Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
What evidence is there that people will buy the book rather than wait? Seems to me that all the embargo will do is make people wait longer.
And why is there now apparently a special set of rules for e-books? Wouldn't the same logic apply to hardcover books? Why isn't Macmillan telling libraries they can have only one copy of a hardcover for the first eight weeks?
While I'm not all up in arms about this, I don't see how it's going to help increase sales; I think it's only going to inconvenience readers somewhat. As you noted, most of us have other books to read while we wait for a book, so why would be buy it instead?
|
Because people do like reading the next book from a favorite author or in a favorite series -now-, rather than later. This forum is ridiculously guilty of forgetting that they represent a microcosm of the world.
Why are ebooks special...
1) there is zero wear and tear on an ebook
2) they are never returned 'late', regardless of what the borrower does the manipulate their reader into allowing them to read longer, the library gets to lend the book out again right at the exact time the lend expires.
3) they take zero space up in a library and are always exactly where they should be/were placed by the system
4) You don't actually have to go to the library to get them, you don't even need to be awake when they become lendable to snag yours as long as you were on a wait list
If publishers wanted to impose the same limit on physical books I'd be fine with that as well, though I think some of the above differences do that to a certain degree.
Will this get Macmillian what they hope? I don't know, I would wager that the vast majority if not the entirety of this forum lacks the access that would be required to accurately answer this question with a degree of certainty. All they can do is say they'll continue only borrowing from the library (which is what a large number here have said) and fail to realize the publishers have already counted them out as potential buyers since nothing would change their stance.
This forum, not you in particular, also seems to suffer under the impression that the publishers owe them. This can be seen in any thread where ebook pricing gets discussed, you'll see this 'they set the prices too high!', concept. Always forgetting that prices are what the market will bear especially for luxury items like books.