Fake news, I bought a book just last week
No one buys books
451–460 of 752 posts
Re: No one buys books
#452Can'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…
I don’t think it would have been possible for publishers to deal with the absolutely massive amount of books they’d have to vet to do what you’re saying. That works if the absolute number of books written is very small, so everyone interested in books pulls from that pool. The publishers could try to find a bunch of good books and get absolutely nothing.
Curation is a multi-stage filtering pipeline. Such brands do not look at a firehose of content - they rely on existing networks and markers of quality before even considering content.
Re: No one buys books
#453Earlier quoted context omitted.
IMO there are still quality publishers, but they are small and tend to focus on specific topics. Two that I'm aware of, although I'm sure there are more out there: - https://lostartpress.com - https://tinhouse.com
Another one is Other India Press. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other_India_Press https://www.otherindiabookstore.com/about I got to know about them through coming across the book Tending the Earth, by Winin Pereira. https://www.banyantreebookstore.com/product-page/tending-the... I have some background in organic gardening, and think it is a very good book. It is about more than just organic gardening, though.
I would add Stripe Press to this list.
Re: No one buys books
#454> 35 books out of 100 are profitable I don't think that's right. It's just too good. Imagine that you are an author and maybe you pay one line editor and get beta-readers for free, maybe you do your own cover, and you don't print a large batch of your book and because you are the author, you can't pay yourself an advance. That kind of resourcefulness that a trad publisher can't afford would allow that same 35/100, ma…
I'm pretty sure that means 35% of books covered their advance (ie. authors actually started getting paid royalties). I think it is still about $1 per full price paperback (physical or ebook).
Re: No one buys books
#455Earlier 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.
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.
Well a library is a place where a population can spend the day getting smarter while not spending money.
If you're rich, powerful and an unethical asshole those are two things you definitely do not want.
Sadly many people seem to think they are really showing the folks up there by retreating from any form of self-education once they are out of school. The opposite couldn't be more true.
Re: No one buys books
#456It’s me. I’m No One. Because I buy them every week. So does my wife. I guess we are No One.
How does it feel to be part of the 1%? You are the publishing industry equivalent of a whale.
Re: No one buys books
#457I have started to buy some technical books again, because the ebook version requires some insane locked down proprietary application to read, or causes the book to self destruct after a few months...
No.
I prefer ebooks for many reasons, and I have purchased thousands of them over the past two decades.
Sometimes a printed book is better for dense technical material. But I'm starting to see textbooks that seem to have been designed as web pages: large x-height, clumsy justification and hyphenation.
No proprietary apps to read a book, please.
Re: No one buys books
#458Earlier 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.
If I cannot/need not re-read a book, I could get rid of it and have more space. Tho the gain feel very tiny compared to the rest of the hoarded stuff.
Re: No one buys books
#459Can'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…
I can't think of any publishers that are also in the business of printing and distribution. Those are entirely separate industries. There is almost no way for publishers to lose money because of tech that makes it cheaper and easier than ever to get books to consumers while retaining unprecedented control over pricing (fixed, never discounted or remaindered), resale (prohibited), and lending (also prohibited). Publis…
> I can't think of any publishers that are also in the business of printing and distribution
You're right that publishers don't handle printing, but they do need to handle distribution. Amazon won't help if you want to get books on shelves of retailers, and printers don't distribute. Smaller publishers will usually use the distribution network of a larger publisher. For example, HarperCollins and PRH both handle distribution in the UK for themselves and others.
Re: No one buys books
#460I would assume that the lack of sales publishers see is directly related to self-publishing and web novels success.
Nice numbers from a self-published LitRPG success: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/1c2a3x4...
Other authors and people on Kindle Unlimited: https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/comments/15o4f5d/ku_payouts_...