with them. 🤣
jul 22, 2025, 11:26 am • 5 0 • view
Cards is the only thing I’m excellent at declutterring - my pov is once you well, the card has served its purpose and the money was well spent
jul 22, 2025, 12:43 pm • 3 0 • view
What's the procedure for birthday cards? Birthday is over, card has served its purpose?
jul 22, 2025, 1:13 pm • 5 0 • view
Birthday cards last me until the end of the next month. Once my birthday month is over and the next one is over I take a photo of the group of cards and toss them.
jul 22, 2025, 2:05 pm • 1 0 • view
Unless it’s for a “big” birthday - or from a particular person, then…. (I don’t have any even from 21st, 40th or 50th). Perhaps I’m a bit too ruthless and unsentimental
jul 22, 2025, 1:20 pm • 5 0 • view
My publisher told me that I needed to pay people to take a copy of my book.
jul 21, 2025, 10:57 pm • 4 0 • view
'People' being the publisher?🙂
jul 21, 2025, 11:08 pm • 3 0 • view
Never thought about it this way.
jul 22, 2025, 3:18 am • 1 0 • view
When u put it that way.. that is weird.
jul 22, 2025, 3:50 pm • 6 0 • view
Yeah. Value is not just illogical but irrational. It's a major building block of capitalism.
jul 22, 2025, 3:57 am • 4 0 • view
You mean something I will use one week Vs something I will use for years?
jul 22, 2025, 5:09 am • 0 0 • view
Oh my God! 🤯
jul 22, 2025, 3:14 am • 1 0 • view
yes, that's crazy.
jul 22, 2025, 4:40 pm • 2 0 • view
Thanks for framing this. Capitalism is a ghastly beast run completely amok.
jul 21, 2025, 9:23 pm • 3 0 • view
🤯 Yep!
jul 22, 2025, 3:05 am • 2 0 • view
If you see a book, its placement has probably cost the publisher thousands. Don’t worry - they will make their money. Think about the books that never make it to be displayed
jul 22, 2025, 6:45 am • 2 0 • view
blank notebooks of the electronic variety have some limitations whereas an authored ebook on a quality ebook reader is marvie
jul 21, 2025, 9:22 pm • 2 0 • view
You are overpaying for your notebooks. Currently on offer at a well known supermarket an A4 hard cover wire bound notebook for £1.68 each.
jul 22, 2025, 11:26 am • 12 0 • view
Ain’t the point. He’s not buying the notebooks - he’s saying the labour involved is not reflected in the price of each item.
jul 22, 2025, 5:13 pm • 5 0 • view
Wow, I would never have thought of that!
jul 22, 2025, 5:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes, your first post made that quite clear.
jul 22, 2025, 5:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Helen, I never was very good at sarcasm. The original post was comparing something that was mass produced, but chose something that was a very expensive example, with something that some author slaved over for months or even years. No comparison!
jul 22, 2025, 5:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Ok. Yeah, that was not remotely clear to me from either of your posts 😅 There’s a strand of human that seems to excel at popping up whenever the cost/value of an item is discussed, and start an ‘I think you’ll find..’ lecture in cheapness - it looked rather like that. Mate? 😂
jul 22, 2025, 5:52 pm • 2 0 • view
Ugh, mates! Without the ‘s’ it’s a very different question!
jul 22, 2025, 8:34 pm • 1 0 • view
In my experience that fancy expensive notebook will remain nice and blank for years to come 😂
jul 21, 2025, 8:12 pm • 69 2 • view
Good, otherwise they'd depreciate in value per the OP!
jul 22, 2025, 12:24 am • 2 0 • view
And multiply like rabbits
jul 21, 2025, 8:16 pm • 42 2 • view
“It’s too nice, I’m saving it!”
jul 21, 2025, 8:17 pm • 30 2 • view
The few things that get moved to the "special" notebook take like an hour per page as I painstakingly draw every letter.
jul 22, 2025, 1:25 am • 2 0 • view
Or like moles.
jul 22, 2025, 1:26 pm • 2 0 • view
I see what you did there 🕳️🐀
jul 22, 2025, 5:45 pm • 1 0 • view
If it's book-bound, I won't write in it. I want my paper to lay flat.
jul 21, 2025, 8:38 pm • 2 0 • view
Take a look at the calendars!
