Dec 6 2008
NPR’s All Things Considered Takes a Look at the Book Industry
Once considered recession proof, the book business is suffering the same kind of economic turmoil as the rest. Booksellers, according to All Things Considered, incur 25% of the book sales in the holiday season. One long time bookseller is getting out of the new book business and will now sell used ones. Big box chain stores are struggling for survival. Publishing will need to reinvent the way it does business and makes money in order to survive in the future which means taking a look at the system of returns and capitalizing on digital technology.
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Dec 06, 2008 @ 16:04:47
Absolutely. I saw a book in the gay fiction section of Borders the other day and was headed to the register to pay, when I realised it was $45! So it went back on the shelf.
Now it might have been wonderful, and I still want to read it. But when I can
1. Pick up pretty decent novel length m/m at an epublisher for under $7
2. Write it for free
3. Read quality fanfiction for free if all I want is gay romance
$45 is just not good value. No novel is going to be worth that kind of money.
On the other hand, we just paid $30 for a book on Australian native plants, and had the one we wanted been available, would have paid $90 for another on that subject. We’ll pay big bucks for reference books. Or rather, my net-phobic spouse will.
Disposable fiction in print doesn’t compare in value to a ticket to the movie or a cheap DVD, or an ebook. Sure, you can reread the print book, and give it away or sell it but who thinks of that when you buy a book, unless it’s bought specifically as a gift?
Ebooks are the way to go for fiction, especially genre fiction, I’m convinced of it.