A few days ago one of the commentators on this blog exonerated copyright thieves on the grounds that publishing companies are greedy money-making organisations who don't deserve protection.  This may be the case in rare instances but by and large general publishing is a low-margin business particularly when compared with other high-risk investments such as oil exploration, aviation manufacture, films - or even low-risk ventures such as investment banking, legal services, accountancy etc.

One reason for the low margins might be pricing.  I think that current prices are unbelievably low by almost any criterion - yet people still think they're expensive.

A full-price quality paperback is £7.99 in the UK.  A cinema ticket in London is the same price unless you go to a posh place where it'll be more. The average price of a main course at a moderate gastropub is £12. A not very distinguished bottle of wine is £8.99.

And the £7.99 paperback is the result of months or years of authorial creativity, 500 pages of sophisticated printing and binding, a complex distribution and marketing network - and something to keep, re-read, lend, refer to, argue about, enjoy.

And this fantastic value is not just confined to works of fiction. When I was a medical editor at OUP one of our best sellers was Sir Zachary Cope's Early Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen. It was then in its 13th edition having originally been published during World War I. The original price was one guinea - at the time around $4. Back in 1980 we were selling most of the copies in the USA (apparently British textbooks were lousy at therapy but okay at diagnosis, particularly that requiring clinical discernment rather than technological excellence) and the price was $4.95. Applying inflation the price should have been $100.

So what is it that makes people

a) think books are overpriced

b) think publishers make too much money?

Answers on a blogcard, please.