Are Publishers, to Blame For The Decline Of Books?

[witeowl]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

The dead ones don't...

Yeah, but they don't seem to care much about marketing, either...

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by witeowl

Yeah, but they don't seem to care much about marketing, either...

or piracy...

[Ken Maltby]

Hmm... are we talking about vampire authors, now? Seems like they should be able to
handle the pirates.

Luck;
Ken

[wyndslash]

i don't know, but sometimes i get the feeling from some people here that authors should be made to serve us with quality work at the lowest price *roll eyes*

[vaughnmr]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

i don't know, but sometimes i get the feeling from some people here that authors should be made to serve us with quality work at the lowest price *roll eyes*

How about just "reasonable prices"!

[Leyor]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

i don't know, but sometimes i get the feeling from some people here that authors should be made to serve us with quality work at the lowest price *roll eyes*

That SHOULD be our purpose as consumers. To get as high quality goods as possible, for as low a price as possible (while still remaining profitable for the manifacturer/author/etc.).

There's a tug of war between those who provides a product and who consumes it, which is the basis of the capitalistic society we live in. Consumer demands for low prized/high quality products is what drives prices down and spur innovation of features that consumers are willing to pay a premium for.

One of the most unhealthy things for ANY market are indiscriminate buyers. That goes for the book industry too.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by Leyor

That SHOULD be our purpose as consumers. To get as high quality goods as possible, for as low a price as possible (while still remaining profitable for the manifacturer/author/etc.).

There's a tug of war between those who provides a product and who consumes it, which is the basis of the capitalistic society we live in. Consumer demands for low prized/high quality products is what drives prices down and spur innovation of features that consumers are willing to pay a premium for.

One of the most unhealthy things for ANY market are indiscriminate buyers. That goes for the book industry too.

I was tempted to point that out as well.

Of course their are also some differences of opinion on what constitutes "high
quality". "One man's trash may be another's treasure", This can certainly be
applied to ebooks, or books in general. The primary criteria is what the people
will buy, in our capitalist market place, that decides what is sufficient quality
to offer a product. Of course people will often pay more for what they perceive
as of higher quality. For many, some of the measures of "quality" have more
importance than others and that often can change based on any number of
factors in the consumers life and/or mind.

"Artistic" works often have "Experts" who feel that they can/should be/are
the judges of the quality of artistic efforts. Often, their opinions have little
if any effect on what the people are interested in buying, so they are not a
good factor to use for marketing decisions. Unfortunately, major publishing
and/or distribution companies do have to decide what they will try and place
on the market and the financial consequences of the wrong decision have to
be reckoned with.

Luck;
Ken

[Leyor]

The discussion about what constitutes quality is quite interesting in regards to artistic works. It's not long since our library had a heated debate wheter to stock books that were in high demand, despite them being considered of subpar quality in regards to subject, genre and prose.

I'd like to add though that I used the term high quality quite loosely though. It covers everything from ease of access, lack of DRM to additional features such as cloud based storage to the works themselves. What I mean is that a discriminate consumer base spurs innovation and companies to attempt to refine their products to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

[Ken Maltby]

I am not disagreeing with you, but the criteria that the consumer base uses for their
discrimination may not, in fact shouldn't be expected to, match your or mine or any
of the "experts"; college lit professor, Times critic, Oprah, Glen Beck, NPR, or whoever.

There is a reason that it's the National "Best Sellers" list that counts not the "Critic's
Choice".

Luck;
Ken