jul 21, 2025, 11:33 pm • 4 0 • view
Well, when you think of it like that then I suppose it is a bit whacko! however, I'd never pay £17.99 for a blank notebook unless it had some magical properties or something.🤪
jul 22, 2025, 6:58 am • 2 0 • view
I'm more concerned that minimum wage still isn't at the level where an hour's work would pay for the paperback. Try charity shops for notebooks.
jul 22, 2025, 10:27 am • 30 0 • view
Or find a print on demand shop and print it yourself. You can choose any fancy features you want.
jul 22, 2025, 12:14 pm • 3 0 • view
😆😅🤣😂 {Insert 2nd read here} 😂🤣🤣😂🤣😅🤣😂😅
jul 22, 2025, 9:54 am • 1 0 • view
as a father to two published novelists, I feel your pain!
jul 22, 2025, 12:32 am • 4 0 • view
You must be going to the wrong shops ?
jul 22, 2025, 3:04 am • 1 0 • view
Moleskines are everywhere, they are horribly overpriced, subpar paper quality.
jul 22, 2025, 4:15 am • 1 0 • view
The fact that they use a mole's skin is the worst part. 😭
jul 22, 2025, 5:28 am • 2 0 • view
agreed
jul 22, 2025, 12:08 am • 1 0 • view
The paper is used.
jul 22, 2025, 4:03 am • 9 0 • view
😂
jul 22, 2025, 4:07 am • 2 0 • view
Well, no, because pricing is set by demand
jul 21, 2025, 9:26 pm • 1 0 • view
17.99 for a notebook??? Where on earth are you finding them
jul 22, 2025, 11:13 am • 11 0 • view
They're the fancy ones with the hardback and usually a tab to measure where you are and such
jul 22, 2025, 12:34 pm • 4 0 • view
You can buy fancy hardcover with gold plating if you want to overpay for authored works
jul 22, 2025, 12:47 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm not sure you're replying to the right person
jul 22, 2025, 12:48 pm • 2 0 • view
I can reply to whomever I want. This is the Internet and bluesky has freedom of speach!
jul 22, 2025, 12:49 pm • 2 0 • view
Stop trying to silence me!
jul 22, 2025, 12:50 pm • 2 0 • view
Also for the sake of transparency I mostly wanted to make sure you were heard by the correct person
jul 22, 2025, 12:56 pm • 2 0 • view
Ah I see, you just want to be heard. Is there anything else you want to be heard about?
jul 22, 2025, 12:54 pm • 2 0 • view
I've got donkey brains from too much bananza
jul 22, 2025, 1:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Just wait, the publishing industry will next introduce books with words that vanish as you read them: you want to read again, you pay again.
jul 22, 2025, 7:18 am • 45 0 • view
That’s a prime subscription
jul 22, 2025, 8:41 am • 21 0 • view
The economic phenomenon of prestige pricing, wherein goods are perceived as being more desirable the more overpriced they are. Also, writing true blankness is very challenging.
jul 22, 2025, 10:06 am • 3 0 • view
Well duh... a novel is no longer blank... it's now used! 😉🥁Tss
jul 21, 2025, 7:48 pm • 14 0 • view
Where are you buying a notebook for almost 20?
jul 22, 2025, 4:54 pm • 3 0 • view
Barnes and noble. But some of this bland books have leather or fake leather binding
jul 22, 2025, 6:46 pm • 2 0 • view
The notebook has greater potential. Especially if you are writing a novel.
jul 22, 2025, 2:37 pm • 1 0 • view
as often, or as always, the devil 👿 is in the details 🔬
jul 21, 2025, 8:32 pm • 2 0 • view
Don't you think it's crazy that I not only have a TBR pile of books but a TBU pile of blank notebooks?
jul 22, 2025, 4:22 am • 32 0 • view
You have been accepted into our secret society, expect to be picked up by horse carriage at the autumn equinox. Bring a writing instrument of your choice.
jul 22, 2025, 8:46 am • 5 0 • view
Wait, it's a trap, don't do it! They'll make you WRITE in the notebooks! 😱
jul 22, 2025, 9:29 am • 5 0 • view
Shhh 🤫. We’re not supposed to tell anyone that. They’ll make us use them and we’ll have to buy more 😱
jul 22, 2025, 9:47 am • 10 0 • view
That’s Late Stage Capitalism for you.
jul 22, 2025, 9:25 am • 1 0 • view
Great point.
jul 22, 2025, 2:31 am • 3 0 • view
A blank book can say anything. A published book says the one thing. You’re paying for the infinite-possibility-surcharge.
