People Don't Buy Books Anymore...

[applesauce]

I can only read on my kindle, so 100% online. I gave away the last of my tree killers a few months ago. Boxes and boxes of them. I think bookshops should adapt. Become some were to buy ebooks, hang out drink coffee, read and maybe join a book club that meets there. I would take that up in a heartbeat.

applesauce

[crich70]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

Maybe 5% ebook at most, the novelty has pretty much worn off for me.

I'm sure that many people had the same opinion of Television and radio before that when they 1st became readily available, not to mention the movies. My dad told me that when my (paternal) grandfather bought their 1st TV set back in the 1950's my grandmother said something of the sort of "why did you want to buy that thing for?" She did try cable TV for a short while when I was a kid, but never really took to it, and settled for just those stations she could get via antenna for the most part. Now of course she'd have no choice as everything is going digital as far as TV. While paper books won't vanish overnight I can well imagine that they will go more and more to ebooks over time. I can remember when stores sold LP records and cassette tapes. Then the CD came along and now the Mp3 file. The same thing happened with movies. First the reel of film, then VHS tapes then even they were phased out and replaced by DVD's. The media changes, but the information stays the same.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by crich70

She did try cable TV for a short while when I was a kid, but never really took to it, and settled for just those stations she could get via antenna for the most part. Now of course she'd have no choice as everything is going digital as far as TV.

Huh? Antennas still work and very well in many cases. I've been OTA for nearly four years. (And I'm not "settling" either.)

When new things come along, and things change, sometimes people assume obsoletion when it's really not even close to that.

Kind of like books.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

I'd see ebooks as less of a novelty/use them more often if I actually saved any money doing so. If there's only a couple dollar difference I'd much rather have a physical item. It's nifty technology but I really only use it for things that I can only get in ebook form.

Personally, I think anyone looking to ebooks primarily as a way to save money is bound to be disappointed, especially if you mostly read books from mainstream publishers. If that's the case, you may be better off looking for bargains on the print editions.

Both print and ebooks have their own advantages, and every reader should go with the choice where the advantages best match their needs. While I understand the benefits of owning a physical item (I collect print myself) I just find the greater readability of ebooks outweigh those benefits when it comes to my own use.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Personally, I think anyone looking to ebooks primarily as a way to save money is bound to be disappointed, especially if you mostly read books from mainstream publishers.

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I'm often saving 50, 60 or 70% (or more) since I started to buy ebooks. Buying the books in non-Dutch EPUB stores often cuts the price in half in numbers already, and they become even cheaper if I can pay in USD. (€12 -> $6 ==> €4.45. Saving: approx. 63%.)

I've not yet factored in any discount coupons, and the spaaaaaaaace im saving in my home.

[Quexos]

I still got plenty of paper books on my shelves. I'm not just going to trash them because of the e-book revolution.
But I probably won't purchase any paper books anymore.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Huh? Antennas still work and very well in many cases. I've been OTA for nearly four years. (And I'm not "settling" either.)

When new things come along, and things change, sometimes people assume obsoletion when it's really not even close to that.

Kind of like books.

Well I don't know how well they work generally, but around here by next Sept. it's going all digital. I agree the analogy isn't exact though. Paper books have been around a lot longer than TV. And I didn't say that paper books were obsolete or going to just vanish overnight. Just that when something new comes along, or a new way of doing something that is well established many people treat it as a fad or novelty figuring it won't last. Sometimes that attitude is fostered by conditions as well. I mean people still used horse drawn buggies in a lot of areas up til the 1940's or so, but part of that was the fact that a lot of roads weren't really made for cars yet. Most were either dirt or gravel outside of towns unlike today where a lot of them are paved with blacktop. So horse drawn vehicles were more able to get around. The paper book publishing industry isn't going to just vanish overnight certainly but gradually (I think) it will be phased out in its current form as more and more people go to the convenience of ebooks.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by crich70

Well I don't know how well they work generally, but around here by next Sept. it's going all digital.

I promise this is my last off-topic hijack.

They were supposed to go all digital almost 5 years ago. Like everyone else. The US digital terrestrial broadcast standard is ATSC. It's all digital, even the SD content, and it's picked up by an antenna just like always. If you really mean that somewhere in Wisconsin, there will be no more broadcast television after next September, please PM or VM me a link or more info because I want to know more.

Back on topic -

The paper book publishing industry isn't going to just vanish overnight certainly but gradually (I think) it will be phased out in its current form as more and more people go to the convenience of ebooks.

Yes, as a sufficient number of people move to ebooks and stay there, that will dictate the speed of the industry transition. But I think it's sometimes too easy for those of us who have already "crossed over" to assume a certain trajectory.

And though I'm one of those who has crossed over to ebooks almost exclusively, I'm not yet feeling the same inevitability that some are feeling. In fact, I expect there will be a lot of people like xg4bx who go with ebooks for a while, then move back to mostly paper books.

I'm curious to see what the market will be down the road ten, twenty years from now for ebooks vs pbooks.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I promise this is my last off-topic hijack.

They were supposed to go all digital almost 5 years ago. Like everyone else. The US digital terrestrial broadcast standard is ATSC. It's all digital, even the SD content, and it's picked up by an antenna just like always. If you really mean that somewhere in Wisconsin, there will be no more broadcast television after next September, please PM or VM me a link or more info because I want to know more.

Back on topic -



Yes, as a sufficient number of people move to ebooks and stay there, that will dictate the speed of the industry transition. But I think it's sometimes too easy for those of us who have already "crossed over" to assume a certain trajectory.

And though I'm one of those who has crossed over to ebooks almost exclusively, I'm not yet feeling the same inevitability that some are feeling. In fact, I expect there will be a lot of people like xg4bx who go with ebooks for a while, then move back to mostly paper books.

