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Originally Posted by wyndslash
philippines. we have so-called "specialty" bookstores; the selections are not as broad (they mostly just stock bestsellers and maybe some books with obscure topics), and most books have a big mark-up. the incomes of the ordinary people here do not keep up with the rising costs. needless to say, here, books are a luxury item.
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Yeah, I grew up in the Philippines and I'm now in Canada. It's pretty interesting to think about how major publishers pretty much only think about the reading audiences in North America and parts of Europe, but not much about the rest of the world. E-books change which readers can have access to what, and have prices that the local population can afford.
I remember Catherynne Valente talking on an SFSignal podcast about how ebooks and ereaders make books only accessible for the rich, but I think it's oversimplifying things. E-readers like the Kindle is still inaccessible and expensive for most people in the world, but basically everyone has a cellphone. If there were more affordable phones that people would feel comfortable reading a full book in, then the potential customer base of the e-book industry is huge.