Envisioning an e-book only world... - CrimeSpace2024-03-29T06:08:39Zhttps://crimespace.ning.com/forum/topics/envisioning-an-ebook-only?commentId=537324%3AComment%3A203162&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noMy impression is both book cu…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-14:537324:Comment:2031622009-06-14T06:40:42.722ZEric Christophersonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/datahog
My impression is both book culture and electronic culture are healthier in Japan, and that's based on four trips here (for maybe a total of 12 weeks) plus a wife and in-laws who are Japanese.
My impression is both book culture and electronic culture are healthier in Japan, and that's based on four trips here (for maybe a total of 12 weeks) plus a wife and in-laws who are Japanese. One of the biggest areas of d…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-13:537324:Comment:2031312009-06-13T21:14:43.269ZJohn McFetridgehttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JohnMcF
One of the biggest areas of debate in the file sharing issue is how much revenue is "lost?"<br />
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From my personal experience I see a lot of people downloading songs that they would never have paid any money for. In some ways it's very similar to listening to them on the radio. Sometimes this does translate into going to see a band in concert. Sometimes it even raises a musicians profile enough to get a better advance on the next recording or sell songs to commercials and so on.<br />
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When the last U2…
One of the biggest areas of debate in the file sharing issue is how much revenue is "lost?"<br />
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From my personal experience I see a lot of people downloading songs that they would never have paid any money for. In some ways it's very similar to listening to them on the radio. Sometimes this does translate into going to see a band in concert. Sometimes it even raises a musicians profile enough to get a better advance on the next recording or sell songs to commercials and so on.<br />
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When the last U2 album came out, how many people downloaded it <b>instead</b> of buying it? The same number who would have shoplifted it from a CD store? Certainly plenty of people downloaded it, but the vast majority weren't lost sales because those people would simply have done without hearing the album if they'd had to pay for it.<br />
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John D is right that a few authors (and a bunch of bands) have managed to increase their revenues with the use of free online give-aways. It's troubling that kids today can't see the difference between items offered for sale by their creators and those offered for free, but like every generation before us we'll just have to bitch about the kids. (someday these kids will be old like us and they'll be bitching about the next generation).<br />
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It does require some faith in our fellow human beings. Yikes. I don't have access to the Ro…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-13:537324:Comment:2031292009-06-13T21:00:31.327ZJon Loomishttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JonLoomis
I don't have access to the Rolling Stones' financial records, so I couldn't tell you whether, in all, their incomes have gone up or down in the last fifteen years or so. I do know that the recording industry as a whole has suffered mightily, and that in general bands have had to develop other sources of revenue to make up for the loss of income across the board from selling recorded music. Unlike (most) writers, popular bands can make significant money from performance; I would guess, though,…
I don't have access to the Rolling Stones' financial records, so I couldn't tell you whether, in all, their incomes have gone up or down in the last fifteen years or so. I do know that the recording industry as a whole has suffered mightily, and that in general bands have had to develop other sources of revenue to make up for the loss of income across the board from selling recorded music. Unlike (most) writers, popular bands can make significant money from performance; I would guess, though, that since the advent of file sharing concert ticket prices have generally gone up and tours have been extended to make up for that lost revenue. I'm curious, since you're such a big advocate of electronic piracy, how you imagine writers will make up for the losses they're bound to incur as a result of file sharing?<br />
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As for midlist writers not being affected, or the business of older women not being avid electronic pirates: whatever hurts the industry in general also hurts me. If my publisher makes less money, then they're less likely to take a chance on my next book, less likely to promote said book, and less likely to hand over the up-front money I need to keep food on the table while I write it. These things seem obvious to me, but I guess my perspective is somewhat different than yours. I think book culture in gener…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-13:537324:Comment:2030622009-06-13T05:06:44.679ZJohn Dishonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/whiteskwirl
I think book culture in general is more healthy in at least Japan and Taiwan, than in America. Maybe I'm wrong as I've only been in Japan a total of a month and Taiwan about five and a half weeks, so it's just an impression.<br />
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It's worth noting, I think, that Japan's population is dominated by the elderly.
