Seth Godin: The End of Books

Insightful blog post from Seth Godin. Makes some valid points.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/08/an-end-of-books.html

 

He makes a pretty valid point that more of us are moving toward ebooks, but I think he's putting too much stock in the decline of Borders and Barns and Noble to the ebook and underselling the impact of Amazon.

I kind of wish he went further into the notion that books are starting to go the way of the record more. The record store is pretty well gone, except for the hipster nostalgia that continues to linger. Books and book stores are finally going the same way now that we have a convenient way to read them electronically.

 

I originally read this as The End of Boots. RIP Back Door.

 

Funny. There was a story in The New Yorker recently saying that while B&N's Nook was a disaster (understatement), the stores themselves were doing fine (yes, it had actual financial figures). It also pointed out with anecdotal evidence that every publisher has a vested interest in keeping B&N alive (as well as independent book stores) because every study for something like 40 years showed that readers were vastly more likely to try a "new" writer if they could actually pick up/look at a book by said writer.

 

I was in the book business for thirty years (bookselling and publishing)

Although a huge number of independents were decimated starting in the late 80's/ early 90's with the big box stores---the point where books were commodified-- there is still a niche for independents.

There are a a number of areas---art books and children's illustrated books are the first to come to mind--where a physical book is the only format that will work

-Mr Westerberg's statement "readers were vastly more likely to try a "new" writer if they could actually pick up/look at a book by said writer" has been and always will be the case

And a good bookseller can put a book in a customer's hand and say, "You'll love this" and the customer buys it on the recommendation and DOES love it.

It's called "handselling" in the biz and is a huge factor in a store's success and customer loyalty

And you can't browse on Amazon.

And yes, I do buy books from them but also from bookstores

 

Legend has it that Freq was pretty good at the art of "hand selling".

 

What ever happened to Boots? He was a good man and even a better person.

 

He's one of the posters we miss along with Bandwagon Boy and the legendary JVR (JRV?)
Things have been dull since they all left.

 

Does a publisher hold the rights for a book in perpetuity or would an author be able to reissue as
e book and receive full profits from sale. Likely that publishers did not anticipate e books when
writing contracts 20-30 years ago.

 

My understanding---and I've been out of the biz since ebooks were a serious issue--is that publishers do not hold those rights unless those rights were specifically mentioned in the contract.

I know there have been some piss-ups about this between agents and publishers but I suspect that the publishers don't have any leverage on this.

Now that you mention it, I'm going to do some research

 

I read two to three books each week. When I go to the chiropractor, I'm the only person not watching a video but reading a real book. So I'm the weirdo. I have a Kindle and an iPad, but I rarely buy books anymore. They're a luxury expense. If not for the library, I'd have to quit reading. One thing I hate about the library right now is one thing the writer touched on: it has more Blu-rays and DVDs than Hastings. At least I don't have to fight the crowds to browse those old book things.

 

I haven't read a book, or even a magazine, since the day I bought my iPad two years ago. I'm a constant surfer now. And I used to read three or four books a week. I wonder how the book industry feels about that segment, if it has any numbers at all.

The iPad is an addictive little Internet monster. No complaints there, but my attention span is shot. I'm constantly moving around online, so I don't ever settle back and read a book or magazine anymore -- even on the tablet. I figure that will change at some point, but it hasn't happened yet.