Thinking More About Digital Books
So the LA Times recently published a short piece about the growth of e-book sales, based on a report by the Association of American Publishers, stating that e-books were now the top-selling book format.
Now, I love my Kindle, but I am worried about books. As I've mentioned before, I don't think there's a direct correlation between digital music and digital books, but I afraid that the industry sheep won't know any better and stampede over a cliff.
Two Points:
I'm curious about how they define "sale". I "bought" a lot of e-books at Amazon for nothing, because they were in public domain. But Amazon counts those as a sale. And the AAP article does acknowledge that a lot of these purchases are a case of new owners "loading" their new Kindles (partly because of the holidays, and partly because Amazon had just cut Kindle prices. Ok, that's my analysis).
The article also acknowledges - trying to soften the blow and cheer people up - that a lot of e-readers are getting the back-list of authors, and I can't help wondering how many of these sales increases aren't so much people abandoning paper as much getting books they can't otherwise get. These fall into two categories, I believe, but they both boil down to the same thing. One is "old out of print stuff I can't even find at Powells" or "stuff from new people for cheap" I've gotten both at Amazon. My favorite story involves a book by Cherie Priest, Clementine, a follow-up to her wildly popular Boneshaker, which due to publisher myopia was published in a small run at a small house. And then vanished, and became a very expensive item. Except as a Kindle e-book.
Now, I love my Kindle, but I am worried about books. As I've mentioned before, I don't think there's a direct correlation between digital music and digital books, but I afraid that the industry sheep won't know any better and stampede over a cliff.
Two Points:
I'm curious about how they define "sale". I "bought" a lot of e-books at Amazon for nothing, because they were in public domain. But Amazon counts those as a sale. And the AAP article does acknowledge that a lot of these purchases are a case of new owners "loading" their new Kindles (partly because of the holidays, and partly because Amazon had just cut Kindle prices. Ok, that's my analysis).
The article also acknowledges - trying to soften the blow and cheer people up - that a lot of e-readers are getting the back-list of authors, and I can't help wondering how many of these sales increases aren't so much people abandoning paper as much getting books they can't otherwise get. These fall into two categories, I believe, but they both boil down to the same thing. One is "old out of print stuff I can't even find at Powells" or "stuff from new people for cheap" I've gotten both at Amazon. My favorite story involves a book by Cherie Priest, Clementine, a follow-up to her wildly popular Boneshaker, which due to publisher myopia was published in a small run at a small house. And then vanished, and became a very expensive item. Except as a Kindle e-book.