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No one buys books

elysian.press

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Re: No one buys books

#421

Post by lrvick »

II2II wrote: post #127
lrvick wrote: post #81

Most books today are sold with DRM and when the DRM servers are deactivated the books stop working. This happened with the Microsoft ebooks store and has happened with countless other DRM media. Sometimes books are automatically revised, or censored. Sometimes accounts holding DRM licenses are deleted or deactivated by mistake. The only way to actually own a book these days is to buy it on paper, or from one of the r…

I am fairly certain that most, if not all, mass market ebooks use DRM tied to the software. If the servers go, the books will be fine for as long as the software continues to work. There are also authors and publishers who offer books without DRM. Please note: I do not like DRM. I simply view disinformation as a good way to loose good will from those who would otherwise support a cause.

There exist select few major publishers that sell without DRM, particularly when looking at fiction.

Microsoft is a noteworthy example of a major ebook seller shutting down ebook accs: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3k3wkk/microsoft-ebooks-will...

DRM being tied to the software is effectively still the same end result. Software maker for any number of reasons stops publishing new versions of the app and they become unlisted from appstores eventually for failing to use recent SDKs or patching security flaws and users still cannot read their books.

So you depend on a company paying someone to run a DRM server or you depend on them paying someone to maintain an app and a CI/CD system. Sooner or later when the DRM content supplier stops paying for the infrastructure, your book stops working one way or the other.

Re: No one buys books

#422

Post by ddingus »

yellow_postit wrote: post #340
grepLeigh wrote: post #332

From the article: >>> "Wouldn’t it be great if you could pay $9.99 a month and read all of the books you want?" I sincerely hope nothing "disrupts" public libraries in my lifetime. As a California resident, I can walk into ANY public library in the state and get a free library card with access to physical books, audiobooks, ebooks. Some branches have laptops, hotspots, tablets, e-readers available to borrow. My local…

It’s funny seeing this comment and the article about Seattle libraries reducing digital copies both on HNews front page at the same time. I love libraries. It also feels like all our public institutions in the US are crumbling under assault from all sides.

They are. Every single public resource is seen as a potential market opportunity being squandered away, or as competition other players do not want to see in play.

Re: No one buys books

#423

Post by nox101 »

j45 wrote: post #400
yellow_postit wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s funny seeing this comment and the article about Seattle libraries reducing digital copies both on HNews front page at the same time. I love libraries. It also feels like all our public institutions in the US are crumbling under assault from all sides.

Limiting or undermining literacy remains important to those who benefit from it.

what logic leads to this conclusion? I tend to lean to the rising tide lifts all boats. who benefits from illiteracy?

Re: No one buys books

#425

Post by nottorp »

paxys wrote: post #315
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren’t print books still the vast majority of sales?

Ebooks are touching or have crossed 50% of sales in certain combinations of markets and genres. Overall they make up 30-50% of all book sales. So no, print books aren't still the vast majority.

I remember reading on Charles Stross' blog that the paperback is kind of dead in the US. At least for his niche. I think his last book only went out in hard cover.

Re: No one buys books

#426

Post by nitwit005 »

paxys wrote: post #313
nitwit005 wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You print books? Well we have e-books now. It's often the same publishers publishing the e-books. They did successfully make that transition. > Instead they went all in on pulp bestsellers and celebrity memoirs at the expense of actual good authors If they're best sellers, as you note, that was clearly a good choice. They were selling what people actually wanted.

Yes people are buying John Grisham and JK Rowling and the latest celebrity memoir, but eventually (1) interest will run out and people will want the next new thing and (2) these big brands will realize that they don't need the publishers to market for them (and this is already happening, as the article says). What then?

Regardless of them struggling in the future, publishing books that sell is clearly superior to publishing one's that don't.

Re: No one buys books

#427

Post by thaumasiotes »

eszed wrote: post #367
thaumasiotes wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The observation in the essay that "the romance category has already gone independent" also leaves that impression - for the romance category. But the fact that one of two profitable genres is "franchise authors" suggests the opposite. Franchise authors become franchise authors by producing high-quality writing.

What does "franchise author" mean? I'm not familiar with the term.

It means an author whose books do well. Examples given in the essay include Tom Clancy and Stephen King.

Re: No one buys books

#428

Post by ddingus »

I buy books of all kinds. Paperback, hard cover, audio (rarely), e-book prefer non DRM. In fact, the number of books I buy has not really changed much. I just end up reading more books!

People trade or loan me books. I get electronic ones via many means too.

Many people I know buy books.

Who does not buy books?

Re: No one buys books

#429

Post by nottorp »

wenc wrote: post #325
yreg wrote: post #51

I recently started buying paper books. Yes, it's not particularly ecological, but I found that I'm able to focus at the text much better this way. My Kindle (despite plenty of obvious advantages) just doesn't really work for me. It took me years to realize this, but I always start to tinker with the brightness settings, switch pages back and forth, go into the book library and back, play with highlighting words, etc.…

I read paper books because I can flip back and forth without friction, and I can underline and scribble. I don't know why eReader interfaces make these two functions -- critical for deep reading -- so difficult. Kindle is optimized for linear reading only. So beach reading and long romances. But if you do the kind of reading that Mortimer Adler's "How to Read a Book" proposes (skimming, inspectional reading, writing…

Looks like you don't read books for entertainment?

I believe the original article wasn't about technical/self improvement etc books.

Re: No one buys books

#430

Post by stubish »

lrvick wrote: post #81

Most books today are sold with DRM and when the DRM servers are deactivated the books stop working. This happened with the Microsoft ebooks store and has happened with countless other DRM media. Sometimes books are automatically revised, or censored. Sometimes accounts holding DRM licenses are deleted or deactivated by mistake. The only way to actually own a book these days is to buy it on paper, or from one of the r…

Most Kindle books are not sold with DRM, for many years now. I don't know about other platforms. Readers yelled at publishers until they stopped enabling it, and turned out it didn't make enough difference to keep annoying their core customer base.
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