This Is an Interesting Development

It will be interesting to see whether the booklist changes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The Fourth edition of Human Action, and Defending the Undefendable by Walter Block. I haven't bought anything since, but they do have a couple books by Bertrand de Jouvenel that I've been meaning to get, and if the price is better there, I'll take a look.

Who knows, maybe Mr. Suprynowicz will get a more judicious hearing in the future? That would probably be the most amusing development in the short term.

Let me clarify the policies of Laissez Faire Books and what is carried. Being libertarian is not enough to qualify to be carried by LFB but it is important. A book must either be libertarian or of interest to libertarians first. After that the key issues are resource questions. We are not in the position of stocking every single title that would pass the first requirement.

So we then make decisions based on what we think the appeal of the book would be compared to other possible titles we could feature. A huge amount of that depends on the publisher of the title and the terms they offer us. It is always a question of trade offs. A book with a slightly lower discount might be featured over one with a higher discount if we have reason to believe it will sell substantially better. Since we have limited funds to invest in titles we have to make business decisions as to which ones to carry

Whether we carry Vin’s titles would be based purely on these financial matters and not based on issues raised by previous owners. Those don’t concern us. New titles will be based on their appeal and the terms we are offered. We will work to expand the selection as quickly as our limited capital allows. Of course the more books people buy the more we can expand.

But a good book with lousy terms from the publisher is unlikely to be considered since it just doesn’t make financial sense. And that last part is going to be a critical factor in any books we stock -- far more than a few paragraphs here or there. So without having concrete terms on the table I can’t give a definitive yes or no answer. It all depends on the terms offered, the other titles competing to be included and their terms, the amount of capital we have available, etc.

That may not be the concrete answer some may prefer. But in a nutshell the content that was in controversy with the previous owners would not keep us from stocking it and depending on the issues outlined above we would be open to it.

If you would like our new catalogue, publication, then email laissezfairebooks@gmail.com and we will send you a pdf version immediately.

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