jul 21, 2025, 9:59 pm • 13 1 • view
Also noticing that paperback books cost less than hard cover now!
jul 21, 2025, 9:32 pm • 1 0 • view
Make it make sense. 👀
jul 22, 2025, 5:01 am • 1 0 • view
Just imagine the potential uplift in value of the blank notebook once you've written your opus 😉😁
jul 22, 2025, 11:25 am • 2 0 • view
My husband & I were talking about this exact thing a couple days ago. Twice the price, so you can put your own words in it. Cool.
jul 22, 2025, 5:55 am • 2 0 • view
The notebook obviously has a better agent.
jul 22, 2025, 11:06 am • 5 0 • view
No.
jul 22, 2025, 5:17 pm • 0 0 • view
Exactly, except for the year to complete a novel. Romance, maybe. But a good historical fiction can take three years to research, write and edit to complete, or even longer!
jul 21, 2025, 8:33 pm • 4 0 • view
Perhaps. Most of mine have taken between 4 and 8 months.
jul 21, 2025, 8:36 pm • 3 0 • view
Wow. You are a veritable assembly line factory!
jul 21, 2025, 8:46 pm • 3 0 • view
Like Coca Cola, you are not paying for the beverage, but for the aluminum.
jul 21, 2025, 9:19 pm • 4 0 • view
The aluminum we purchase from Canada and throw in our landfills because our systems suck.
jul 22, 2025, 3:18 am • 1 0 • view
Exactly!
jul 21, 2025, 11:54 pm • 2 0 • view
It's harder to carry a rock to the top of a mountain than it is to pick it up at the bottom. We're being charged for potential (creative) energy the blank notebook contains 😂
jul 22, 2025, 8:10 am • 3 0 • view
What about a Hermes bag? It's made of fabric, leather, metal, whatever, costs fucking thousands and you have to be fucking deemed important enough to buy one.
jul 21, 2025, 11:28 pm • 2 0 • view
Thinking about it, it's not the worst, an all white painting was sold 20.6 millions in 2015. I think I might sell my next music composition for millions, its title ? "Blank CD, in an Empty CD case".
jul 21, 2025, 9:50 pm • 4 1 • view
Don't forget the all-blank paper inserts
jul 21, 2025, 10:20 pm • 2 0 • view
Well as there has been a silent record and a performance of the said song (and I believe someone got sued for "copying" said song if I remember right), then you might have to be careful with your CD production.
jul 21, 2025, 10:40 pm • 2 0 • view
😂😂😂😂 isn't plagiat accusations the ultimate recognition for a con-artist ?
jul 22, 2025, 6:40 am • 1 0 • view
🙃
jul 21, 2025, 7:48 pm • 4 0 • view
in all fairness i make books for a small publisher and they cost more because of power of large publications. and notebooks are their moneygrab
jul 21, 2025, 7:49 pm • 5 0 • view
You're paying for the potential.
jul 22, 2025, 3:59 am • 12 0 • view
It’s like how empty jars cost more than the same jar with jam already in it.
jul 21, 2025, 9:39 pm • 2 0 • view
jul 22, 2025, 12:53 pm • 1 0 • view
There is more value put on potentiality than on certainty. That's why pro-lifers care more about a fetus than a baby... until it is old enough to die for their self-righteous ideology.
jul 22, 2025, 2:23 am • 2 0 • view
No not really.
jul 22, 2025, 6:07 am • 1 0 • view
Perspective ~ WOW!!
jul 22, 2025, 1:16 am • 2 0 • view
The potential of what can be is worth far more than what is. You buy a book, what's in there isn't going to change. You buy a blank notebook, the potential of what you could put in there could change your life.
jul 22, 2025, 3:12 pm • 5 0 • view
So could the content in many books.
jul 22, 2025, 3:37 pm • 2 0 • view
So their profit comes from my own content? Hmm... 🤔
jul 22, 2025, 3:20 pm • 5 0 • view
This is why, despite finding fancy blank notebooks very delightful, I buy mine from the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse, which is a second hand shop specializing in art supplies and related stuff.
jul 22, 2025, 6:05 am • 2 0 • view
The book business is weird. A beautifully bound Dicken's novel cost me $8.95 a paperbound Agatha Christie novel was priced at $29.00
jul 21, 2025, 9:40 pm • 1 0 • view
That may have something to do with the fact that Dickens is out of copyright, but Christie isn’t.
