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And frankly, the actions of the publishers over the last year or so has left a really, really bad taste in my mouth. I used to think they were part of the holy grail that delivered books to me. But now, reading a large number of self-published books that are darn good and finding library ebooks and reserved books, I think it will be a long, long time before I ever go into a book store again.
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I believe your feeling may be one shared by MANY avid readers (and I don't mean the 10 book per year people)... Given what, in my mind, is clear evidence of malicious and repugnant conduct by the big 6 publishers, I've changed my policy on book buying over the past 6 months.
I"ve been buying books for as long as I can remember, easily having started spending my allowance before I was 10, buying paperbacks that were $.40 or $.50. I've been doing so ever since, but my taste changed to hard covers and my budget increased to at least $2000 per year.
Now I make a conscious effort NOT to buy ANYTHING from publishers that are engaged in the war on libraries (and yes, I DO believe that's exactly what they're doing), and simply put everything on reserve and wait for it to come in. I"d prefer ebooks, but I've been reading paper for over 50 years, and I'll keep right on doing it.
And frankly, I can ABSOLUTELY understand the rise in piracy and believe it to be a DIRECT RESPONSE to the ridiculous policies and prices set by the publishers. Don't want people to pirate books? Make them legitimately so ubiquitous and cost effective that it's NOT WORTH THE EFFORT TO GET ILLEGAL COPIES.
The world is no longer in the 19th century. Ideas of morality are different. Demographics of people that read have changed. I believe the younger the group (30-40 year old's read less than us old farts, 20-30 year old's read less than them, teens read less than 20-year-old's, and pre-teens read for pleasure the least), the less likely they are to read for pleasure. Ebooks are a way to possibly bring in new readers, but these new readers are more comfortable with computers and more familiar with obtaining movies, music, and software from "non-traditional" sources. If ebooks are restricted, they'll get those from the same type of sources...
The publishers can scream all they want, but restricting access, charging obscenely high prices, and implementing draconian anti-piracy schemes didn't work for the movie industry, didn't work for the music industry, hasn't worked for the software industry, and it sure isn't going to work for the book industry.