Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
RSE, thanks for replying. I do think the abundance theme tends to be overstated. Genre fiction, yes, but there is a lot more to books than romance, mystery and SF. The non-fiction piece is really crucial, at least for me. There's not only science writing, but current affairs, travel writing, history, biography-the list goes on. Frankly, the public can do without the latest SF or romance potboiler, but an educated and effective citizenry must have knowledge of the past and current affairs. There has got to be a way to make non-fiction pay in an e-book world. Luckily, there does seem to be a path for long form journalism in the form of "the single" - the short ebook.
I agree that the era of B&M stores is passing and that we are moving from print to electronic in the area of narrative text. We aren't there yet and won't be for quite some time. In the area of illustrated books, we may not move to electronic for an even longer time.
All this means is that its not all abundance, unicorns and rainbows out there. Its a time of troubles for the book industry. I'll happily embrace the e-book future but I want some vital categories of books to come into that future with me.
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Stonetools, I have to ask the question - why aren't those catagories selling well as e-books? I suspect that they don't sell well as print books. I also suspect that in the old model used the "Genre" titles that
did sell well to susbidize those type of books you find important (and you find lack abundance in). I only have ancedontal evidence to support this, but it is something to consider.
Frankly, most of those catagories I have no great need for. Travel books? I can read a 50 year old travel book and get a feel for the land (as opposed to the people). The land isn't going to change. People, roads, things to do/see? I can get that better on the internet, with a swath of different people's opinions, as well, for free. (and more current). Most biography today are publicity pieces for meaningless celebreties (or corrupt politicians or both combined). And so on. I buy such books that either entertain me or tell me something I don't already know, and that has meaning to me. I like history, but most history today consists of making the past fit the "politically correct" mores of the current times. (I know, that has always been the case. So why is today's attitudes more relevant to historical events than the opinions of 50 or 100 years ago?)
What is happening is that all writing is going to have to stand on it own (sic) two legs. If a large number of people value it, there'll be a lot of it. If not too many people like, there won't be much.
Selah.