Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

StevieJ

tomterm8 wrote: »

No idea.

I was wondering if a thread about ebooks might be of interest to the board? But to be honest, it's a little bit too much like economics. Probably bore people.

It's an interesting topic to me personally. The fiction print industry is worth around $60 billions worldwide. And, at the moment, it vaguely looks like its going bottom up. (America's third biggest bookseller went tits*up.com, and now its biggest bookseller is being bought out for a fraction). At the same time, eBook have gone from next to nothing to 5% of the American market in a year.

It's a big story. I think books are dying.

But possibly no one is interested?

I am all for saving a few trees, though I imagine Ebay has done more damage than Ebooks.

silvercar

tomterm8 wrote: »

Is it? Drat. No one told me it was.

You not covered by a super injunction? I wonder if Martin is

Imogen was a former Miss Wales runner up that was in Big Brother; I don't think she did anything remarkable whilst in the house but she finished in the top few and lasted to the end.

She then did some modelling work for magazines and partied. Not much else to report.

PasturesNew

I'm going on holiday!! My first for 16 years. Somebody's got a caravan and invited me.

So .... it's in about 3 months' time and it's 99.999% likely to happen.

So I thought I'd mention it here

lostinrates

tomterm8 wrote: »

It's a big story. I think books are dying.

But possibly no one is interested?

I am. Maybe one day even the piles of paperbacks for the charity shop will be worth something? Our tiny collection of niche first editions might be worth something more.

I've decided if I were still commuting or travelling a lot a kindle would be great, but nothing beats a book, actual paper. Nothing about books disappoints. Even the cold hands in the winter as you hold only the book holding hand, and your face above the duvet. I can't help but feel that technology would stand between me and the story in a way that a book doesn't. Like doing reliving the Canterbury Pilgrimage, for example, by car not on foot.


I have splinters behind three fingernails. Ouchy.

debtistheft

"How seest thou the splinter in thy brother's eye, and seest not the cross-beam in thine eye?"

tomterm8

lostinrates wrote: »

I've decided if I were still commuting or travelling a lot a kindle would be great, but nothing beats a book, actual paper. Nothing about books disappoints. .

ebay probably hasn't done any harm to the print industry. But I think ebooks will. Seems pretty inevitable to me, actually.

It's economics: it costs $200,000 or so to put a single paperback on the market. Most books sell the vast majority of copies in two months. So, traditionally, paperbacks have been kept on the market for at most 6 months. Then they are replaced by new books.

Ebooks, on the other hand, cost virtually nothing to keep on the market forever once they are up.

So... it isn't going to be long before the entire back-list of your favorite author is available on kindle... and not via the bookshop. At that point, ebooks win.

Say, you discover a new author. There are two books of theirs in the bookstore. But you really like them. So you go online, and find their entire backlist of 20 books available 20% cheaper than a paper book...

It's not necessarily that kindle is better... it is that there is no reason every book ever written can't be available on it. Bookshops can't compete with that.

Those are the dynamics... along with the fact that you can buy books any time you want, the books can be read on your mobile phone anywhere in the world without lugging them around with you, they take up no shelf space, and authors make between 7 and 10 times as much per book sold at a cheaper price.

Those are the reasons books are going to die out rapidly.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm going on holiday!! My first for 16 years. Somebody's got a caravan and invited me.

So .... it's in about 3 months' time and it's 99.999% likely to happen.

So I thought I'd mention it here

:j:j:j:beer::beer::beer:

chewmylegoff

PasturesNew wrote: »

Can you sue somebody for having an affair? How does that work then .... never heard of it before.

That'd keep lawyers in business forever - job creation'd go through the roof!!

You can sue someone for anything. Winning is another matter.

lostinrates

tomterm8 wrote: »

e
It's not necessarily that kindle is better... it is that there is no reason every book ever written can't be available on it. Bookshops can't compete with that.

Those are the dynamics... along with the fact that you can buy books any time you want, the books can be read on your mobile phone anywhere in the world without lugging them around with you, they take up no shelf space, and authors make between 7 and 10 times as much per book sold at a cheaper price.

Those are the reasons books are going to die out rapidly.

I agree I can see the financial logic. But things like the wait, the hunt, the lack of electrical glow or hum....these are all bonuses to me. I just can't imagine a book less home (even if it would be less dusty)

chewmylegoff

PasturesNew wrote: »

Can you sue somebody for having an affair? How does that work then .... never heard of it before.

That'd keep lawyers in business forever - job creation'd go through the roof!!

And also, it seems that he is suing twitter for breaching the super injunction, not the woman herself. Allegedly.