jul 21, 2025, 9:55 pm • 1 0 • view
I find it peculiar you'd pay that much for a notebook, there are plenty of cheaper notebooks
jul 22, 2025, 6:46 am • 6 0 • view
If enough people buy the paperback, then the author will eventually be reimbursed for the notebooks that they used while making it.
jul 22, 2025, 4:20 am • 2 0 • view
How many moles had to die for your fancy notebook?
jul 22, 2025, 9:17 am • 6 0 • view
Your the first person I've ever scene put up any form of a fight for moles
jul 22, 2025, 9:55 am • 5 0 • view
You keep away from my moles...
jul 22, 2025, 2:41 pm • 1 0 • view
After a decade in China, where the government maintains it's own subsidized bookstores to ensure books stay affordable and widely available....yes. Yes it feels god damn crazy.
jul 22, 2025, 4:28 am • 4 0 • view
As an author, YES!!!
jul 22, 2025, 1:22 am • 4 0 • view
I understand the concept but it is a balancing act of the right price to encourage people to buy the book who might not do otherwise. I would regularly buy 3 books in one go with at least 2 of them that seem interesting.
jul 22, 2025, 6:52 am • 3 0 • view
If the prices were higher I would probably buy just the 1 book. A blank notebook is something I need to use as a utility, not bought that often and would last me longer, in general. I am not saying it is right or fair but this is the world of money and people who want to make money off others.
jul 22, 2025, 6:52 am • 2 0 • view
I always follow writers, even if I'm not in their genre (I do historical/mythical fiction) I appreciate the irony (or cruelty) of your post. Any advice for a neophyte?
jul 22, 2025, 12:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Likely an aside to your point, but most paperbacks use really, really cheap paper. An expensive notebook is likely to have really good paper (Rhodia) or a good cover, marketing, and decent paper (Moleskine). If you’re using a ballpoint, just use the absolutely cheapest notebook you can stand
jul 21, 2025, 7:50 pm • 28 0 • view
Crazier that someone would buy the notebook.
jul 21, 2025, 10:00 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm with you and can understand you very well. the x.99 prices are misleading and should be abolished. it should be £10 and £18! Clear pricing without consumer deception! 😃
jul 22, 2025, 12:50 am • 2 0 • view
But you're paying for "possibilities". lol
jul 22, 2025, 1:52 am • 1 0 • view
Yea. The best part is that authors gonna get maybe 3 of those $10.
jul 21, 2025, 10:24 pm • 3 0 • view
honestly artists and writers are so underpaid but the economy sucks rn
jul 22, 2025, 10:53 am • 5 0 • view
I concur! (Mother of daughter that also draws☺️)
jul 22, 2025, 11:23 am • 1 0 • view
Seriously? Over here, I’ve made 17c in royalties already. www.lulu.com/spotlight/ph...
jul 22, 2025, 12:15 pm • 1 0 • view
i don't really know what you mean but that sounds good for you sir
jul 22, 2025, 12:42 pm • 1 0 • view
That's why I'm releasing my new 19 Volume Sci-Fi epic called "White space". The pages *LOOK* blank, but if you stare hard enough you'll see the story. Critics love it.
jul 21, 2025, 9:49 pm • 4 0 • view
As a writer, in all honesty, it depends on the notebook!📒 🙏☺️
jul 22, 2025, 2:41 am • 3 0 • view
🤣
jul 22, 2025, 11:22 am • 3 0 • view
It just goes to show that values are subjective.
jul 21, 2025, 10:41 pm • 2 0 • view
确实如此，中国的物价也会如此反常
jul 22, 2025, 5:22 am • 2 0 • view
Books are very expensive
jul 22, 2025, 12:09 am • 1 0 • view
Writers need to have our heads examined, I mean, no one cares! Except that I do love to read good books, and so I know there are other readers hungry for the writing of others
jul 21, 2025, 8:37 pm • 2 0 • view
Even crazier that you can stay at home and do it, where fewer actual people are working and increasing labor cost, and yet still be charged a “service fee”.
jul 21, 2025, 8:19 pm • 4 0 • view
Cheap words?😇
jul 21, 2025, 8:56 pm • 2 0 • view
Well, accounting for available writing area, margins versus completely blank pages, I'd say the £17.99 is a steal. But if you buy paperbacks second hand...
