About Engine House Retail Editions
What Are Retail Editions?
As the name suggests, these are editions of our books that are available at retail outlets. They
may be ordered through the standard book distribution system by libraries, online bookstores,
bricks-and-mortar stores and any other entity that places orders through the book distribution system.
Does this have anything to do with ISBNs?
Yes, books that are in the distribution system are required to have ISBNs.
Each Retail Book has an associated price. What does this price mean?
You can think of this as a Recommended Retail Price. Retailers in most jurisdictions are free to set their own
price, so you may find a Retail Edition of one of our books offered at prices higher or lower than the price
listed on our site.
Do you offer discounts from the listed price?
We are contractually forbidden from offering Retail Editions at a lower price than the price listed on this site (even
though retail outlets are free to do so).
We do, however, offer Economy Editions at a substantial discount
from the equivalent Retail Edition.
May I purchase books from you at the listed price?
Yes; to purchase a Retail Edition book, you can click on the Store link in the menu system, or on links on the pages for
individual books.
What is the breakdown of the listed price?
The breakdown varies somewhat from book to book. As a general rule, the retail price
breaks down roughly as follows:
- Retailer: 50%
- Printer: 37.5%
- Distribution partner: 2.5%
- Engine House Books: 10%
Some of your thicker books seem a bit expensive. Can't you sell them for less?
As you can see from the numbers in the previous answer, the biggest contributor to the price
is the retailer. We control a relatively small part of the price. The algorithm used to generate the retail
price (which is out of our control) tends to penalize books with high page counts. We encourage readers to use services
such as BookFinder and BookButler
to locate the least expensive source for Retail Editions. You may also be able to order Retail Edition books at a
discount (for example, using a coupon or through membership in a frequent-buyer program) from your local bookstore.
In addition, some of our books are also available in less-expensive
Economy Editions.
Do you have print runs, or do you use print-on-demand technology?
We use print-on-demand technology. This enables us to avoid logistical issues associated
with storing and managing an inventory of physical books.
The quality of some print-on-demand books leaves a lot to be desired. What is the quality of your books like?
We strive for the highest possible quality in our Retail Editions. The paper is the highest
quality available to us (and much higher than most print-on-demand offerings). We take particular pride in the layout of our books,
for which we use an advanced typographic system whose product exceeds the quality of most books produced by traditional publishers
and is vastly better than typical print-on-demand books.
