Death of paperbacks?

[PennLady]

http://www.slate.com/articles/techn...ks_are_e_readers_killing_the_softcover.2.html

Here's an article from Slate.com on the death -- or not -- of paperbacks. I thought there were some interesting points made, whether you agree with them or not. One of which is that the purpose of things "migrates" as technology takes over in certain aspects. The example given is horses -- horses used to be for transportation, now they are for entertainment (oversimplified, I know). So too for books; paper books may become more like collectors items as people read more e-books.

Another thing mentioned, that I've seen elsewhere, is the argument against ebooks that you can't resell them (or give them away). This is true, but then I wondered how important this is. I realize it restricts the consumer -- you own it, but you are limited in what you can do with it. But OTOH, of course a business is going to look to maximize profits, and they have little interest, probably, in sales of their item that they don't get a cut.

I don't know what a consumer's right, if they have one, is in this case.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

EBooks save millions in freight and handling costs, and a Kindle with 1000s of pages of reading almost fits in your shirt pocket. The USPS is doomed. Brick and mortar bookstores are doomed. The printing part of publishing is doomed.

I expect to see E-libraries soon that rival the best libraries anywhere.

 

[D_Lynn]

My issue with paperback books now stems from something not mentioned in that article. In a nutshell, here are my current issues with real books:

1. Both paperbacks and hardbacks are hard to circulate anymore. I've noticed some second-hand stores not accepting them because there are just too damn many of them. I'm all about buying used items and selling ones I don't need or want anymore. And I just don't have loads of space for books.

2. Paperbacks don't look as nice and neat on a bookshelf as hardcover books. And if I'm going to own a book for long enough to display it on my shelf, I might as well own one that will last and be presentable.

3. As touched on in the first item, e-books take up less space than physical books and create no physical waste to be dealt with. It becomes a matter of recycling for me. I'm not going to go into all the reasons I've been choosing ebooks lately, but this one seems to be consistently overlooked. You know, 'save the planet' and all.

I still have all my other reasons for choosing ebooks - no one around me knows the smut I'm reading, endless choices of titles that I can't get at the bookstore, etc.

At the same time, there is nothing that I like more than going to the bookstore. I love the smell of it. The hushed voices, the book cover art, seeing what people are reading and interested in, picking up a volume that wouldn't have grabbed my attention any other way. I truly hate to see that go away.

 

[sr71plt]

I think hardbacks (other than those bought for the "nice" room bookshelves) will disappear faster than paperbacks, which I expect not to see gone in my lifetime. The thing about e-books that folks are increasingly going to find out is that, in most distribution systems, they don't really reside in your reader. If Amazon goes out of the e-book market--and there have already been major e-book distributors, a la Fictionwise, that have done so--that e-book you thought you owned and could read someday will be gone. More and more current distributors are going to move out of the e-book market, for various reasons. They probably will be replaced by others--but not by ones you have a deal with on your current e-book collection.

I paid for and unloaded a bunch of e-books from Amazon on my PC, using the PC app for that, some time ago. Most of them no longer are there and I have no idea what change at Amazon got them erased.

 

[D_Lynn]

I think hardbacks (other than those bought for the "nice" room bookshelves) will disappear faster than paperbacks, which I expect not to see gone in my lifetime. The thing about e-books that folks are increasingly going to find out is that, in most distribution systems, they don't really reside in your reader. If Amazon goes out of the e-book market--and there have already been major e-book distributors, a la Fictionwise, that have done so--that e-book you thought you owned and could read someday will be gone. More and more current distributors are going to move out of the e-book market, for various reasons. They probably will be replaced by others--but not by ones you have a deal with on your current e-book collection.

I paid for and unloaded a bunch of e-books from Amazon on my PC, using the PC app for that, some time ago. Most of them no longer are there and I have no idea what change at Amazon got them erased.

Volumes have disappeared on me, too. This is the one thing I have a hard time stomaching about ebooks. I wonder if this will eventually lead to a consumer push toward ebook lending, rather than purchasing. Amazon is already allowing lending on some titles.

