What Will Become of the Paper Book? -- in the age of the Kindle? - Page 2

taustin · 05-09-2012, 07:08 PM

I'm wondering how much of the market is the sort of casual impulse buyer. You know, the guy who is stuck at the airport during a layover, or the woman who sees a hot cover on a new trashy romance novel in the checkout line at the grocery store. That sort of buyer is, from what I understand, a fairly significant market. And that sort of buyer is going to be pretty difficult to convert to ebooks. Especially the casual impulse buyer who doesn't read much. Prices have come down a lot in the last couple of years, but if you only read a couple of books a year, even the cheapest ebook reader is damned expensive, even if you're reading free books from Project Gutenberg.

I'm thinking that there's going to be a significant market for disposable paperbacks for the causual impulse buyer for quite some time to come.

LovesMacs · 05-09-2012, 07:32 PM

I think the original article misses the point that paper books compete not just with ebooks but television, the internet, movies, etc. and so publishers have had to find ways to make books more attention-grabbing. I see that with a lot of public domain books that have bright graphics and big pictures on the cover. A couple examples:

http://www.amazon.com/Wuthering-Heig...6605917&sr=8-1 Wuthering Heights

http://www.amazon.com/Northanger-Abb...6605995&sr=1-1 Northanger Abbey

Sorry, I don't know how to better format the links.

The interiors of the books don't innovate in any way and could have been made a hundred years ago, but the exteriors look a lot different from comparable editions of an earlier generation.

Giggleton · 05-09-2012, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K. Molen

Why? Also, I'm curious what this looks like... mind posting a picture?

Mostly because the bright yellow logo was distracting, I also use the duokan software... As you can see the marker is wearing off a bit at the page turn buttons but other than that it has been good.

J. Strnad · 05-09-2012, 10:34 PM

If I had money to invest in it, I'd go for that "music e-reader."

I'm involved in staging musical events, some of them orchestral, and I can definitely see the advantage of a music e-reader that was self-lighted (man, those music stand lights are a pain, not just to musicians but also to videographers and audience members who don't want lights glaring at them!) and that, like the Kindle, could be set to "autoread" so that there was no turning of pages.

Being able to send arrangements to everyone at once, without printing, would be great, as would the ability to change them at will.

It's taken a ridiculously long time for the technology to take hold with books, but as far as I know, it hasn't even begun in the world of printed music.

charlesatan · 05-09-2012, 10:44 PM

Eh.

I can see eBooks being prevalent among privileged dedicated readers, but how about those not privileged or those who aren't dedicated readers (i.e. less than five books a year)?

morantis · 05-09-2012, 11:31 PM

I do not think that books themselves will change that much in the next five years, perhaps after that, but it will take some time. If you think about it, I still have maybe 15-20 VHS tapes somewhere in the house and a VCR to play them on. Even with GPS, I still own some maps. There is something kind of "grounded" about using certain items in certain situations. On the other side of the coin, the schools in this area will be bookless this upcoming year. Every child is expected to have at least a little netbook and all the work will be through that.

HansTWN · 05-09-2012, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by charlesatan

Eh.

I can see eBooks being prevalent among privileged dedicated readers, but how about those not privileged or those who aren't dedicated readers (i.e. less than five books a year)?

Of course, but the problem is that as the number of pbooks sold shrinks production costs rise. And prices for pbooks will have to go up. The world's largest manufacturer of printing presses just went bankrupt a few months ago (Heidelberger Druckmaschinen). So the writing is on the wall. Nobody will invest in new printing equipment for paperbacks (and probably newspapers, by now). Ebook readers will become cheaper and cheaper, besides, you can just read on your phone (definitely no problem for those who manage only 5 books a year!).

K. Molen · 05-10-2012, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giggleton

Mostly because the bright yellow logo was distracting...

Yellow logo? Mine is gray, as is the one in the product shot on Amazon. Did first run Kindle 3s have yellow logos?

Thanks for posting the picture. I was imagining the entire Kindle having been painted, including the keyboard, and couldn't really understand why anyone would do that. To be honest, I still can't quite see it, but evs - to each his own.

