We have that, it's called the library, they don't even charge the $9.99 monthly fee. Course, publishers have been trying to stop libraries for pretty much all known time as well.
A “Netflix of Books” would put publishing houses out of business
We have that, it's called the library, they don't even charge the $9.99 monthly fee.
I think they mean a complete digital library that anyone could use cough, Anna's archive, cough. There was another story (I think here on Tildes) where someone said digital copies can only be...
I think they mean a complete digital library that anyone could use cough, Anna's archive, cough. There was another story (I think here on Tildes) where someone said digital copies can only be loaned from the library so many times (~20) before the library has to "buy" another copy. So here you see the "why" of it.
The end result is that if libraries could do with ebooks what they do with print books....we'd still be no worse off than with print books. Though that could be rectified by a proper ruling that...
The end result is that if libraries could do with ebooks what they do with print books....we'd still be no worse off than with print books. Though that could be rectified by a proper ruling that affirms the right for end users to resell or loan out their purchased digital goods.
It's a travesty that libraries are expected to 'rebuy' digital books over and over and over again.
Of course, it's also a travesty that most of the progress of computing since 1990 something has been on improving methods to enforce scarcity on the first post-scarcity platform ever invented. Digital goods essentially have infinite supply, and rather than trying to develop new economic methods to accommodate this, the commercial sector toils endlessly to enforce their old business models.
Physical books degrade with time, I wouldn’t say it’s a 1 to 1 comparison. Eventually a library would have to buy a new copy of a physical book due to wear and tear. Is that before or after the...
Physical books degrade with time, I wouldn’t say it’s a 1 to 1 comparison. Eventually a library would have to buy a new copy of a physical book due to wear and tear. Is that before or after the ~20 lends a library gets with an ebook? Probably not but I have no idea.
Maybe, but I've also checked out books from as old as the 1970's from libraries. Children's books and paperbacks tend to wear out much faster. They also tend to sell off the old books for...
Maybe, but I've also checked out books from as old as the 1970's from libraries. Children's books and paperbacks tend to wear out much faster.
They also tend to sell off the old books for fundraising and accept book donations to cover costs, neither of which is currently possible for ebooks.
I've checked out a book from the 1930s. And I'm probably not 40 years older than you. Books just last a damned long time. I've also held and paged through books from the 1790s that were just...
I've checked out a book from the 1930s. And I'm probably not 40 years older than you. Books just last a damned long time.
I've also held and paged through books from the 1790s that were just sitting on the shelf of a university library, not even in a special collection. In a university that wasn't even founded until the 20th century. Considering the condition, that may have been the most handling they ever had. Again, books last a damned long time.
Libraries rebind books too. What typically wears out is the binding; it's not like the words magically disappear from the pages. When books go out of print, libraries working to preserve access is...
Libraries rebind books too. What typically wears out is the binding; it's not like the words magically disappear from the pages. When books go out of print, libraries working to preserve access is super important.
Even worse, with IEEE lately, I have seen that if you want your paper to be "open access", you have to pay the fee. So basically, they get their cut either way.
Even worse, with IEEE lately, I have seen that if you want your paper to be "open access", you have to pay the fee. So basically, they get their cut either way.
The judge ultimately ruled that the merger would create a monopoly and blocked the $2.2 billion purchase. But during the trial, the head of every major publishing house and literary agency got up on the stand to speak about the publishing industry and give numbers, giving us an eye-opening account of the industry from the inside. All of the transcripts from the trial were compiled into a book called The Trial. It took me a year to read, but I’ve finally summarized my findings and pulled out all the compelling highlights.
I think I can sum up what I’ve learned like this: The Big Five publishing houses spend most of their money on book advances for big celebrities like Brittany Spears and franchise authors like James Patterson and this is the bulk of their business. They also sell a lot of Bibles, repeat best sellers like Lord of the Rings, and children’s books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These two market categories (celebrity books and repeat bestsellers from the backlist) make up the entirety of the publishing industry and even fund their vanity project: publishing all the rest of the books we think about when we think about book publishing (which make no money at all and typically sell less than 1,000 copies).
Absolutely same boat. It seems to be only getting worse. A lot of discussion in writerly circles I frequent lament that it seems most (if not all) marketing is meant to be done by the author at...
Absolutely same boat. It seems to be only getting worse.
A lot of discussion in writerly circles I frequent lament that it seems most (if not all) marketing is meant to be done by the author at this point, on top of writing, editing, finding a cover artist (and possibly paying out of pocket for it), and all promo. It's become extremely demoralizing to even think about traditional publishing.
While many laud the self-publishing route, self-pub seems to run the gamut of "what happened that this couldn't this get published traditionally?" (± 0.1%) to "clearly this could only be published via self-pub because basic sentence structure eludes this person" (±99.9%).
I've seen the "solution" to this particular problem presented as hiring your own editor, which makes "vanity press" all the more "vain." Considering how many so-called "novelists" are churning out AI-sourced garbage (all priced at 99¢ or free on Kindle!) I'm just very pessimistic about the entire world of publishing at present.
