Changing perceptions of a good book price: comparing the net price system of the 1900s to contemporary e-book pricing debates

This paper explores how the valuation of books as cultural commodities change through examination of two historical periods of book pricing and publisher-vendor-library relations. The paper compares current e-book pricing debates, and recent shifts in attitudes about e-book pricing, with pricing debates and changes in the conceptualization of book prices from the “net book” pricing period of the early 1900s. The paper describes tensions between stakeholders that led to the net price system, reactions to this new arrangement, and its impact on book buying practices. The paper then compares the similarities between the net price system conflict and current tensions in e-book pricing and purchasing practices. Finally, we use the concept of cultural commodity to explain how, in both periods, changes in pricing led to changes in how libraries evaluated books for purchase and conceptualizations of what counted as a good price for a book