5 ms·

Once again, a dying industry cries "The internet will destroy us!" Why not embrace the internet, change your model and MAKE IT WORK. Have we learned nothing f

by tialys 17y ago

Once again, a dying industry cries "The internet will destroy us!" Why not embrace the internet, change your model and MAKE IT WORK. Have we learned nothing from the music industry? If the customer demands that the books be $9.99, you don't tell the customer to shove off, you make it work at $9.99.

teej 17y ago
I appreciate the sentiment, but I disagree with your example. Responding to customer "demand" at a lower price point isn't necessarily a good move. If you're not competing on price, starting to is a bad way to go.
electromagnetic 17y ago
Are you truly so uninformed that you think everything offline is dying? It's been consistently shown that there has been no decline in the sale of 'paper' books, and the e-book sales are currently an entirely independent market with no effect on sales in the traditional market. [Ed: Sorry the last statement was a little incorrect, it's actually been shown through companies like Tor that the release of some of their free e-books has actually boosted paper book sales; those e-books are really killing that old system!] If anything, book publishers have been seeing record sales of some books due to increased fan awareness and the ease of access to purchasing, like Amazon, thanks to the internet.
- tialys 17y ago
  Ok, admittedly the "dying industry" bit was hyperbole, but it irks me to no end that "old media" can't simply adapt. If it doesn't work like it's been working for the past 100 years, it must the end of the world. That kind of thinking is slowing progress, and causing all kinds of headaches for consumers more than anyone else. I would feel ripped off paying the same price for an E-book as I would for a paper book, and this is what customers are trying to tell publishers. The problem is, just like the music industry, change is scaring them away from making rational decisions to support the 'new' consumer model.
- moe 17y ago
  It's been consistently shown that there has been no decline in the sale of 'paper' books, and the e-book sales are currently an entirely independent market with no effect on sales in the traditional market. While I agree that his hyperbole was a bit over the top I also think that you're playing it down a bit too much. The e-ink technology is making its first babysteps just now but it's already clear that we'll have true e-paper (bendable, rollable displays) in the near future. Ten years from now you may still be able to buy dead-tree books. But I'm pretty sure they and especially newspapers and magazines will be on a sharp decline, in favor to just downloading the content to your personal reader device. Twenty years from now our kids will shake their heads about that past era of dead-tree books, just like today they wonder how we could ever exist without cellphones. A common, parental dialogue in 2029: "No search-function, no hyperlinks, no updates, no dictionary lookup? Are you kidding me, daddy?"
mattmcknight 17y ago
Interestingly here, it's not the authors complaining, it's the publishers. Much like the record labels, it is the publishers that are becoming less relevant in the slow move to electronic books. Without the barrier to entry of having huge printing presses, Amazon effectively cuts them out. Longer term though, with open formats, Amazon risks being disintermediated themselves, as authors can sell directly to readers.

by tialys 17y ago

teej 17y ago

I appreciate the sentiment, but I disagree with your example. Responding to customer "demand" at a lower price point isn't necessarily a good move. If you're not competing on price, starting to is a bad way to go.

electromagnetic 17y ago

Are you truly so uninformed that you think everything offline is dying? It's been consistently shown that there has been no decline in the sale of 'paper' books, and the e-book sales are currently an entirely independent market with no effect on sales in the traditional market. [Ed: Sorry the last statement was a little incorrect, it's actually been shown through companies like Tor that the release of some of their free e-books has actually boosted paper book sales; those e-books are really killing that old system!] If anything, book publishers have been seeing record sales of some books due to increased fan awareness and the ease of access to purchasing, like Amazon, thanks to the internet.

tialys 17y ago
Ok, admittedly the "dying industry" bit was hyperbole, but it irks me to no end that "old media" can't simply adapt. If it doesn't work like it's been working for the past 100 years, it must the end of the world. That kind of thinking is slowing progress, and causing all kinds of headaches for consumers more than anyone else. I would feel ripped off paying the same price for an E-book as I would for a paper book, and this is what customers are trying to tell publishers. The problem is, just like the music industry, change is scaring them away from making rational decisions to support the 'new' consumer model.
moe 17y ago
It's been consistently shown that there has been no decline in the sale of 'paper' books, and the e-book sales are currently an entirely independent market with no effect on sales in the traditional market. While I agree that his hyperbole was a bit over the top I also think that you're playing it down a bit too much. The e-ink technology is making its first babysteps just now but it's already clear that we'll have true e-paper (bendable, rollable displays) in the near future. Ten years from now you may still be able to buy dead-tree books. But I'm pretty sure they and especially newspapers and magazines will be on a sharp decline, in favor to just downloading the content to your personal reader device. Twenty years from now our kids will shake their heads about that past era of dead-tree books, just like today they wonder how we could ever exist without cellphones. A common, parental dialogue in 2029: "No search-function, no hyperlinks, no updates, no dictionary lookup? Are you kidding me, daddy?"

mattmcknight 17y ago

Interestingly here, it's not the authors complaining, it's the publishers. Much like the record labels, it is the publishers that are becoming less relevant in the slow move to electronic books. Without the barrier to entry of having huge printing presses, Amazon effectively cuts them out. Longer term though, with open formats, Amazon risks being disintermediated themselves, as authors can sell directly to readers.