It would be different if the prices reflected a borrowing sort of model, but some of these ebooks are steep. I went to download one the other day and it was $12.99.

 

[PennLady]

I don't expect to see print books disappear in my lifetime, although I expect to see a shift in that the younger generations, like my kids and those after them, will be much more partial to e-books.

Now my kids tend to do both; PennBoy likes to read on his NookColor but frequently asks me to get books from the library. When we go to a bookstore, he tends to think more about buying the toys, so he doesn't quite think about buying physical books. My daughter (5yo) is a bit young for some of this, and we read her print books (and have a lot of them), but sometimes I will read her something off my Kindle, because that's what I have on hand.

I don't use my iPad so much for reading books, although I have some on there. But I prefer the Kindle e-ink screen.

I think it's probably early to see how the whole e-book thing, marketing, sales and otherwise, will really shake out. Although if I lose anything I bought from Amazon, at least the vast majority was free.

I don't know why you would have lost anything from Amazon that you dl'd to your computer, SR, although I'm sure there's a reason out there.

 

[PennLady]

Volumes have disappeared on me, too. This is the one thing I have a hard time stomaching about ebooks. I wonder if this will eventually lead to a consumer push toward ebook lending, rather than purchasing. Amazon is already allowing lending on some titles.

It would be different if the prices reflected a borrowing sort of model, but some of these ebooks are steep. I went to download one the other day and it was $12.99.

Yes, the pricing issue can be problematic. What blows my mind is when the e-book price is higher than the print price. I can see paying for the "brand," such as the author's name or the franchise/series name, but I think ebooks should be no higher than a print book. Although I guess if it's too high, people won't buy it...

 

[sr71plt]

I don't know why you would have lost anything from Amazon that you dl'd to your computer, SR, although I'm sure there's a reason out there.

Neither do I, and there's the rub. I'm already irritated enough by why my computer does what it does to me without me being able to figure it out. I see no reason to expand that irritation into book buying and handling.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Vanishing books was a problem Amazon had when it first started Kindle sales, and they said they stopped erasing books bought by readers. But maybe not.

 

[desertslave]

I've worked around the "not-quite-mine" issue by using Kindle for PC, a de-DRM applet, and Calibre to convert Amazon books to EPUB format, and to "store" and manage my ebooks. (Whenever you "buy" a book and read it on the PC app, it does fully download.)

I was sentimental about paper books in the beginning, but I've come to fully embrace my Nook Color for its ease of use and portability. Hell, I even read books on my cellphone! I've never cared for hardbacks, and often resented the authors who start a series with an initial paperback only to "graduate" to hardbacks later in a series. I can't afford them, and I hate the lag between hardback and paperback publication. With ebooks, there's no lag, and the price is considerably cheaper than a hardback. It's a win-win in my book (pardon the pun).

Another perk, assuming physical book stores survive, is that more shelf space could be given to the "art" books; those beautiful "coffee table" books covering a myriad of subjects and fully dependent on quality illustrations and photography. So much space in the average bookstore is given over to simple print-only media; it's a constant tug of war as to what "earns" the shelf space.

 

[Handley_Page]

There was a report in the media a month or so ago about a big court case which hinged on whether the sellers of e-books (such as Amazon, for example) should be entitled to cause the automatic erasure of a 'book' bought in good faith.

I think it all hinged upon whether the customer has actually 'bought' the text or merely 'hired' it for an unspecified time.
The defence maintained, strongly, that if you buy a book you 'own' that copy and may thus dispose of it as you wish.
The e-sellers did not agree and several books have automatically vanished from readers like Kindle, by courtesy of a little bit of magic software built-in to the thing.

I've not seen anything since, but then, more important matters have arisen, such as sundry sporting events, political disturbances or whether Kim Kardsian (who?) has got some new shoes, or whatever.

I have quite a few books on my bookshelf, many of which are hardback technical books, as well as Discworld, and some of the Classics. I would really HATE to have these on a 'reader'.

PS. There's more than one trial going on, apparently.
John Wiley is in dispute: See here.

.

