Quote:
Originally Posted by jersysman
So is this going to be the new strategy? Admit that Amazon is great for customers, but not good for books? That is a crazy assumption. Even before I got into ebooks, Amazon was a place for me to go and get great prices on used pbooks and even hardcovers. Why is it so bad for books to get them into the hands of readers (and previous pbook hoarders such as myself) and a reasonable price?
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Something I've been curious about. What is the difference between a used book and a pirated copy? The author/publisher does not get anything from a resale of a used book.
On another note... the complaint about amazon sounds a lot like the complaint I imagine the printing press brought about. The scribes sitting around over their ale and saying "they will never appreciate a good book if it is mass produced. How can a book that is not unique be as good as a mass produced book where the type is all the same!". While the readers and owners of books were able to increase the size of their libraries from two or three hand copied books to a few hundred for much less cost.
Changes in the medium brought about great changes to what books were. Non-important things were put into print. Fiction for pleasure! Light reading such as Dickens!
E-books have now removed another barrier to putting an author into print (e-print anyway). No longer is not having a publisher interested in your written word a barrier. (true there were boutique publishers for those who wanted a vanity copy of their own works but it is easier and cheaper to get an ebook published)
As readers, we now have access too a much wider variety of authors. Some great, some good and some not so bad... and others horrid.
A teacher in the one room school I went to had drilled into us that you needed to read 50 pages of a book before you decide you don't want to finish it. That translated to must finish the book for me at some point. NOW I have to change that attitude. Too many of the newer books are not worth finishing. I'm starting to put a book aside if I don't like it when I start it (marking in the notes why it didn't grab me) and review that list every so often.
Too little time to read to waste on "freebie or near freebie books" that don't have what it takes. BUT I do hit on the occasional jewel of a new author that starts as a "freebie" ebook.