I think book culture in general is more healthy in at least Japan and Taiwan, than in America. Maybe I'm wrong as I've only been in Japan a total of a month and Taiwan about five and a half weeks, so it's just an impression.<br />
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It's worth noting, I think, that Japan's population is dominated by the elderly. It's clear you've already for…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-13:537324:Comment:2030602009-06-13T05:01:38.032ZJohn Dishonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/whiteskwirl
It's clear you've already formed your opinion, so my answer to your question won't make any difference.<br />
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There's just no substantial evidence, that I've seen, to suggest that piracy is the bogeyman it's made out to be, that it is a significant cause of the various industries' woes. But there is evidence to suggest otherwise, and I have documented some of it on my previous blog posts here if you want to check them out. The only argument I see from the other side is "look at the music industry"…
It's clear you've already formed your opinion, so my answer to your question won't make any difference.<br />
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There's just no substantial evidence, that I've seen, to suggest that piracy is the bogeyman it's made out to be, that it is a significant cause of the various industries' woes. But there is evidence to suggest otherwise, and I have documented some of it on my previous blog posts here if you want to check them out. The only argument I see from the other side is "look at the music industry" as if piracy is automatically to blame for lost sales. Yet the video game industry's sales are up this year, so explain that one.<br />
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The fear of book piracy, in my opinion, is baseless. It's particularly absurd for midlist crime writers to fear this. Midlist authors are constantly complaining about low sales as it is, and the struggle to be noticed among a sea of authors. So what are they worried about book piracy for? Nobody even is aware of them, apparently, so who's going to be bootlegging your work. Plus, crime fiction is read mostly by older women, and that is not the demographic that pirates things on the internet. So again, who's going to be pirating your work?<br />
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If piracy is such a detriment to artists, then everyone should be able to name five artists who have been hurt by it, off the top of their heads. It's such a huge problem, but where are the victims? People say the industry is hurting, but what does that mean? Who is hurting? Yes, sales are down, but how do we know it is because of piracy? How significant is the impact of piracy? Nobody's got evidence, data for this. Except the RIAA and MPAA which the latter admitted exaggerated its claims, and neither disclose how they obtained their data.<br />
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Cory Doctorow, Paulo Coelho, Trent Reznor and Radiohead. There's four artists off the top of my head who have benefited from giving away their work. Can you name four who have been hurt by it?<br />
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If there is substantial evidence that piracy is hurting artists, then let's have it. Otherwise this all just seems like fearmongering to me. For what it's worth I've been…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-13:537324:Comment:2030572009-06-13T04:27:14.749ZEric Christophersonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/datahog
For what it's worth I've been riding Japanese subways and trains the last ten days, from Kyoto to Tokyo, and being the curious sort have been observing my fellow passengers--a huge sample--on the physical books to cell phone/pda usage ratios, and even here in the land of the cell phone novel it's a fifty-fifty split with age showing no discernible effect. (Could be all the school kids doing their homework to explain the lack of an age effect though.)
For what it's worth I've been riding Japanese subways and trains the last ten days, from Kyoto to Tokyo, and being the curious sort have been observing my fellow passengers--a huge sample--on the physical books to cell phone/pda usage ratios, and even here in the land of the cell phone novel it's a fifty-fifty split with age showing no discernible effect. (Could be all the school kids doing their homework to explain the lack of an age effect though.) Is this your "libraries are j…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-13:537324:Comment:2030552009-06-13T04:15:45.229ZJon Loomishttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JonLoomis
Is this your "libraries are just like file-sharing" argument again, John?
Is this your "libraries are just like file-sharing" argument again, John? I don't know, it's not like b…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-13:537324:Comment:2030412009-06-13T03:07:10.037ZJohn Dishonhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/whiteskwirl
I don't know, it's not like books aren't already available for free.
I don't know, it's not like books aren't already available for free. I doubt that physical books w…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-13:537324:Comment:2030332009-06-13T01:36:32.238ZJon Loomishttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/JonLoomis
I doubt that physical books will entirely disappear anytime soon--not for a generation or two, at least--too many people still like them. What's likely to happen is that publishers will produce smaller print runs, figuring (rightly) that a growing percentage of readers will prefer the digital format. On the plus side, royalty structures will change--authors should by rights get a siginifcantly bigger cut of ebook sales, since publisher's costs are so much lower. Ebooks solve a lot of problems…
I doubt that physical books will entirely disappear anytime soon--not for a generation or two, at least--too many people still like them. What's likely to happen is that publishers will produce smaller print runs, figuring (rightly) that a growing percentage of readers will prefer the digital format. On the plus side, royalty structures will change--authors should by rights get a siginifcantly bigger cut of ebook sales, since publisher's costs are so much lower. Ebooks solve a lot of problems for publishers--rising production costs, brutal discount structures dictated by big sellers, over-prints aggravated by unpredictable returns, etc. The negatives are equally significant: ebooks introduce new risks, primarily in the form of potential electronic piracy, against which there's likely to be little in the way of legal or technological defense. For authors there's the added risk, as several have already said here, of having one's work utterly obscured by vast blizzards of unvetted self-published books. I'm presonally of two minds: sure, I'd like to sell some eBooks; every little bit helps. But my guess is that it won't be long before the ebook pirates take notice and start distributing every published ebook title for free over the internet the day after it's released. That's when the real trouble starts for the publishing biz, IMO. We'll never see the end of pr…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2009-06-12:537324:Comment:2030182009-06-12T22:33:04.448ZB.R.Statehamhttps://crimespace.ning.com/profile/BRStateham
We'll never see the end of printed books. Just like those who predicted 8-track, then cassette, then digital was going to wipe out vinyl records, what in fact we are seeing is a modest revival. (as, oddly enough, we are seeing Polaroid talking about re-producing film photograph again).<br />
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What constantly surprises me is that the majority of people are social creatures. Bookstores, libraries, etc. are havens for us. True, there are indivduals who will prefer an e-reader and/or ordering through…
We'll never see the end of printed books. Just like those who predicted 8-track, then cassette, then digital was going to wipe out vinyl records, what in fact we are seeing is a modest revival. (as, oddly enough, we are seeing Polaroid talking about re-producing film photograph again).<br />
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What constantly surprises me is that the majority of people are social creatures. Bookstores, libraries, etc. are havens for us. True, there are indivduals who will prefer an e-reader and/or ordering through Amazon. But the majority of people will prefer to go to their favorite books stores and libraries to browse through the shelves and to be with people.