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E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

nytimes.com

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Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#161

Post by Thimothy »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #146
douche wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Prices like this will likely drive me, and others, to piracy. Especially since ebooks are small enough that you can download them in seconds. I love getting juiced for out-of-print books, especially ones that are in that gray area where the author and his direct descendants are dead and buried, but copyright lives on.

Whats happening is that people are publishing large bundles of e-books in a single torrent. Or like music, every book from a particular author. I think fiction published need to look at what is happening in Free to Play games and Kickstarter if they want the industry to survive. Oh oh.. thats my Startup idea. Nobody steal it. Kickstarter for fiction. You go and read the first chapter and pay to get the rest of the bo…

Sorry, but that looks like Patreon...

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#162

Post by Evenjos »

DanBC wrote: post #92

One problem this article doesn't talk about is that people who get rejected from every publishing house (or who don't bother sending to traditional publishers) can now just throw their book on Amazon. Ploughing through the slush pile was never seen as a fun job, so it's weird that the stuff in that pile is now being sold. http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2007/may/23/thesh... There's no sensible way for me t…

Although any moron can self-publish a book, the serious ones stand apart with professional book covers and blurbs, marketing, and multiple novels.

The ones who "trend" well often get picked up by traditional publishers or movie studios (as was the case with Andy Weir's "The Martian.")

The traditional publishing industry consists of trend-chasers, not trend-setters.

So yes, the self-publishing world is full of raw sewage, but there are some diamonds and gems in that sewage--and they usually look shiny, with endorsements and professional covers.

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#163

Post by Evenjos »

ChrisLTD wrote: post #48

I only buy ebooks these days. I love having access to the same material on any device without needing more bookshelves in my small apartment. However, I wish I didn't have to pay a premium for that convenience. I certainly cringe whenever I see a paperback price that's $2-3 cheaper than the ebook. I try not to even look at the used price.

Indie authors usually charge less.

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#165

Post by visarga »

Havoc wrote: post #164

If they priced the e-books a bit more reasonably then they'd sell more.

I'd be willing to pay 10 bucks for a thousand page views of any books from Google Books (not all from a single book). I like to dig around. A page view should count as a page where I spent more than 5 seconds. What counts for me most is the full text search with highlight capability, and of course, the sheer number of books they have in there.

A single book should be much cheaper. I see ebooks priced at 100 bucks in the Google Books store.

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#166

Post by WalterBright »

knight17 wrote: post #149
WalterBright wrote: post #119

I actually prefer to read scanned paperbacks on my ereader rather than the ebook versions. With my Samsung tablet they are the same size as a paperback, and the display looks like a paperback page. I like the typography, layout, and general imperfections of a scanned page. The letters are all slightly different, and are imperfectly placed. Ebooks are a bit too perfect and sterile. I'd like to take it a step further a…

How can you scan a paperback book in 10 minutes? Curious about the kind of hardware-software set up that allows to do that in 10 minutes

Cut off the binding and use a sheet feeding scanner. Turning the pages sideways runs them through twice as fast.

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#167

Post by snogglethorpe »

TheGRS wrote: post #15

I hope this isn't the trend going forward. I don't get the traditionalist love of paperback books most of the time. Like the sort of people who go on and on about exploring book stores or the smell of new paper. I love my Kindle and I really hope to be able to use it as my primary reading source, its just so convenient, light, portable and unobtrusive (especially with that newer back-light option). But the price of n…

I'm all for ebooks in theory (so convenient!), but find that in practice reading on a computer/ipad/kindle/phone is almost always an unsatisfying, and in some cases almost stressful, experience.

I think the hardware just has a long way to go... The kindle's the best, both for the screen, the light weight (compared to an ipad), and because I'm not stressed out about battery usage, but going back to a paper book feels like I'm emerging from a humid fog into fresh spring air...

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#168

Post by snogglethorpe »

pasbesoin wrote: post #43
Nav_Panel wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hold fairly different opinions, though I agree that digital reading sources can make sense for completely new books read for pleasure. As a longtime physical product, paper has a lot of benefits. My dad can give me a book he read in college, just grab it off the shelf. I can go buy books extremely cheaply secondhand, sometimes free. I can't imagine paying $10 for an ebook when I can go to a used bookstore and pay $…

Additionally, human beings depend strongly upon spatial orientation. Printed materials dovetail with this. Many recount being able to recall information in part based upon its location within a printed text. IIRC, there was... I think it was a lengthy New Yorker piece, a number of years ago, that went into this. Including the "messy" professor's/researcher's office, until one has a conversation there with them and ob…

For many words, I actually remember the location on the page, and the page's location in the book, and the book, where I first learned it! [I usually don't remember the exact page number, but some sort of general sense of the position in the book.]

With a kindle book, I've found this effect to be much weaker, and for unpaged ebooks (e.g. many free books in html form), it's almost non-existant.

It's important to me, at least, because this effect is one way I manage to recall the meaning of words I only half-remember. Maybe it sounds weird, but I think of the general concept I'm trying to remember, then the image of the page floats into view, and ... ok maybe it is weird. ><

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#169

Post by tsotha »

JupiterMoon wrote: post #156
tsotha wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Publishers may be okay at the moment, but I still think they're doomed. There's literally no barrier to entry in the publishing business, which is eventually going to break their pricing cartel.

As a reader without unlimited time the publishing industry acts as a barrier to entry which filters out the worst books... We need a robust reviewing system which filters out shill reviews.

You don't need a publishing industry for that; you just need book reviews.

Re: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far from Dead

#170

Post by dlevine »

jonknee wrote: post #5
helipad wrote: post #4

I've been really disappointed with the pricing of eBooks. A new book is available for pre-order, and here is the Amazon pricing: Kindle – $26.35 Hardcover – $19.23 Audible – $27.61 Audio CD – $30.00 All logic suggests the electronic version should be cheaper. Prices like this will likely drive me, and others, to piracy. Yes, the value of the book is what I am willing to pay for it, but I feel insulted by the pricing…

Turns out Amazon knew what they were doing when they were selling ebooks for cheaper. The publishers come in with agency pricing and boom, sales plummet.

I buy most of my books on Kindle (like probably 90-95%). This includes a ton of indie books that are only available (or predominantly available) in electronic form. The only books I buy in print are books by major publishers, which are now more expensive on Kindle than they are in print (this is a new development in the past couple of years). Still, I find electronic more convenient (especially in the case of large books with lots of pages).

In my opinion, this isn't going to hold up long-term. Amazon makes a good point when they say that publishers will make more money (in the form of more copies sold) at a lower price, and I think that major publishers will eventually come around (either that or they will perish). To some degree, digital distribution obviates the need for traditional publishers, and as more popular authors start ditching publishers entirely, I predict that eBook prices will gradually drop, and print books will resume their decline.

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