Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
You bring your own books to read at the bookstore? 
...Anyway, the fact remains that the situation you describe is not new, and the publishers could have taken steps to make new book sales more attractive to consumers, and to gain better control over the older book market (instead of essentially writing off most older books as if they never existed), long ago. The publishers wasted their own opportunities, and let the used market walk right over them. It's pointless to blame the used market for being less myopic than the publishers. |
I agree with the points above - for me actually the NYT article is a very encouraging sign that finally publishers are waking up to the brave new world and just maybe figure out that inexpensive e-books that bring some money in are better than no money at all.
Sometimes the books I am currently reading are available in the bookstore, but most of the times they are not. Right now of the 4 main novels I am reading, one is an e-indie sf, another is an older (90's) fantasy from a very critically acclaimed author whose new books have a short bookshelf life, not to speak of the backlist, another is a fantasy that Borders did not even carry when published this summer (see the blog post on "being skipped" by Andrew Wheeler) and at BN it came and went fast, though I saw it months ago - I bought the e - and the last is an 08 hc from another fantasy author whose mmpb backlist are indeed on the shelves, but the hc even though only several months old is not anymore - this one I have from the library though it hooked me so much, I may order the next 3 books from Australia (sadly each is about 28$ with sh at the current AUD rate) since the whole 4 volume series has been published there, while book 2 is due only in July 09 here with the next in 10 and 11 most likely
So no choice but to bring the books with me - though I love reading in the cafe with my son reading his books or drawing, playing..., while my wife and her sister go shopping for hours. I shudder to think what if I had a daughter who wanted to go shopping with her mother since I dislike both shopping and staying by myself in the cafe
