how cheap could one get?

when i find a real cheap good read, i get excited and happy, thinking that i got lucky. it makes me want to leave the mall and go home immediately despite the on going shoe sale. it only hit me today when an officemate lent me a hardbound book (still including the jacket), half an inch thick, all intact without a single page missing. the book still has it's stimulating odor even if you put it 2 inches away from your nose and all the pages are still crisp. in short, the book is good as new (with copyright 2003).

my only problem is that it is only 10 pesos!

judging from the jacket of this book, it had gone through different price ranges because of the price stickers that are overlapping each other now. and it settled to 10 pesos before my officemate bought it (i wonder how much it would cost though if she did not buy it). it had $15.99 US and $23.99 CAN written at the back of the book jacket. i computed it and felt a twinge in my stomach when i saw the value.

the book is entitled flying south written by laura malone elliott and it "celebrates a young girl's coming-of-age in a delicate, moving narative that sings with the understated, yet resonant, pleasures of life in the American South." it is basically for young-adults ages 9 and up.

how do authors feel about their book being done in years of hardwork, not knowing that in the other side of the world (a third world country in particular), the value won't even be equivalent to that of a dollar.