Book v. Nook

wendy · Post by **wendy** » Wed January 26th, 2011, 1:00 pm

Is the future of publishing entirely electronic? Perhaps not, according to this article in the NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/opini ... ef=opinion

Any comments?

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Wed January 26th, 2011, 2:07 pm

Barnes & Noble better not go out of business. If they do Amazon will take over the rest of the book world. Bad Amazon.

Print books will be around for a while yet. They'll never completely disappear, but they may move to collecter's item status.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Wed January 26th, 2011, 3:11 pm

My big question isn't in the paper vs ebook area--I think I have that one figured out already. What I';m wondering about is the whole foreign-rights thing as ebooks become the standard method of consumption. Also now that places like Book Depository will ship anywhere. And as Paper books move from warehoused big-print runs to print-on-demand, the foreign issue comes up again. Lightning source has a plant in the UK that covers all of Europe, one opening is Australia to cover all of the Indian Ocean market, and 2 in the US. And don't forget the up-and-coming 'print at point of sale' option (the espressso book machine is getting cheaper, when it drops below $25K you'll see them everywhere) which uses the the same digital catalog lightning source has.

How are they going to slice and dice all the foreign rights once that happens?

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Wed January 26th, 2011, 4:24 pm

I thought ages ago that ebooks would replace print books and it hasn't happened yet, so I doubt it will.

I now have an iPad which I use to read books, but I have it only because I have extremely limited space. Were I to have unlimited space for books, I would ditch the iPad in a heartbeat.

SarahWoodbury · Post by **SarahWoodbury** » Wed January 26th, 2011, 4:28 pm

There are certain books that will be very difficult to appreciate in ebook form--I have four children and bookshelves of children's books, Doris Kindersley non-fiction, extra-large (and extra-small) board books, etc. It makes me wonder if perhaps some of these children's books divisions will need to spin off from the big publishers and go it alone to not be dragged down. Maybe they need to sell books next to the 'baby' stuff at Wal-mart, or at Sears in the children's clothing section. Maybe they'll have booksstores just for kids.

And then you have photobooks, travel books. There's still a reason to hold a book in your hand. Just maybe not every book.

Mythica · Post by **Mythica** » Thu January 27th, 2011, 11:38 am

[quote=""SarahWoodbury""]
And then you have photobooks, travel books. There's still a reason to hold a book in your hand. Just maybe not every book.[/quote]

Image heavy books do work well on a tablet computer like an iPad. But not on black and white e-ink ereaders. Text looks better in e-ink though so at the moment, you can't have both in one device.

I don't think printed books are going anywhere any time soon. While the ebook market is growing very fast, it is still a small percentage of the overall book market.

parthianbow · Post by **parthianbow** » Thu January 27th, 2011, 1:13 pm

[quote=""Mythica""]Image heavy books do work well on a tablet computer like an iPad. But not on black and white e-ink ereaders. Text looks better in e-ink though so at the moment, you can't have both in one device.

I don't think printed books are going anywhere any time soon. While the ebook market is growing very fast, it is still a small percentage of the overall book market.[/quote]

Excellent points, Mythica.

While many thousands of people are buying iPads and Kindles, those devices are not going to achieve anything like market saturation while their prices remain over £100. Huge swathes of the book buying market only like to spend £3-6 on a book at one time. They're not going to suddenly splash out on a Kindle and stop buying real books. Why - because they can't afford it.

A really significant decline in paperbacks sales will take at least a decade, IMO, if not a little longer.

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Thu January 27th, 2011, 2:34 pm

A good point, stu. For me, the buying point was about 10 books. That's $139 -- about $14 per book-- according to my Quickbooks program, which tracks automatically, that's my typical book budget for 3 months.

Kindle books are cheaper-- a lot of the classics I loaded first are under $1. So my book-purchasing has gone way up in numbers, but down in price per book. Unfortunately, my reading time has not expanded.

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu January 27th, 2011, 4:54 pm

[quote=""MLE""]A good point, stu. For me, the buying point was about 10 books. That's $139 -- about $14 per book-- according to my Quickbooks program, which tracks automatically, that's my typical book budget for 3 months.

Kindle books are cheaper-- a lot of the classics I loaded first are under $1. So my book-purchasing has gone way up in numbers, but down in price per book. Unfortunately, my reading time has not expanded.[/quote]

I do agree with MLE about the cost factor. Right now I am reading Great Maria and I got the Kindle version for $1.50 which must have been a special. I can't say my reading time has increased either, but I do seem to be able to read faster because the Kindle is less straining on my eyes.

rockygirl · Post by **rockygirl** » Fri January 28th, 2011, 1:09 am

I have hundreds, probably thousands, of books and am running out of room in my house for them. I bought a nook. Is it going to replace my love of books, no. I just wanted more storage space, so I got it in an e-reader.