I'm curious to see what the market will be down the road ten, twenty years from now for ebooks vs pbooks.

Yes I am a bit curious as well. One part of me says that people who seldom read will stick mainly to paper. Another says well they already have tablets.... . Then part one chimes in, will they read books when they can twitter?

Can't even win this argument with myself

Helen

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I'm curious to see what the market will be down the road ten, twenty years from now for ebooks vs pbooks.

I still firmly believe that ebooks will travel the way of digital music, but they'll be doing it all about 10 years later.

We're now at the stage where digital music was at around 2002: the big ones are selling their stuff with DRM. Later, DRM will drop away. After that, books will become streaming.

It's already happening, with some services providing "all you can read, for $x per month", but you can only read the book in THEIR app, and only as long as you pay the subscription.

I've said it before, and I still firmly believe, that if the industry CAN go to streaming books page by page, then they WILL. They're trying it with music.

Therefore I'm hoarding CD's like an idiot, ripping to FLAC like a madman, and I'm buying as many books as I can (i.e., the ones I know I'll want to read soe day) for as low a price as I can find... hoping that there will be a way somewhere down the line to either listen/read to that stuff, or convert it to a format of that time.

===

Yes, I'm paranoid and I don't trust companies to keep offering stuff forever. I firmly believe that they will make music, books, and software more and more dependent on subscriptions and (permanent) connection to the manufacturer's website.

Today I used the WayBack Machine to be able to download some files from an old version of a company's website, because the company removed them from their site in 2007; after 2006, the WayBack Machine doesn't have them anymore. I have a backup of those files on some old CD's, but taking a look in the WayBack Machine was faster.

Next week or so, I'll archive my old "maybe I'll need this somewhere in the future, but not likely" CD's into my current hard drive backups, because I also won't depend on the WayBack Machine to keep this stuff available.

This time, my "not likely" was proven wrong. It may prove wrong again later.

(For some reason, these files are not to be found anywhere else on the internet. Nobody seems to have archived them anywhere.)

[sirmaru]

I voted 100% eBooks. The last time I purchased a pBook was in 1980 or thereabouts.

I changed to MS eBooks in 1990, Sony eBooks in 2005 and Amazon Kindle eBooks in 2009. I've never looked back.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Yes, as a sufficient number of people move to ebooks and stay there, that will dictate the speed of the industry transition. But I think it's sometimes too easy for those of us who have already "crossed over" to assume a certain trajectory.

And though I'm one of those who has crossed over to ebooks almost exclusively, I'm not yet feeling the same inevitability that some are feeling. In fact, I expect there will be a lot of people like xg4bx who go with ebooks for a while, then move back to mostly paper books.

I'm curious to see what the market will be down the road ten, twenty years from now for ebooks vs pbooks.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the overall transition, and I'm pretty sure we're still going to be seeing paper books in quantity for at least the next two or three decades.

What I do expect to see over the next decade is that ebooks will marginalize mass-market paperbacks and take over that aspect of the industry. The mass market is so inefficient, that as ebooks become more and more popular mass market paperbacks just aren't going to make financial sense to produce. Cheap "disposable" reads are going to be almost entirely electronic within 20 years, but I expect the market for trade paperbacks and hardcovers to remain fairly strong.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the overall transition, and I'm pretty sure we're still going to be seeing paper books in quantity for at least the next two or three decades.

One of the reasons that makes digital stuff not catch on is older people.

With "older people" I mean anybody above 45 or so; the people that did not grow up with computers from the very start of their lives. There are a lot of those people who don't want to learn how technology works; any technology for that matter.

Buying an ebook and then start reading it is difficult, compared to buying a paper book in a local bookshop, especially if you want to read the book on an e-reader it was not created for. If the book has DRM on it, then it will be more complicated still.

It's only simple if you buy the book directly from the reader. (Can you do that, buy a book directly from a Kindle, without EVER having to touch a computer, not even to set up your account and input your creditcard?)

What I do expect to see over the next decade is that ebooks will marginalize mass-market paperbacks and take over that aspect of the industry. The mass market is so inefficient, that as ebooks become more and more popular mass market paperbacks just aren't going to make financial sense to produce. Cheap "disposable" reads are going to be almost entirely electronic within 20 years, but I expect the market for trade paperbacks and hardcovers to remain fairly strong.

This, indeed. Cheap ebooks are perfect for the "one-off read", the books that you read once for amusement and probably will never read again. I think hard covers will become collectors editions of books that are either very important/classic, or sell extremely well.

[spersephone]

I also think that childrens books will remain in hard copy for a long time - it's just not the same to read on an e-reader for those.

I want to desperately pack up my many many books around the house. But I do want to think carefully about those I'd still like to be at reach. When my children are in their teens, I want them to read the same books I loved, so I don't want to let those go. Many of them have never made their way to becoming ebooks.

Some of my favourite authors growing up are simply not purchasable in any format today - except as second hand. I loved Norma Klein for example, but I can't find her books in any shop now. Luckily I still have a number of them, worn out. They're pretty precious to me. I look forward to my girls reading them in their mid teen years.

[BelleZora]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

One of the reasons that makes digital stuff not catch on is older people.

With "older people" I mean anybody above 45 or so; the people that did not grow up with computers from the very start of their lives.

I have many friends who, like me, are well over 45 and love their ereaders. Many bought their ereaders because they developed vision problems and arthritis, making reading paper books less comfortable.

I bought all my young relatives their first ereaders. I'm pretty sure that I'm not that unusual. It would be interesting to know how many people who read ebooks are in various age groups.