A slow recovery?

[B.R.Stateham]

It seems like we are witnessing a slow recovery of the retail book market.  As the rest of the economy slowly recovers, apparently more people will buy books.  That's good news.  Obviously the e-reader/e-book phenomenon hasn't completely reshaped the reading market.

 

Not yet at least.

https://www.smashwords.com/upload/status/6619

[Joyce Ann Fugit]

You can buy a lot of paperbacks for $400, which I believe is the approximate price of a Kendall. Not having one, I do not understand how the books (an additional purchase) are made available, how they are indexed, and what kind of selection you can access.

For now, it is still Half-priced Books, the public library, amazon.com, and gift cards for enhancing my recreational reading. Besides, there is an entire ambiance on Saturday mornings that goes with breakfast, coffee, and newspaper at La Madeline's--then browsing the boostores. Why must we all be in such a RUSH?

[Camille LaGuire]

For Kindle, you buy books from Amazon the same way as always, but when you hit "buy" it sends it straight to your Kindle. (Or to your computer or iPhone if you prefer.) You don't actually have to buy a Kindle to read Kindle books, and you can click "send a sample" to check out the beginning of the book before you buy.

While the big publishers are keeping the prices high, smaller presses, and individual authors (some self-published, but many are published authors making their back lists available) are offering books for as low as 0.99. Classics are largely free, because of efforts like the Gutenberg Project.

Many of us like other stores and devices better. Smashwords, Fictionwise. I have five or six different reading apps for my iPod Touch so I am not glued to the Kindle store or format.

But even so, I don't see a quick demise for paper books. For one thing, though I buy used books, ebooks and use the library for a lot of my reading, I still buy hardbacks as "keepers" for my favorites. I don't see that going away.

[John McFetridge]

I like Smashwords, BR. Last week I tried it myself and uploaded an e-book I wrote: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/14367

Actually, it's the pilot episode script for a TV show I was developing last year that I adapted into a story. I have this theory that e-books will become a whole new format, not just books as-books. More on that later ;)

[Camille LaGuire]

I added the sample to my library. I don't know when I'll get around to it, but that will remind me it's there. (I don't read a lot of police procedurals, but when I like them, I love them, and I'm very interested in an RCMP story.)

[B.R.Stateham]

Here's an interesting article from Publisher's Weekly concerning the viability of going the alternate route to publishing.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-b...