LovesMacs · 05-10-2012, 04:41 PM

I wonder if publishers may choose to drop either the trade paperback size or the mass market paperback size in the future, rather than absorb the expense of printing in both sizes.

DuskyRose · 05-10-2012, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

I wonder if publishers may choose to drop either the trade paperback size or the mass market paperback size in the future, rather than absorb the expense of printing in both sizes.

I can't find any of the old links now, but read a few articles about 15 years ago about publishers planning on phasing out the MMPB size. For one, in most cases they can use the hardback paper in tradeback size, so can cut down on print runs. The second reason listed was that they could charge twice as much for trade size as MMPB, so make a lot more money.

I know they figured it would be welcomed because the Baby Boomers would need the larger font, so wouldn't mind paying extra. And if they stopped printing the smaller size, people wouldn't have any other choice, anyway.

I haven't heard much talk about it since about 2,000, so don't know if they're still considering it. But I do notice a lot more trade size than there used to be. I'm not sure all of them ever make it to MMPB.

Maybe ebooks made them re-think a lot of things. Maybe not.

BeccaPrice · 05-10-2012, 05:15 PM

very few (if any?) books first released in Trade size become mmpbs - this from my experience working at Borders for a few years.

spindlegirl · 05-10-2012, 05:41 PM

Paper is still my "device" of choice. E-readers and the books (especially with DRM) have not yet evolved to "one size fits all". DRM makes it like video games and their matching consoles.

Whereas I can buy a paper book from any store, any where, and all I have to do to read it is open it.

There are still a good few decades to go before e-books become more prominent than a physical book. I love my T1 and everything I can read on it though.

Synamon · 05-10-2012, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

I wonder if publishers may choose to drop either the trade paperback size or the mass market paperback size in the future, rather than absorb the expense of printing in both sizes.

Publishers have largely switched to trade paperbacks already.

Quote:

Originally Posted by link

Trade Paperbacks: $105.1M in Jan 2012; $99.1M in Jan 2011; +6.1% increase
Mass Market Paperbacks: $30.4M in Jan 2012; $39.3M in Jan 2011; -22.5% decrease

tecweston · 05-10-2012, 06:11 PM

Yeah, trade paperbacks seems to be the norm for a lot of literary fiction and non-fiction. For genre fiction (mysteries, thrillers, horror, sci-fi), they seem to go mostly to MMPB or the tall MMPB. And short MMPB is still home for a lot of cheap, disposable stuff like romance books.

BeccaPrice · 05-10-2012, 06:16 PM

Damn it, I wish, wish, wish people here weren't so dismissive of Romance as a genre. Everywhere it's mentioned, it's in combination with the word "cheap" or "trashy" or (most hated) "mommy-porn" or something like that.

Romance is a genre largely read by women, largely written by women, and therefore, it's seen as somehow less worthy of respect than, say, mysteries (so many of which contain "violence-porn" - but violence is more American-respectable than sex is, i guess) or science fiction.

Yes, there's a lot of cheap drek in Romancelandia - there is in any genre - but there's also a lot of thoughtful, well-written books out there as well.

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05-09-2012, 07:08 PM	#16
taustin Wizard Posts: 1,358 Karma: 5766642 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Nook	I'm wondering how much of the market is the sort of casual impulse buyer. You know, the guy who is stuck at the airport during a layover, or the woman who sees a hot cover on a new trashy romance novel in the checkout line at the grocery store. That sort of buyer is, from what I understand, a fairly significant market. And that sort of buyer is going to be pretty difficult to convert to ebooks. Especially the casual impulse buyer who doesn't read much. Prices have come down a lot in the last couple of years, but if you only read a couple of books a year, even the cheapest ebook reader is damned expensive, even if you're reading free books from Project Gutenberg. I'm thinking that there's going to be a significant market for disposable paperbacks for the causual impulse buyer for quite some time to come.

05-09-2012, 07:32 PM	#17
LovesMacs Fanatic Posts: 513 Karma: 2644386 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: iPhone, Kindle Touch	I think the original article misses the point that paper books compete not just with ebooks but television, the internet, movies, etc. and so publishers have had to find ways to make books more attention-grabbing. I see that with a lot of public domain books that have bright graphics and big pictures on the cover. A couple examples: http://www.amazon.com/Wuthering-Heig...6605917&sr=8-1 Wuthering Heights http://www.amazon.com/Northanger-Abb...6605995&sr=1-1 Northanger Abbey Sorry, I don't know how to better format the links. The interiors of the books don't innovate in any way and could have been made a hundred years ago, but the exteriors look a lot different from comparable editions of an earlier generation.