jul 22, 2025, 2:58 am • 2 0 • view
Likewise, we were debating only yesterday if it made sense to pay £3 for an empty jar (making pickles) or £2.50 for a cheap pasta sauce and just throw the sauce away and keep the jar?
jul 22, 2025, 12:34 pm • 5 0 • view
I never thought about it, but that's completely true.
jul 21, 2025, 9:38 pm • 1 0 • view
It took me a year to whiteout all the words. Please respect my labor
jul 22, 2025, 4:04 pm • 87 0 • view
I never get why anyone pays that much for a notebook. Legal pads are like £2 and much more useful
jul 21, 2025, 7:57 pm • 7 0 • view
Buy a soda and a bottle of water and compare prices. Quite different but insane as well.
jul 21, 2025, 9:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Crazy!!!!!
jul 22, 2025, 10:51 am • 1 0 • view
Thank you for that depressing juxtaposition.
jul 22, 2025, 1:41 pm • 14 0 • view
A case of less is more (cash)!
jul 21, 2025, 11:46 pm • 2 0 • view
" but £17.99 for a completely blank notebook" YOU are in the wrong store!!!!!!!
jul 22, 2025, 12:29 am • 2 0 • view
I guess silence is golden…
jul 22, 2025, 3:54 am • 3 0 • view
Reliable the notebook Intelligent things Donald Trump has done and the pay the book price
jul 22, 2025, 11:09 am • 2 0 • view
It's because millions of people buy the novel, which generates a lot of profit, while only authors by the notebooks, and they are very wealthy, having received royalties from all those novels.
jul 21, 2025, 11:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Sell two copies of your completed notebook and you'll make £1.99...
jul 21, 2025, 11:38 pm • 7 0 • view
But think of the creative opportunities that notebook brings. 🤣
jul 22, 2025, 1:09 pm • 2 0 • view
The notebook has good paper
jul 21, 2025, 11:12 pm • 1 0 • view
When writing a book, always remember that your words are probably making the paper less valuable
jul 21, 2025, 7:44 pm • 64 2 • view
Wittgenstein said it is very hard to write on a piece of paper and improve it.
jul 21, 2025, 9:40 pm • 3 0 • view
Ouch!
jul 21, 2025, 8:20 pm • 13 1 • view
Yep. It’s weird
jul 22, 2025, 11:38 am • 2 0 • view
Great point
jul 21, 2025, 10:36 pm • 1 0 • view
And people might think twice before shelling out money for a paperback but will be drawn like a magnet to a fancy notebook. State of the world today.
jul 22, 2025, 6:54 am • 4 0 • view
That would be a fair argument if the paper quality of the books was the same as the paper quality of those expensive notebooks. But I'm guessing those paperback novels aren't printed on smooth writing quality paper like Midori.
jul 22, 2025, 8:07 am • 2 0 • view
To be honest, I would pay more if the author came home with me and read the book to me
jul 22, 2025, 12:55 am • 6 0 • view
Ban AI from providing summaries on books and from PDF files being made available free online. Seriously it’s getting ridiculous. I support gates. Cognitive intelligence and intellectual labor is labor. Why must it be free or discounted suddenly? We allow access to women and people of color to study
jul 22, 2025, 5:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Need to learn to write real small in the margins to get your money's worth.
jul 22, 2025, 2:28 am • 5 0 • view
Or a decade.
jul 21, 2025, 10:39 pm • 2 0 • view
The books is already filled with words.
jul 21, 2025, 9:59 pm • 1 0 • view
A year? Some novels take several years to write.
jul 21, 2025, 8:57 pm • 3 0 • view
Very good point!
jul 22, 2025, 1:58 am • 1 0 • view
it's like startup funding. you're worth a lot more when it's just an idea. once it hits the market we know exactly what you're worth. blank canvas has so much potential ;)
jul 21, 2025, 8:25 pm • 9 0 • view
No
jul 22, 2025, 4:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Takes a while to draw all those lines to be fair
jul 22, 2025, 8:12 am • 2 0 • view
The value of potential...
jul 22, 2025, 12:11 am • 2 0 • view
I didn't but now I do.
jul 22, 2025, 1:05 am • 3 0 • view
I wonder how many authors can complete a book in year.
jul 22, 2025, 3:16 pm • 1 0 • view
It shows that people value undefined Potential 💡
jul 21, 2025, 8:45 pm • 4 0 • view
A penny for someone else's thoughts, but two cents for your own!
