The flattening of e-book sales

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

It's not too difficult to figure out... those genres are generally for less discerning readers who happen to disproportionately own ebook readers. They're the literary equivalent of those who frequent Old Country Buffet. In other words, where quantity is of higher value than quality.

I beg your pardon... I hope you just forgot the sarcasm tag...

Litfic is just another genre and is as full of stinkers as the rest.

[RHWright]

Originally Posted by meeera

*squints*

*reads again*

*completely fails to make sense of why F/SF, romance, and crime are suited to ebook format, while litfic isn't*

Because *some* people read litfic to be seen reading litfic. They like to be seen with it in their hand or have people see it on their shelf. "Hey, look, I can handle things! I'm smart! Not like everybody says... like dumb... I'm smart and I want respect! I'm reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao!"

Some people do read litfic for enjoyment (me included), but others do it to appear smart/cultured/serious.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

I beg your pardon... I hope you just forgot the sarcasm tag...

Litfic is just another genre and is as full of stinkers as the rest.

Apparently, you can't see the Emperor's new clothes.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Apparently, you can't see the Emperor's new clothes.

Hmmmph! Apparently not.

[Katsunami]

What I've always wondered about people who buy lots and lots of eBooks, in te vicinty of 10 or more per month. Did these people also buy that many paper books? It would become quite difficult to store all those books in just a few years, I think...

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

What I've always wondered about people who buy lots and lots of eBooks, in te vicinty of 10 or more per month. Did these people also buy that many paper books? It would become quite difficult to store all those books in just a few years, I think...

Yes quite often, and yes it started getting harder to find shelf space after a time. I still have an office with walls covered in shelves full of books. One of the first things that got me looking into going exclusively ebook in 2007* after only using them lightly before that was the idea of the space that could be saved.



*(at least for regular fiction books)

[jersysman]

I would buy hardbacks by the box off of ebay. Probably in the vicinity of 100 books a year. After a while the space just runs out. Ebooks came along at the right time for me. It became very hard and expensive to move all those books every time I moved.

[frahse]

Sales figures are interesting, but so what.
I do agree that eBook prices should be a lot cheaper, for the cost of the book materials, printing, shipping, handling, are reduced to almost zero.

In time I expect the costs for eBooks to get lower and lower.

I read eBooks before eReaders. Then they were just digital copies. I preferred then and still do, the "LIT" format. I read them on my computers.

I hesitated at first on the eReaders, until the Keyboard Kindle, 3G. The ability to be anywhere and get a book, or even Wikipedia sold me.

I still buy books in paperback. I can buy a new book at Walmart by a favorite author or a new author I don't know, for $6 or $7 dollars. I only do a few of those each year, mostly on the spur of the moment.
I can buy a used paperback or hardback at Amazon for $4.00. It won't be the first printing, but a couple of years later, most are available. I do this all the time.

If I am writing, which I must confess, I seem to have less and less time for, I prefer a "tagged" (book marked) paperback for reference. (I prefer a paperback over a hardback usually.)
I "tag", usually with a sticky white address label.and if there is a lot of references, I write in the front of the book a short index of things of interest.
After time, I move some stuff, memorable phrases or facts, to a collection of notes that I keep on my computer and also convert to PDF which I move over the Kindle.

[Fbone]

People discovered free ebooks.

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by Fbone

People discovered free ebooks.

+1 This!

I am sure this has affected buying habits a lot. After discovering free ebooks, one is loathe to spend over a certain amount for their ebooks (usually on the low end of the stick).

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by RHWright

Because *some* people read litfic to be seen reading litfic. They like to be seen with it in their hand or have people see it on their shelf. "Hey, look, I can handle things! I'm smart! Not like everybody says... like dumb... I'm smart and I want respect! I'm reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao!"

Not litfic, but a similar mindset. Used to work in a small office with maybe 20 people. There was one guy who'd always carry 4 or 5 books around. Heck, he'd bring them to meetings in the conference room 4 doors down from this desk, having picked them up to carry them to the meeting only the carry them right back at the end of the meeting. They were always really obscure "difficult" non-fiction titles too... thing is, his bookmarks were always about 10 pages into the book -- I don't think I ever saw a bookmark very far into a book -- and he could never tell you anything more detailed than what was given on the jacket.

I don't think I've ever met anybody so obviously trying to impress others before. It was always hilarious to push him on a book he hadn't actually read. "Oh, you're almost done reading GEB? That one really threw me for a 'strange loop'... heh... get it? No? I see..."

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by RHWright

Because *some* people read litfic to be seen reading litfic.

If you want to impress people by what you are reading, I say math and physics journals are the way to go.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

What I've always wondered about people who buy lots and lots of eBooks, in te vicinty of 10 or more per month. Did these people also buy that many paper books? It would become quite difficult to store all those books in just a few years, I think...

Yes, I used to buy 100-200 or books per year. It is 2-6 shelves per year or more. I stopped buying so many books when I had around 20 Ikea Billy which means approximately 140 shelves.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20.../#.Ugysa59OlFo

Here's the crucial factoid from that link (quoting another link):

E-book market share in the adult market:
23% in Q1 2011
28% in Q1 2012
33% in Q1 2013

At this rate, there will be a 100 percent adult eBook market share in fourteen years. And it could happen with the rate in the increase of eBook market share going down every year.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by gweeks

Because the purpose of most litfic books is to put on a shelf to show visitors how well read you are? The people who actually read them will buy them in any format.

People are strange, aren't they? Besides, most visitors to my house would rather be perusing shelves of FSF titles. (Because they'd be looking for something to read, not something to admire.)