 

[3113]

Another thing mentioned, that I've seen elsewhere, is the argument against ebooks that you can't resell them (or give them away).

Well, we old-timers who shared and gave away books will be bothered by this. But a generation raised on e-books will take it as the norm and won't be put out by it. Also, keep in mind that in the case of cloud technology one can access all your music, movies and books on multiple devices. That's the whole deal Apple tries to get across. iBooks will be in then next OS for desktops and laptops, so you can read a book on your desktop computer. Then, when you need to go out, you can continue reading it on iPad and/or on the phone.

If this is the case, and you have that book available on, say, ten devices--they all share one account--then everyone in your family can read the same book at the same time. A benefit one didn't get with sharing a paperback. And if such devices become not-so-precious, one could "loan" the book by giving a friend a family device (say, a used iPad Mini?).

 

[Handley_Page]

Well, we old-timers who shared and gave away books will be bothered by this. But a generation raised on e-books will take it as the norm and won't be put out by it. Also, keep in mind that in the case of cloud technology one can access all your music, movies and books on multiple devices. That's the whole deal Apple tries to get across. iBooks will be in then next OS for desktops and laptops, so you can read a book on your desktop computer. Then, when you need to go out, you can continue reading it on iPad and/or on the phone.

If this is the case, and you have that book available on, say, ten devices--they all share one account--then everyone in your family can read the same book at the same time. A benefit one didn't get with sharing a paperback. And if such devices become not-so-precious, one could "loan" the book by giving a friend a family device (say, a used iPad Mini?).

Well, I for one would be a trifle nervous if some salacious text was also to be found on another 'device' in my household. And I'd hate to find her copy of 50 Shades available on my machine.

 

[sr71plt]

If this is the case, and you have that book available on, say, ten devices--they all share one account--then everyone in your family can read the same book at the same time. A benefit one didn't get with sharing a paperback. And if such devices become not-so-precious, one could "loan" the book by giving a friend a family device (say, a used iPad Mini?).

This isn't the case now, is it? I don't see this as something that Amazon or B&N would ever want to see as the case--on anything but their own reader products.

 

[damppanties]

For me, the best thing about e-books is the conserving physical space. I now have so many books that some are lying on the floor. This problem, more than any other thing has been the biggest motivation to convert what I can to electronic bookspace. The reason that closely follows is that of environmental conservation.

However, there are some books I will not convert. Academic books will still need to be in the hard copy format as I absolutely hate the notes functions of e-readers. Unless they can replicate note-taking in the margins on a copy, this will continue to be an issue. I really don't know why this hasn't been addressed yet.

Also, as someone has stated earlier, I love reading on my phone. It's actually my preferred method for reading in bed. As compared to my tablet, the phone is much more comfortable in any position (on my side, etc.). My reading for pleasure has drastically changed from 100% paper books to about 95% e-books now in the past five years though I occasionally buy a paperback.

 

[3113]

Volumes have disappeared on me, too. This is the one thing I have a hard time stomaching about ebooks.

This bothers me, too, that one doesn't "own" the book and it's permanently on the device. However, most people read books like they watch movies--once or twice. We readers who love to re-read aren't that common. So for most people the possibility that the book might "vanish" isn't that irksome.

But I suspect this might become the issue that drives people to buy from one e-book seller as compared to another. If one seller can guarantee that you get to keep the book. Still, I suspect e-books will go the way music is going. You won't have the book on your device, but will "borrow it" whenever you want to read it from the store "library" (cloud) after having paid a one-time fee for it. So it won't even take up room on your device as books do now.

Yes, the pricing issue can be problematic.

We'll have to wait and see what happens with that. At this point, e-books are trying to balance out the fact that for every e-book you buy the publishers are not selling a hard cover (or paperback). I don't see new or popular e-books being priced like used paperbacks at 99₵ (though much classic lit is being sold for that or for free), but prices may go down as more people buy e-books over hardbacks/paperbacks, and the publishers have less to warehouse.

