The "target audience" is more likely to be institutions such as The New York Botanical Garden's LuEsther T. Mertz library rather than individuals. Public libraries with a general audience who are reading novels (of which multiple copies are purchased) are also not the target. Has anyone noticed how the cost of books in general is increasing? When I bought Patrick Synge' book on lilies back in 1973 and paid $60 for it I felt extravagant. Today? Not so much. Yes, this is an extremely expensive book but the price is not set by throwing darts at a random scoreboard. There are all sorts of tweaks and tidbits that influence the price - from obvious things like page number,size of pages, number of illustrations, quality of paper, indexing, to perhaps not so obvious matters - can the publisher wait until the printer has time to slot in the production or does it need to be published immediately to take advantage of public events (not likely in this case.) Judy in New Jersey with flip/flop weather and plants in bloom a month early