E-books vs. the Bookstore

[alanajoli]

Whenever new technology gets introduced to the publishing trade, people are sure that the old formats are going to die -- at least, according to the lecture I attended back in 2000, back when the Sony RocketBook was the height of e-reading technology. According to the speaker (whose name I sadly cannot recall), when the mass market paperback was

Comments

Hardcovers vs. paperbacks

[citizenjaq]

Books will continue to be published in both hardcover and paperback form. Otherwise Terry Gross would have to use some other excuse for playing yet another three-month-old interview on Frrrrrresh Air.

Re: Hardcovers vs. paperbacks

[alanajoli]

Ha!

[vita_ganieda]

I'm pretty well convinced that ebooks could be throwing a lifeline to indie bookstores that play their cards right, for the same reasons as the article you quote. It's certainly true that the bookstore I worked in for a while had a very loyal circle of clients who, for the most part, would never dream of touching those e-reader things. (Unfortunately for the store in question, it's also a rapidly aging circle of clients, but that says more about the store than the industry). Ironically, it may be that Amazon and Apple are the other factors in this lifeline scenario, since the Kindle and IPad are likely to continue cornering the Nook out of the market.

On the other hand, I think the narrative that ebooks drove Borders out of business is really simplistic. Their failure to jump on the bandwagon with sufficient dexterity played a part, certainly, but Borders was already mired in business practices of questionable savvy and had this fantastic ability to piss off everyone else in the industry.