 

[3113]

I don't expect to see print books disappear in my lifetime

Oh, they certainly won't. Unlike music, it's harder to make print books digital and there's a lot more of them then there is recordings (something like 5000 years of writing that has to be made digital, right?). Add to that the fact that getting the rights to a lot of works is problematic.

For example, the newest books put out by one of my fave authors can also be downloaded as e-books. But her older books--put out by other publishers--have yet to appear as e-books. I don't know if she refuses to let these older books be made into e-books, or if there's some problem with doing it because other publishers have the printing rights and they're not willing to let those books become e-books.

Which means I have to hold onto those paperbacks. I still hold onto paperbacks of books I love even if I can get them as e-books, as I don't want to have my only copy be one that can disappear. But I do love the fact that with my iPad I can re-read my favorites any time and anywhere. I don't have to think "What book do I want to read today?" before I leave and have that book in my purse. I really do love having a whole library of choices--a whole bookshelf--in my purse. Best of all is the fact that a lot less books get brought into the house to be stacked up in corners because all the shelves are stuffed with books. I don't want a book-free house, but I am trying to de-clutter my life, and this helps enormously. I buy more books simply because I know they *won't* be cluttering up the house

 

[desertslave]

This isn't the case now, is it? I don't see this as something that Amazon or B&N would ever want to see as the case--on anything but their own reader products.

It IS the case. Himself, my daughter, and I all have access to my Amazon account (they know the login and password) and all our devices are synched: two phones, an iPad, a Kindle, and all of our Kindle for PC installs. (My son isn't a reader, much to my sorrow, or he would be on the list, as well.) Plus, as I mentioned, my NookColor has backdoor access to all of our titles via Calibre. I have to download the Epub versions manually, but they're still mine, all mine. <cackle>

 

[glynndah]

I have an e-reader but I find it very hard not to stop at any bookshelf and browse. It may be akin to a reformed smoker lingering at the entrance of a cigar bar.

 

[sr71plt]

For me, the best thing about e-books is the conserving physical space.

The best thing for me is that there is a market for them, you can get them out quicker than a print book, you can publish a novella rather than an novel, and you get more money back per unit than with a print book.

I don't read published books in e-book form myself.

 

[desertslave]

T

We'll have to wait and see what happens with that. At this point, e-books are trying to balance out the fact that for every e-book you buy the publishers are not selling a hard cover (or paperback). I don't see new or popular e-books being priced like used paperbacks at 99₵ (though much classic lit is being sold for that or for free), but prices may go down as more people buy e-books over hardbacks/paperbacks, and the publishers have less to warehouse.

OTOH, the incredible growth of indie authors offering their works for as little as 99 cents has been delightful. It's not all Great Literature, of course, but I've discovered some real gems this way.

I subscribe to a daily email called Pixel of Ink that offers 8-10 free, cheap, or deeply discounted books across a wide variety of genres. I haven't paid full price for a book in months, unless I've gone after a new release by a favorite author.

 

[PennLady]

This isn't the case now, is it? I don't see this as something that Amazon or B&N would ever want to see as the case--on anything but their own reader products.

Well, you can have various Kindles -- and I assume Nooks -- registered to one account and then you can share the books, and your progress in the books, among those devices. This would include apps on PCs and other mobile devices, i or otherwise.

 

[3113]

This isn't the case now, is it? I don't see this as something that Amazon or B&N would ever want to see as the case--on anything but their own reader products.

It is the case with Apple and iBooks (and on edit, Amazon too!). My husband and I share an account and he can access all books i've purchased (and vice versa) on his iPad as I can on my iPad. We could both read the same book at the same time if we wanted to.

I suspect that it's not common enough that publishers worry or complain at this point.

 

[damppanties]

The best thing for me is that there is a market for them, you can get them out quicker than a print book, you can publish a novella rather than an novel, and you get more money back per unit than with a print book.

I don't read published books in e-book form myself.

You're talking as an author and I'm talking as a reader.

 

[sr71plt]

You're talking as an author and I'm talking as a reader.

Yup.

I've got hundreds of unread print books on my bookshelves. I see a good thing in e-books--but mostly from the author's perspective. (This IS the AH, isn't it?)