Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
I used to think that. Since my husband got an ereader and showed it around to the guys in his model club, several of them have gotten ereaders and started reading. They'd been effectively non-readers for decades--but now that "book" didn't mean "carry around heavy block paper" or "carry one flimsy block of paper and hope that when you're in the mood to read, it's the right genre," they've rediscovered reading.
Most of them are happy with Gutenberg's collection; they each have a list of classics they'd always intended to read and never gotten around to, and are delighted to find that they're available for free and can be carried in their pockets.
Also, the notion that "if they like to read, they'll buy books" assumes that books are within their budget. The BPHs disdain any customers whose book budgets are less than $10/month--and miss out on the fact that there are millions of those people. (A lot of those are minors. Their transition into the ebook market is bumpy; they have a choice of "adult-controlled reading" or "random freebies" or "bootleg books." Those who like reading don't tend to settle for the adult-control requirements, and whichever of the other options they choose, the BPHs have lost a chance to build connections with a future customer.)
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Your observations would have merit-save for the fact that the bestseller's lists are dominated by just those "BPH" books. BPH could just as easily stand for "
Bestselling Publishing Houses".
Those bestsellers do in fact end up selling for under $10 per book, eventually. And you can borrow print versions of those bestsellers from the library for free.
Even when I was a down and out student who couldn't afford a PC, ebook reader, or a monthly data plan, I had no problem finding books to read. That's what libraries, used bookstores, book sales, and the discount piles at the bookstores are for. I was able to find those books because I wanted to read, not because someone showed me the latest shiny gadget. I think that's how most readers start.And I would continue to read even if electricity vanished from the Earth tomorrow a la the
EMBERVERSE.
You should understand that the BPHs sell tons of ebooks. You may not think that BPHs are sufficiently welcoming to ebooks, but the plain fact is that 24 of the first 25 places ( and 34 of 35) on the NYT ebook bestseller lists are held by BPH books. They are doing SOMETHING right.
NYT LIST