Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
One difference, though, is that in a sense it's less important for music, because one can easily convert one's own CDs to a digital format. I have a very large collection of classical and opera CDs, and that's what I do - I've never bought anything from the iTunes store. There's no easy way of converting one's paper books to an electronic format (not to mention the fact that, at least in the UK, it is not legal to do so).
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True. Which makes it all the more puzzling that the publishing industry has been so reluctant to enter the 20th century, not to mention the 21st. The Reader and its ilk should be the biggest boon to both the backlist and the current midlist. OOP books and the huge list of press-to-remainder-bin books could easily have a long, happy life in the digital distribution channel. I have a ton of books on my shelf that I would happily pay $4-$5 to have in digital form.
Since most of their pre-press has been digital for a long time, conversion wouldn't even be a big deal. They could pay for it just by cutting down on the number of ARCs they send out. At work, we get something like fifty review copies a week from every publisher and small press. If they gave people the option of receiving digital ARCs, they'd save a ton.