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No one buys books

elysian.press

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Re: No one buys books

#431

Post by throwaway2037 »

huytersd wrote: post #297
paxys wrote: post #101

Can't help but feel for the publishing industry considering how shafted they got by tech. You distribute books all over the country? Amazon can do it better and cheaper. You print books? Well we have e-books now. You have a massive back catalog? Google just scanned all of it. You do marketing? Authors now have their own followings on social media and can reach them directly. You give cash advances? Fans on Kickstarte…

There are very few people go this is by Simon and Schuster etc. Most Americans don’t read and the ones that do read a bunch of junk.

    > Most Americans
I would suggest an edit: Most humans

Re: No one buys books

#432

Post by nottorp »

Tor3 wrote: post #338
hollandheese wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E-readers are often very simple devices. Their main audience is older people. Light being a dependency of reading a printed book is one of the biggest plus for e-ink readers. You don't need light, they already come with it! It's so much easier reading with a Kindle (in dark mode) at bed time than it is a paper book.

Well, yes and no.. I do use the backlight on my Kindle if it's dark, but this changes how it looks. I have a Paperwhite Kindle. With the backlight on it's more like reading on LCD, though not as bad. The Kindle looks much nicer if I can use a bedside lamp instead of the backlight, just as I would with a paper book.

You still can't turn off the light on a Kindle completely can you? Always felt like a waste of battery on a beach...

Re: No one buys books

#433

Post by Root_Denied »

nox101 wrote: post #423
j45 wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> who benefits from illiteracy?

Those already on top.

They can afford to educate their own line and hoard resources across generations doing so. They can fail as many times as it takes before they finally succeed because of this. They throw the bodies of the world at their problems until they are solved, which necessitates an uneducated populace that doesn't realize they're chattel and canon fodder to this purpose. A populace that fear collective power, that fears community beyond immediate family, that shies away from actions that would better the world in favor of actions that are less risky personally.

Re: No one buys books

#434

Post by grepLeigh »

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.

OverDrive (and Libby) were acquired by KKR, the behemoth PE firm responsible for bankrupting Toys R Us. KKR also acquired one of the Big Five publishing houses last year. I'm worried about public library funds being squeezed by an extractive PE playbook.

I wonder what kind of negotiating power a regional library has in that situation. Do state library agencies have more leverage than regional libraries? Do large states like California have more leverage in negotiating digital licenses than smaller states? Would a national library system have even more leverage? I'll ask a librarian tomorrow and report back.

Re: No one buys books

#435

Post by nottorp »

shkkmo wrote: post #347
cm2012 wrote: post #327

319 comments and I don't see the simple fact that the article title is dead wrong. We are going through a massive book boom right now: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLSGuGOWoAArd-K.jpg:large . Book sales are the highest they've been in 20 years lol. So all the comments mourning books can relax.

The title is provocative clickbait, but the actual point is this: > These two market categories (celebrity books and repeat bestsellers from the backlist) make up the entirety of the publishing industry and even fund their vanity project: publishing all the rest of the books we think about when we think about book publishing (which make no money at all and typically sell less than 1,000 copies). Given that spending p…

Nobody cries about the poor movie industry only making money from superhero movies, do they?

Re: No one buys books

#436

Post by wodenokoto »

LargeWu wrote: post #288
johnloeber wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worrying about the environmental impact of books is misguided. You use far more paper products in the course of your everyday life: paper bags, cardboard packaging, paper towels, etc. etc. Even for an avid reader, the impact is negligible.

With paper books I'm more concerned with having to have space to put it when I'm done. But, I find it more enjoyable to read a physical book, and am more likely to re-read it.

Get the ebook for archival purpose and ditch the paper book when you’re done with your first read through.

If you later find out you want the paper book as home ornament, then spend a little extra to decorate your home.

The two major mistakes we make about books is:

1) we think we have to finish it. No, drop it if it’s boring.

2) we think we have to keep it around. No. Take a picture and write a few notes for your personal blog if you need to keep track. You don’t need it in your room or house.

Re: No one buys books

#437

Post by thayne »

rockemsockem wrote: post #415
initplus wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not disruption to make me wait 5 weeks to read a digital file through my local library's Libby service. It's an outdated business model using artificial scarcity that isn't effective at getting books onto readers devices. Spotify doesn't make me take out a hold on the artist I want to listen to. Netflix doesn't make me queue to watch the latest release.

I don't think it's fair to compare Netflix and Spotify to libraries; you pay for the first two. I agree that it's artificial scarcity and it's hard to feel bad for the publishing companies

I do pay for my library card, because my city doesn't have a library (unless you count bookmobile), and the nearby cities that do have libraries charge you to get a library card if you aren't a resident. And it is approx. $9.99/mo.

Re: No one buys books

#438

Post by dingaling »

outop wrote: post #418
emodendroket wrote: post #375

> I think I can sum up what I’ve learned like this: The Big Five publishing houses spend most of their money on book advances for big celebrities like Brittany Spears and franchise authors like James Patterson and this is the bulk of their business. They also sell a lot of Bibles, repeat best sellers like Lord of the Rings, and children’s books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These two market categories (celebrity…

How is this an unhealthy market? Everyone can easily access the books they want. People choose to read the Bible and Harry Potter because that's what they want to read. Of course, it might be a shame that we all coordinate on reading a few hits that everyone else is reading rather than check out some underappreciated books. But is the market really to blame for that? Amazon makes it easier than ever to find all the b…

> Everyone can easily access the books they want.

Not particularly. New niche-interest non-fiction books are expensive ( $60+ ) and tend to have short print runs, after which their price on the second-hand market quickly escalates. And few are available as ebooks.

I've had to let a lot of books pass me by, even before they've been printed, simply because I couldn't afford them.

Re: No one buys books

#439

Post by rfarley04 »

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…

This! I'm from Oregon but live in Thailand, where there are ZERO libraries. My absolute favorite thing about going home is just maxxing out my library card and seeing how much I can get through before heading home (I can do ebooks and audiobooks while abroad with Libby but I'm one of those obnoxious people that always prefers physical)

Re: No one buys books

#440

Post by [deleted] »

initplus wrote: post #371
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 not disruption to make me wait 5 weeks to read a digital file through my local library's Libby service. It's an outdated business model using artificial scarcity that isn't effective at getting books onto readers devices. Spotify doesn't make me take out a hold on the artist I want to listen to. Netflix doesn't make me queue to watch the latest release.

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