I found a unique question in Quora about a book this October. The question is, “Why is the book expensive? How does the government resolve the piracy?” And many more questions about the book. Most of the answers are good, but some explanation gives a solution for everyone. The solution is you have to buy a pirated book. Henceforth, the price is low. You have to wonder; with IDR 35000, you can buy four books in a different genre, whereas the range of original books starts from 45.000 to 150.000 in Bahasa Indonesia.
“You should buy a pirated book. It is a good choice if you do not have much money,”
What a unique answer for me. I bought a pirated book; it was cheap, but the quality was bad. In another opinion, when I read the book, I did not find the sensation of reading. Even more, the book was annoying. How about the quality? The quality of the book is bad. When I was excited to read and wanted to continue, the page from the book would go back to the first page because of the quality of the book. A lot of repetitions and quality are poor for me. Include the pirated book for academics.
“I think you get a low quality of the pirated book, and I bought that book, and the book was good,”
No, there are not. Mostly, pirated books have bad quality. It is one of the reasons books are expensive; they serve quality and have a different smell from a paper book and a different experience for reading a book. Afterward, the book is not easy to be ripped, the pirated book is easy to rip, and the book’s quality is poor.
Furthermore, pirated book is easier to distribute to everyone. The way to distribute is using to scan a book. Later, they published the book using a low quality paper. Henceforth, they do not need to design a layout because the book that will distribute already has a design.
There are some reasons why the book is expensive. Specifically imported books. The range of imported books begins from IDR 150000. Even the local book has a price of IDR 150.000 too, and it is worth buying because the material is good. Besides, the result of the writer’s research takes time. Although it’s only about fiction or story, the writer also needs to research. If you know the bitter truth fact, research needs energy and time. Hence, the writer surveyed the community, which needs some costs that are not inexpensive. It’s not only about the girl who meets the big boss but also the interpretation and value the writer wants to convey to the reader.
Eka Kurniawan explained in Geotimes the reason why the book is so expensive. He explained some reasons why the book is expensive, and he explained well about that:
1. Bookstore gets a return of as much as 40%. It used to cover general operating expenses for the stores. Discounts already give a return to consumers as much as 20% of the direct price.
2. A Value-Added Tax (henceforth, VAT) of 10%. The value is added indirectly. He explained it had already been added to the back book. Moreover, imported books do not have customs and excises (I knew the fact from Quora)
3. Publisher solely gets 50%, and it is divided into a few parts. Such as paying a VAT (again).
4. The 45% of the return from selling the book is divided into a few parts. Such as paying a translator. Then, the writer only got 10% of the book that they published. There is also a publishing fee, and the book’s price is determined based on production cost.
5. Furthermore, the publisher only gets a return of 5%. For more detail, you can read this.
Thereupon, how does government resolve the pirating specifically in books? Building a library in some place, and every city or province they have many libraries. Moreover, some people also build personal libraries. Most libraries in the city are progressive. Even though the book is mostly old, it is a good way to restrict the pirating of books. It is based on your struggle to get the original book. Nonetheless, we never realized how the government works.
Furthermore, if you like to stroll around the secondhand bookstore and struggle to find a secondhand book cheaper than a new book in a bookstore, I bought an English book for only IDR 25000. The condition was like new, but it was a secondhand book. The better one is if you can make a bid, you can get a book which we call a rare item, that is a cheaper one instead of a new book. Nowadays, many people sell their secondhand books on e-commerce, and the price is precisely in the secondhand bookstore, which some bookstores have a lot of discounts for new books. There is no more reason to buy a pirated book (even though sometimes I download a pirated book for academic things but mostly I will attempt to buy it in the bookstore original).
The book is expensive because it takes time to write a book. On another side, the pirated book also used for academic things because, in Indonesia, reference books are expensive, which is the price of one million for one book. Moreover, restricting the pirated is hard.
How do we restrict the pirated? You have to buy the original book from the writer if you can buy the book. Whereas, if you cannot buy the book, you can borrow it from the library.