jul 21, 2025, 11:15 pm • 1 0 • view
This feels like a false dichotomy. The notebooks I buy for 20€ are usually hard cover, with high quality and quality paper, and have a number of extra features to them. 1/2
jul 22, 2025, 10:26 am • 13 1 • view
A hardcover novel easily costs over 25€ where I'm at, and that's with shit quality paper and binding. Anything matching the quality of a good notebook is usually closer to 40€. 2/2
jul 22, 2025, 10:26 am • 13 0 • view
The author of the blank book had to spend a whole year not thinking about anything. That's hard to do, and hard work calls for commensurate compensation. Try keeping your mind a blank for 365 days, and you'll see what I mean.
jul 22, 2025, 4:59 pm • 25 1 • view
The Orange Con seems able to manage that feat.
jul 22, 2025, 5:03 pm • 5 0 • view
🤣🤣🤣 never thought about it before, but you make a FANTASTIC point✌🏾
jul 21, 2025, 10:52 pm • 2 0 • view
The notebook is probably prettier & made with better materials.
jul 22, 2025, 12:13 am • 1 0 • view
You are paying for 𝘢𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 ✨ Imagine how cool you'd look writing with your Moleskine on the bus
jul 22, 2025, 9:29 am • 3 0 • view
Or $12.99 (here in the States) for a bookmark. 😱
jul 22, 2025, 2:25 am • 4 0 • view
I find charging the same price for an e-book to be outrageous. At least give me a ream of paper with each book. I'll write my own novel. Some day. Maybe. Or not. I don't know.
jul 22, 2025, 1:32 am • 1 0 • view
It's like spring water vs sugary fizz.
jul 21, 2025, 8:59 pm • 4 0 • view
Who pays £17.99 for a notebook ?
jul 22, 2025, 8:31 am • 5 0 • view
People who pay £300 for brunch. What’s the problem?
jul 22, 2025, 11:21 am • 1 0 • view
👀 I’m just here for the comments.
jul 22, 2025, 5:45 am • 3 0 • view
It's like a metaphor for our society
jul 21, 2025, 10:41 pm • 2 0 • view
youtu.be/yYvkICbTZIQ?... #PaperbackWriter
jul 22, 2025, 5:30 am • 1 0 • view
🤣🤣🤣
jul 22, 2025, 4:37 am • 2 0 • view
When you put it like that....wtf?
jul 21, 2025, 7:56 pm • 3 0 • view
'Must kill more trees!' A Canadian Retired Lumberjack
jul 21, 2025, 9:37 pm • 2 0 • view
Optimistically, this means theres a higher demand for the tools of creation than avenues of consumption
jul 21, 2025, 11:07 pm • 3 0 • view
I am hooked on Peter Pauper Press notebooks with the fancy covers. I admit my obsession! Not THAT pricey. www.peterpauper.com/collections/...
jul 21, 2025, 10:11 pm • 1 0 • view
Similar to why does a mineral water cost more than a fizzy drink? 🙆♀️
jul 21, 2025, 9:47 pm • 2 0 • view
it's a bit unintuitive, but how can it be otherwise? the blank paper has the seeds of infinite books/illustrations/theories, the paperback has one, maybe 1.1, stories on the margins you're paying for optionality, with labor you converted to optionality via employment
jul 22, 2025, 2:50 am • 4 0 • view
This is the most ridiculously speculative idealist notion borne by a complete ignorance as to how exchange value works I have seen since the last edition of a neoliberal economics textbook
jul 22, 2025, 2:54 am • 5 0 • view
Probably will sell more of the pb novel than a blank notebook that in itself is more expensive to produce.
jul 21, 2025, 9:34 pm • 2 0 • view
I can't use a paperback novel to write my own thoughts, so, no, not strange.
jul 21, 2025, 7:49 pm • 3 0 • view
Of course you can, just use the margins and line spacing.
jul 21, 2025, 8:05 pm • 3 0 • view
While possible, anything I write in the margines or in the line spacing is a commentary of the content of the page. The correct place for original thoughts are a blank page.
jul 21, 2025, 8:09 pm • 2 0 • view
And a blank page does not cost 18 bucks.
jul 21, 2025, 8:12 pm • 3 0 • view
If I want to express the thoughts I have about a book, I'll write it in the margins. If I want to express the thoughts I havein the most original way possible, I'll pay those 18 bucks for that notebook. That said, I do read alot lot lot more than I write.