05-09-2012, 10:34 PM	#19
J. Strnad Guru Posts: 915 Karma: 3537194 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo, Kindle 3, Paperwhite	If I had money to invest in it, I'd go for that "music e-reader." I'm involved in staging musical events, some of them orchestral, and I can definitely see the advantage of a music e-reader that was self-lighted (man, those music stand lights are a pain, not just to musicians but also to videographers and audience members who don't want lights glaring at them!) and that, like the Kindle, could be set to "autoread" so that there was no turning of pages. Being able to send arrangements to everyone at once, without printing, would be great, as would the ability to change them at will. It's taken a ridiculously long time for the technology to take hold with books, but as far as I know, it hasn't even begun in the world of printed music.

05-09-2012, 10:44 PM	#20
charlesatan Addict Posts: 230 Karma: 3799024 Join Date: May 2012 Device: iPad	Eh. I can see eBooks being prevalent among privileged dedicated readers, but how about those not privileged or those who aren't dedicated readers (i.e. less than five books a year)?

05-09-2012, 11:31 PM	#21
morantis Zealot Posts: 125 Karma: 769546 Join Date: May 2012 Device: none	I do not think that books themselves will change that much in the next five years, perhaps after that, but it will take some time. If you think about it, I still have maybe 15-20 VHS tapes somewhere in the house and a VCR to play them on. Even with GPS, I still own some maps. There is something kind of "grounded" about using certain items in certain situations. On the other side of the coin, the schools in this area will be bookless this upcoming year. Every child is expected to have at least a little netbook and all the work will be through that.

05-10-2012, 04:41 PM	#24
LovesMacs Fanatic Posts: 513 Karma: 2644386 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: iPhone, Kindle Touch	I wonder if publishers may choose to drop either the trade paperback size or the mass market paperback size in the future, rather than absorb the expense of printing in both sizes.

05-10-2012, 05:15 PM	#26
BeccaPrice Wizard Posts: 2,146 Karma: 11174187 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Sony 350, K3-3G, K4SO, KPW	very few (if any?) books first released in Trade size become mmpbs - this from my experience working at Borders for a few years.

05-10-2012, 05:41 PM	#27
spindlegirl Wizard Posts: 1,594 Karma: 21245891 Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra h20, Paperwhite 2017, Phone & Tablet w Moonreader	Paper is still my "device" of choice. E-readers and the books (especially with DRM) have not yet evolved to "one size fits all". DRM makes it like video games and their matching consoles. Whereas I can buy a paper book from any store, any where, and all I have to do to read it is open it. There are still a good few decades to go before e-books become more prominent than a physical book. I love my T1 and everything I can read on it though.

05-10-2012, 06:11 PM	#29
tecweston Comic book artist Posts: 553 Karma: 1760679 Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Detroit Device: Nook Glowlight, iPad, iPhone	Yeah, trade paperbacks seems to be the norm for a lot of literary fiction and non-fiction. For genre fiction (mysteries, thrillers, horror, sci-fi), they seem to go mostly to MMPB or the tall MMPB. And short MMPB is still home for a lot of cheap, disposable stuff like romance books.

05-10-2012, 06:16 PM	#30
BeccaPrice Wizard Posts: 2,146 Karma: 11174187 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Sony 350, K3-3G, K4SO, KPW	Damn it, I wish, wish, wish people here weren't so dismissive of Romance as a genre. Everywhere it's mentioned, it's in combination with the word "cheap" or "trashy" or (most hated) "mommy-porn" or something like that. Romance is a genre largely read by women, largely written by women, and therefore, it's seen as somehow less worthy of respect than, say, mysteries (so many of which contain "violence-porn" - but violence is more American-respectable than sex is, i guess) or science fiction. Yes, there's a lot of cheap drek in Romancelandia - there is in any genre - but there's also a lot of thoughtful, well-written books out there as well.