Bailout for Books?!!

[QuantumIguana]

It something was too big to fail, it was probably to big to exist in the first place.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

It something was too big to fail, it was probably to big to exist in the first place.

Hard to argue against that.

Fortunately nothing in publishing comes ever close, not even Random Penguin Solutions. Which is why the merger wasn't opposed by regulators.

[Apache]

I thought the Dinosaurs were to big to fail. Mother Nature had a different idea.
Apache

[Ekaros]

Originally Posted by Apache

I thought the Dinosaurs were to big to fail. Mother Nature had a different idea.
Apache

Human race might be too big to fail... Though the planet will still be here, very hardy things to get rid off...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Fat Abe

The U.S. government already subsidizes the agricultural, mining, petroleum and defense industries. I see nothing wrong with Congress paying certain authors not to write books, just as they pay farmers not to plant crops. I will even pay Patterson not to author another Alex Cross book.

I hear ya.
But still, wouldn't it be better to just save your money and let the market decide? It would be cheaper and you could spend it on something to your taste.

The whole problem with subsidies is that non-consumers end up footing the bill for production/consumption of a product they see no value in and nobody gets to vote with their wallets.

Look at economies in trouble, the world over, and the extent of trouble they face is proportional to the economic distortions from subsidies. Whether to produce or to not-produce. Which results in more of non-desirable products/activities and less of desirable ones. Long term, everybody ends up hurting, including the panhandlers.

[Ninjalawyer]

The story of entrenched industries demanding special protection from the market is repeated so often it has become a cliche.

Here's an ad from the Music Defense League that appeared in the November 24, 1930 Jefferson City Post-Tribune, whining about the evils of "canned music":



This also brings to mind the MPAA likening VCRs to the Boston Strangler.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Ekaros

Human race might be too big to fail... Though the planet will still be here, very hardy things to get rid off...

Don't bet on it.

Right now there is an asteroid with our name on it.
If we're too stupid to accept that and do what needs doing, we most definitely won't be too big to fail. And if the rock is big enough, the planet itself may not survive.

Ballmer and Wylie got it right 80 years ago; all indications are that there a zillion brown dwarves free floating out there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Worlds_Collide

The only thing protecting us, so far, is that space is B-I-G...
But dumb luck only goes so far.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

Here's an ad from the Music Defense League that appeared in the November 24, 1930 Jefferson City Post-Tribune, whining about the evils of "canned music":

Great find!

[Ekaros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Don't bet on it.

Right now there is an asteroid with our name on it.
If we're too stupid to accept that and do what needs doing, we most definitely won't be too big to fail. And if the rock is big enough, the planet itself may not survive.

Ballmer and Wylie got it right 80 years ago; all indications are that there a zillion brown dwarves free floating out there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Worlds_Collide

The only thing protecting us, so far, is that space is B-I-G...
But dumb luck only goes so far.

Nah, I don't see Mars or Venus crashing towards us, and smaller bodies would need to travel awfully fast.

Large asteroids would likely break some stuff, but it will fix it self in a few billion years...

Humans will die, but who cares about those ******** ;D

I all for free market in cases where entry is relatively cheap. And printing isn't too specialized anymore...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Ekaros

Nah, I don't see Mars or Venus crashing towards us, and smaller bodies would need to travel awfully fast.

Large asteroids would likely break some stuff, but it will fix it self in a few billion years...

Humans will die, but who cares about those ******** ;D

I all for free market in cases where entry is relatively cheap. And printing isn't too specialized anymore...

You do know that free planets are all over the place, right?
They're extremely hard to detect but at least one has already been imaged:

http://news.discovery.com/space/alie...net-121114.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet

When the time comes, we'll have years to watch and be able to do nothing.
Something like the observed one doesn't even have to get close to earth to write fini to the whole story.

[SteveEisenberg]

The ad is a little strange because of conflating different problems. And you would have to investigate the creation of each listed book to see if they really would be impossible without existence of commercial publishers who heavily edit and pay advances.

Some of the books listed were written by newspaper reporters. The decline of newspapers is far greater than of libraries or publishers. Without the experience gained working for big budget newspapers, those authors wouldn't have written worthwhile books.

Some of the research, for books by listed authors, was paid for by private charities (Robert Caro, Harvard; Zora Neale Hurston, Gugenheim Foundation). If advances continue to decline (and that's the problem, not whether publishers are profitable), such organizations will have to step up. But, to a large extent, they can't. If you look at figures 1 and 2 here, you'll see that why:

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3927

State universities, starved for funds, are not going to be able to subsidize their publishing arms.

Compared to the decline in state support for universities, I think that community library budgets are holding up fairly well (in other words, declining more slowly).

Declining library book availability will never be seen as the same kind of a crisis as airport delays

[Ravenswd]

How come when I lose money, the government doesn't bail me out?

[Ekaros]

Originally Posted by Ravenswd

How come when I lose money, the government doesn't bail me out?

You lose too little money, lose some 10 or 100 billions and you are good to go... Trick is getting that kind of money to lose in the first place...

[Ken Maltby]

You can't bailout inanimate objects. You can't improve their lot by giving them tax
benefits or funds. Any legislative action that claims to aid an entire industry only aids
the entrenched players with the most effective lobbyists. It will actually harm any new
attempts to answer the markets demands in the area regulated. It may even make it
illegal to provide goods and services in any other way. So no innovation, no improved
product based competition.

I am sure the Big Publishing Houses (BPHs) have elements inside them arguing both ways.
One is saying ebooks are a great way to reduce our cost of production. Another
is saying that ebooks are cutting into our paper book (pbook) sales.

I very much doubt that any such "bailout" would be to fund a conversion to ebooks from
pbooks. I expect that any legislation would be to create conditions where the pbook
side of the argument is supported. I would expect action to provide some controls
over ebook production such that favor those who make and/or sell pbooks.

Luck;
Ken

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

Everyone points to Borders as being a casualty of the ebook wars, but from what i understand it was the result of decades of bad management.

I worked for Borders in the 1980s and it was very badly mismanaged. My son worked for them in the late 1990s and they were still badly managed. I think it is very fair to say that Borders died from poor management long before ebooks became a hit.

And it doesn't take much of a genius to recognize that you don't hire your biggest competitor to manage your only online bookstore. Why shop at Borders when you were essentially shopping at Amazon anyway. If that isn't the death sign of abysmal management, surely there is no such sign.