jul 21, 2025, 8:14 pm • 2 0 • view
It's not original to express thoughts in an 18 bucks notebook...
jul 21, 2025, 8:31 pm • 3 0 • view
The price of the notebook is incidental to a thought's originality.
jul 21, 2025, 8:49 pm • 2 0 • view
No, the price of this notebook is a marketing ploy and you're falling for it with both feet.
jul 21, 2025, 9:37 pm • 3 0 • view
I find that rediculous. Books should be more expensive. But that’s also coming from someone who exclusively buys hardbacks.
jul 21, 2025, 8:46 pm • 6 0 • view
And often a lot less
jul 21, 2025, 8:27 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah. And I took 3 years to complete my novel. No AI, all me.
jul 22, 2025, 9:42 am • 2 0 • view
Not until now, but, um, yeah.
jul 21, 2025, 10:52 pm • 3 0 • view
Good point
jul 21, 2025, 11:36 pm • 1 0 • view
And that’s why I avoid bookshops!
jul 22, 2025, 12:41 pm • 1 0 • view
Touché
jul 21, 2025, 8:44 pm • 3 0 • view
Potential is more valuable unrealized
jul 21, 2025, 10:15 pm • 3 0 • view
If it’s a handmade book, then it’s a deal.
jul 21, 2025, 10:04 pm • 3 0 • view
They need the notebook 😏
jul 22, 2025, 2:22 am • 1 0 • view
That’s because a Private Equity firm bought Moleskin and are yet to ever invest in an author
jul 21, 2025, 9:26 pm • 2 0 • view
Well now that you mention it 😬
jul 22, 2025, 12:23 am • 1 0 • view
Part of that is that there is 0% vat on a book as they are considered non luxuary items that people should have access to. Notebooks are considered a luxury so have 20% vat. The government cream £3 off the note book It's still £5 difference but you see the true difference
jul 22, 2025, 7:27 am • 5 0 • view
The author needs your business. The blank notebook don't care.
jul 22, 2025, 5:24 am • 1 0 • view
Without context that's hard to say, what factors might contribute to the price of that notebook if you're being generous? The value of a notebook doesn't have to be a devaluing of an author's novel, they are fundamentally different things with different uses. Someone had to design that cover..
jul 22, 2025, 7:49 am • 2 0 • view
Artists create the work that is used for the covers, sometimes it's a graphic design, others it's handcrafted, those artists created something of value. The item itself might be worth that, without having to argue that the potential is where the value lies or that it's being sold an idea vs an item
jul 22, 2025, 7:51 am • 1 0 • view
There are obviously a bunch of mass produced notebooks but are those the ones you are referencing? Sometimes the amount that a person is charging is simply that, what they decided to charge, not what it's worth in a fair market. If it's cheaply made but proceeds benefit something, it matters
jul 22, 2025, 7:54 am • 1 0 • view
If it's made by a small business or from premium materials you are paying for work, for skill, and talent, somewhere in the chain of production.
jul 22, 2025, 7:55 am • 1 0 • view
I've never seen a Moleskin notebook with a designed cover, and I've never seen a novel without one.
jul 22, 2025, 8:23 am • 1 0 • view
Context🤷♀️ He didn't specify that it was a moleskin, if you read my next two comments under this you'll see my entire train of logic.
jul 22, 2025, 8:40 am • 1 0 • view
I did waste my time on the rest first. Even though he didn't specify a brand, he clearly didn't mean an artwork. Everybody who knows notebooks knows the kind sold in bookshops costs the price he named.
jul 22, 2025, 11:46 am • 1 0 • view
Perception is reality, you clearly know it all, bravo.
jul 22, 2025, 3:40 pm • 1 0 • view
Yes!
jul 22, 2025, 8:28 am • 2 0 • view
Surge pricing
jul 21, 2025, 9:28 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes🤬🤬😡 and we the the customers let them get away with it by buying it.🤪🙄.
jul 22, 2025, 5:49 am • 3 0 • view
You can spend years working on an eBook and only be able to sell it for $0.99. The benefit is getting books into the hands of actual readers. The struggle is making a living.
jul 21, 2025, 9:35 pm • 2 0 • view
No need to tell me, writing has been my main job since 2008. It's a financial rollercoaster.
jul 21, 2025, 9:55 pm • 3 0 • view
Not really. Wildly different production cost, if you compare a cheap paperback with shitty paper and i.e a moleskine notebook. But you could always buy a cheap notebook.
