08-25-2010, 09:43 AM | #1 |
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Ereading all over today's Wall Street Journal
Get 'em while they're still free!
Amazon loses e-book deal (Random House puts the kibosh on the "Wylie exclusive" deal concerning 20th century classics) The ABC's of e-reading (news flash! e-readers appear to encourage more reading) Barnes & Noble sales fall amid costly move to digital And not specifically about books, a tangentially-related article: I'll have a latte and an outlet (about finding a place to plug in while in public) |
08-25-2010, 11:33 AM | #2 |
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What got my attention was a quote in the first article, "Mr. Lynch, the retailer's former digital chief who was appointed CEO (added note: CEO of B&N) in March, said in the conference call that the company sees "only three to four big players in the e-book market over time" because of the cost and difficulty of converting books to a digital format..."
He's probably correct about "only three to four big players ... over time," but it irritates me that he pushes the notion that e-books are difficult and expensive to produce. I think it's just an attempt by the industry to brainwash people into believeing it's so to justify high e-book prices. Typesetting is done by compter so there is no added cost for producing an electronic file. Scanning an existing book and OCR'ing it and editing it can be done cheaply. There are member here that say they can do it in 3-4 hours with less than $1k worth of equipment. Once the file exists, it is ridiculously easy to produce an ebook in any format you desire. Ask any of many people here at MR that produce the e-books in the download forum. Last edited by gastan; 08-25-2010 at 11:37 AM. |
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08-25-2010, 12:57 PM | #3 |
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08-25-2010, 01:14 PM | #4 | |
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Quote:
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08-25-2010, 03:40 PM | #5 |
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What caught my eye is the quote that is next to the Barnes & Nobles sales fall article. It says
" Please don't sell B&N stock short! It has become my library, with the best magazine selection ever. I flip through at least two dozen magazines and read at least one book there with my Starbucks coffee. My average stay is two hours. ” Is this person asking the stock holders to subsidize his favorite past time at B&N? Well, to be fair, he does buy coffee. No wonder the B&N brick and mortar store is going out of business since people are treating it like a non-profit library, instead of a bookstore. Borders and B&N located in my neighborhood are always jam packed, especially the cafe area; however, the foot traffic to the cashier line is rather lacking comparatively. I believe a lot of people like to take advantage of the product try out and other amenities offered by the brick and mortar retail stores even though they'll eventually buy from the internet vendors. With this trend, this guy won’t be seeing his neighborhood B&N library around for much longer; in fact, he won't be seeing any brick and mortar stores around for much longer except probably Walmart or Costco or of course, Louis Vitton. |
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08-25-2010, 05:51 PM | #6 |
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I just finished reading the ABCs of e-reading in the print version of the WSJ. The stats are what caught my eye. In the General forum here, we have a lot of polls, but these polls are biased because only forum members will see them, and we are enthusiasts. Here are some of the stats:
From these stats, it seems like there are a lot of e-reader owners who don't participate here, because our numbers are more drastic. (for example, I think a vast majority of us here read on our devices every day) |
08-25-2010, 06:11 PM | #7 | |
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Quote:
You would read these books with the card in your reader. It decrypts and renders anything that's put in it, and ideally can read whatever format it finds (they are essentially all DRM free after being decrypted as described). Owners could then loan the SD carded books, give them away or sell them just like a paper book. eBook downloads would continue as they are now but they would be rented, not sold, with the agreement clearly stated before purchase. This method is more convenient but you don't own the book. In every other way the B&M experience would be just like it is now, with coffee shop, racks, helpful staff, bright lights, SD Chip Library containers, everything the same. Except maybe they'd also have a rack full of different brands of book readers, covers, slip cases, etc. for sale. |
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08-25-2010, 06:18 PM | #8 |
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I don't think Mobileread members are in anyway indicative of the general public, or readers in general....very specialized subgroup
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08-25-2010, 07:14 PM | #9 |
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08-25-2010, 09:15 PM | #10 | |
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The ending of the second article is... egregious:
Quote:
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08-26-2010, 01:19 PM | #11 |
Outside of a dog
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08-26-2010, 03:07 PM | #12 |
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Hey, when you're stuck on a losing path you have to take your sense of superiority where you find it. At least she didn't try to buy a sense of superiority at an Apple store.
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08-27-2010, 12:25 AM | #13 |
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I only read 2-3 books per month.
But they are large books... 600+ pages usually. The other month I read a lot more books because I was getting caught up in my 'light' classics like Alice in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol, Peter Pan and Wendy, etc., which are all around 100-150 pages. I probably read eight of those. But the same number of pages per month. I'd guess I probably read 1200-1500 paperback-sized pages per month. |
08-27-2010, 05:21 AM | #14 |
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[QUOTE=gastan;1074605]" because of the cost and difficulty of converting books to a digital format..."
Yes, cost me $22 and about 4 hours. |
08-27-2010, 07:28 AM | #15 |
Orisa
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