I am wondering after getting an email about the newest edition of Palmer’s “How to Brew” about cost. The email says as an AHA member, I can order with exclusive 40% savings. The same email tells me that my cost would be $14.97 plus shipping. The concern is that I can pre-order through Amazon (and get it a little later) for $14.52 and free shipping. I don’t always use Amazon (the whole big conglomerate thing) but if the BA can sell cheap enough to Amazon for them to retail it, should’t our cost as members be at least competitive? Not 100% sold on buying anyways, as I have the third edition, the numbers just got me to checking out pricing. I know the expectation is that I should help support the BA, but $ is $. What do any of you think? Am I just a stingy, cranky old tightwad overthinking this?
I don’t know how any of this works and being barely able to write myself, I doubt I will, but I wonder if John gets more money per copy sold through the BA than Amazon.
Possibly, but I doubt it. It’s typically all royalty based. Authors make the most by direct sales. They purchase wholesale, get their cut from that, and then sell at a profit as if they are any other store.
Thanks for the replies guys. I also have no idea where John makes more money. In reality, that is where I would choose to purchase, as I think he was the biggest influence in my early days of brewing (4 years ago when I started.) I guess what got me was the BA email announcing my special opportunity to buy at 40% off ( which turned out to be more expensive than simply using Amazon) The difference in the end is essentially the cost of shipping from BA, but at that point, I feel my purchase from them puts more $ in their pocket or the shipping company’s, rather than John’s. As I stated earlier, I may not even buy it, but just kinda challenging the exclusive member benefit discount, when anyone with Amazon Prime can get a better price than someone using the member discount.
First, keep in mind that the book comes from Brewers Publications (BP), not the BA. A slight distinction, but an important one. Based on my experience, the royalties should be the same either way. Amazon is simply making less money on it. Personally I’d like to see you buy it from BP so the money gets plowed back into that organization rather than Amazon. Ya know, they have other authors they have to pay! 
I totally agree Denny. I did purchase several through BP, without shopping around due to the discount and to feel like I was pitching in. I do like the idea if not supporting Amazon anymore than I have to
Doesn’t Amazon have to purchase it through BP to begin with? Isn’t BP getting a cut either way?
Yes, but more money is made in direct sales. Not telling anybody where or where not to buy their stuff, I spend tons of money on Amazon.
Yeah, I guess that’s true, although they may give Amazon a discount.
If by direct sales, you mean directly from the author, yes. But if it’s royalties, the author gets the same whether BP or Amazon sells the book. That’s why we do direct sales on the Experimental Brewing website. We get more than the 80 cent royalty we get from the publisher.
Wholesale to Amazon vs. Retail for direct purchase. Which gets back to the OP’s question as to whether that 40% pre-sale “exclusive savings” is really a good deal or not.
I’m not arguing the economics of the overall marketing and sales of BP publications, but I do support the belief that an “exclusive savings” isn’t really that exclusive (not a good deal) if I can find the same book retailing for less on the same day from a different source.
Here’s where I get to disagree with Denny and tell him he should pay more attention to his royalty statements. 
Royalties vary based on retailer discount tiers that the publisher sells units to. Amazon is a deeply discounted seller so an author typically gets less royalty for a book sold through that retail tier. Would get a little more sold via a homebrew shop. Would get the most via direct sales.
Let’s say the typical royalty rate is like 10% per copy sold. The first X copies go to cover the author’s advance. Once that’s covered, the publisher sends you new checks every quarter/half year based on contract.
So if your book sells wholesale at $10, you nominally get $1 per book at normal rates. A book sold through Amazon may only net $0.60-0.80 per sale. A direct copy sale from an author would be closer to $5-10. (Authors typically get the book for around half cover price and then usually sell at cover price.)
Edited title, meant to do that as soon as it was pointed out to me.
So after further checking, my discounted rate through BP is $14.97 plus $10.01 shipping plus $2.50 handling for a grand total of $27.48 through BP or $15.16 free shipping via Prime. Think I’ll just hold off and buy locally to support the LHBS when they have it in store. Thanks for all your thoughts