jul 21, 2025, 11:02 pm • 2 0 • view
It's BS.
jul 21, 2025, 9:15 pm • 2 0 • view
We have no idea how many hours the author sat at their typewriter working on drafts before they decided to go full on with less is more and publish an empty book...
jul 21, 2025, 10:40 pm • 2 0 • view
I can buy a bottle of carbonated water with sugar (or fake sugar) and flavor for $1 but the same size bottle of just plain carbonated water is $2
jul 22, 2025, 3:55 pm • 11 0 • view
I never thought of that. It's crazy!
jul 22, 2025, 2:58 pm • 1 0 • view
You pay more for the potential.
jul 22, 2025, 2:18 am • 7 0 • view
What chaps me about being a writer is non-writers telling me that anyone can write a novel. All four of my novels took about one year to write, and I'm consistently told that $2.99 for an ebook and $14.99 for a paperback is too expensive. 😳
jul 22, 2025, 12:35 am • 5 0 • view
Ah, but they're not selling a notebook: they're selling an undecided future brimmed with potential and possibilities. A novel is someone else's literal past. Which should cost more? Also, boring answer, paper needs to be thick to support fountain pens etc. And even £18 is excessive.
jul 22, 2025, 4:52 am • 6 0 • view
Not just thick, acidfree to be archival
jul 22, 2025, 5:25 am • 1 0 • view
Depends, what's the paper quality like in the notebook? 100+gsm?
jul 21, 2025, 7:44 pm • 5 0 • view
Stands to reason. Similarly you can buy a half litre of coke for £2 or get one litre for £1.20.
jul 21, 2025, 11:00 pm • 4 0 • view
Only if you have a moleskin or leutmark fetish!
jul 21, 2025, 9:41 pm • 1 0 • view
And you can’t borrow blank notebooks at the library
jul 22, 2025, 4:11 am • 1 0 • view
Oh the irony…
jul 22, 2025, 11:35 am • 1 0 • view
damn, that’s wild and fucked.
jul 22, 2025, 2:42 am • 2 0 • view
♥️
jul 22, 2025, 10:06 am • 1 0 • view
I mean the notebook is blank and full of promise, the novel is just done for...
jul 21, 2025, 8:25 pm • 5 0 • view
And how much of that £9.99 actually goes to the author?
jul 21, 2025, 8:26 pm • 4 0 • view
If you’re lucky 2.27
jul 21, 2025, 8:55 pm • 3 0 • view
But why would I want to pay more for a notebook someone else already wrote in? 🤔 they even finished the whole notebook! How rude. /sarcasm
jul 22, 2025, 6:13 am • 27 0 • view
But if you write a novel in the notebook it will become far more valuable than £17.99 because it's the original hardcopy!
jul 22, 2025, 6:25 am • 2 0 • view
Is It Real? Love Island Season 7-Nicolandria youtu.be/HWt9I3XyZ-Y
jul 22, 2025, 1:25 am • 2 0 • view
Would you like to know the truth about aliens and their agenda??It's not what you thought. Do you want to know why they abducted me, you and other people?? Need a good laugh? Or just want o help a guy fighting multiple sclerosis? Get my book or e-book here! www.barnesandnoble.com/w/close-enco...htt
jul 22, 2025, 12:12 am • 0 0 • view
Extreme minimalism costs extra.
jul 21, 2025, 10:49 pm • 4 0 • view
I didn’t…but do now!
jul 22, 2025, 7:33 am • 4 0 • view
Damn. I only charge $2.99 for my novels.
jul 22, 2025, 12:33 am • 1 0 • view
Even crazier is a newly published author earning a whole, eye watering 2.5p per unit sold at £7.99…
jul 21, 2025, 9:37 pm • 2 0 • view
If that's true, they got a very bad deal. Standard rates are around 10% cover price, which in this case would be 79p per unit sold.
jul 21, 2025, 9:54 pm • 2 0 • view
Aye, totally true…it was 2008 & in fairness I did secure a decent advance (for a first timer). The invoices (after the advance had been settled) had a highly detailed breakdown including royalties. One could say I was more than just a touch incredulous at the figure £0.02 but hey, we live and learn.
jul 21, 2025, 11:02 pm • 2 0 • view
🙋🏽♂️LOL 🤣 😋👅😈
jul 21, 2025, 7:59 pm • 4 0 • view