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Amazon didn't hurt the print book industry nearly as much as Gutenberg hurt the scribes copying books by hand. Thank you Gutenberg. Thank you Amazon.
i just did a little searching for charts showing the growth of books before and after Amazon and i didn't find a lot that was helpful. My limited knowledge of the industry might be part of the reason I didn't. However I did find a chart showing that the number of new books each year has risen dramatically since Amazon. I think it's probably a safe bet that that also represents a decline in quality but I still think it's a good thing. I've read quite a few self published books and while some weren't very good a few were very good.
I think the book industry is probably pretty healthy from a reader's point of view. It's obviously going through a lot of changes and that's bound to make some people unhappy. I'm personally thrilled.
Right now reading is easier, better and cheaper than it's ever been in my 77 years. And it just keeps getting better.
Barry
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