I actually read this because of the subject (being raised by a narcissistic parent) and not because it was written by a celebrity. I didn't even realize it was by a celebrity until she mentioned...
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy.
I actually read this because of the subject (being raised by a narcissistic parent) and not because it was written by a celebrity. I didn't even realize it was by a celebrity until she mentioned her childhood acting career and I had to go look up who she was (iCarly aired during/after I was in college). I'm sure the publisher picked it up because of her celebrity and not the subject, but it is popular and made an impact on me and many others that grew up with narcisstic parent(s). I wouldn't discount the popularity of the book as people just wanting to read it because she was a minor celebrity a decade or so ago.
That's the #1 reason it's on my list. Jeannette seems cool, but I wouldn't read about her life if we didn't have narcissistic moms. How did you like the book? I usually read to relax, and reading...
That's the #1 reason it's on my list. Jeannette seems cool, but I wouldn't read about her life if we didn't have narcissistic moms.
How did you like the book? I usually read to relax, and reading about my mom doesn't sound relaxing so I've been putting it off.
I enjoyed the book a lot. It helped me come to terms with a lot of feelings that I had about my own childhood, and validated my decision to go no-contact with my mother. I definitely had to be in...
I enjoyed the book a lot. It helped me come to terms with a lot of feelings that I had about my own childhood, and validated my decision to go no-contact with my mother.
I definitely had to be in the right mindset to read it. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much had I not been no-contact for over 6 years and low-contact for 4 years before that. I also read it while traveling with my husband, close friends, and my father (who all understand my feelings towards my mother and are very supportive of my non-contact status).
We have that, it's called the library, they don't even charge the $9.99 monthly fee.
Course, publishers have been trying to stop libraries for pretty much all known time as well.
I think they mean a complete digital library that anyone could use cough, Anna's archive, cough. There was another story (I think here on Tildes) where someone said digital copies can only be loaned from the library so many times (~20) before the library has to "buy" another copy. So here you see the "why" of it.
The end result is that if libraries could do with ebooks what they do with print books....we'd still be no worse off than with print books. Though that could be rectified by a proper ruling that affirms the right for end users to resell or loan out their purchased digital goods.
It's a travesty that libraries are expected to 'rebuy' digital books over and over and over again.
Of course, it's also a travesty that most of the progress of computing since 1990 something has been on improving methods to enforce scarcity on the first post-scarcity platform ever invented. Digital goods essentially have infinite supply, and rather than trying to develop new economic methods to accommodate this, the commercial sector toils endlessly to enforce their old business models.
I agree, I'm just pointing out that at scale, this would be the "Netflix for books" death knell for big publishing which might not be a bad thing.
Physical books degrade with time, I wouldn’t say it’s a 1 to 1 comparison. Eventually a library would have to buy a new copy of a physical book due to wear and tear. Is that before or after the ~20 lends a library gets with an ebook? Probably not but I have no idea.
Maybe, but I've also checked out books from as old as the 1970's from libraries. Children's books and paperbacks tend to wear out much faster.
They also tend to sell off the old books for fundraising and accept book donations to cover costs, neither of which is currently possible for ebooks.
I've checked out a book from the 1930s. And I'm probably not 40 years older than you. Books just last a damned long time.
I've also held and paged through books from the 1790s that were just sitting on the shelf of a university library, not even in a special collection. In a university that wasn't even founded until the 20th century. Considering the condition, that may have been the most handling they ever had. Again, books last a damned long time.
Libraries rebind books too. What typically wears out is the binding; it's not like the words magically disappear from the pages. When books go out of print, libraries working to preserve access is super important.
There are academic books that are expected to sell only to libraries. That are quite expensive.
Though academic publishing is its own terrible can of worms. Have you seen the cost to get access to a handful of academic papers?
Even worse, with IEEE lately, I have seen that if you want your paper to be "open access", you have to pay the fee. So basically, they get their cut either way.
From the blog post:
As an aspiring novelist, I plan to read this slowly and with a lot of alcohol.
Absolutely same boat. It seems to be only getting worse.
A lot of discussion in writerly circles I frequent lament that it seems most (if not all) marketing is meant to be done by the author at this point, on top of writing, editing, finding a cover artist (and possibly paying out of pocket for it), and all promo. It's become extremely demoralizing to even think about traditional publishing.
While many laud the self-publishing route, self-pub seems to run the gamut of "what happened that this couldn't this get published traditionally?" (± 0.1%) to "clearly this could only be published via self-pub because basic sentence structure eludes this person" (±99.9%).
I've seen the "solution" to this particular problem presented as hiring your own editor, which makes "vanity press" all the more "vain." Considering how many so-called "novelists" are churning out AI-sourced garbage (all priced at 99¢ or free on Kindle!) I'm just very pessimistic about the entire world of publishing at present.
Maybe I'm ignorant or sheltered but who the hell reads celebrity books? Gross.
Spare was a bestseller
And with I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy.
So, a lot of people want to read celebrity books.
I actually read this because of the subject (being raised by a narcissistic parent) and not because it was written by a celebrity. I didn't even realize it was by a celebrity until she mentioned her childhood acting career and I had to go look up who she was (iCarly aired during/after I was in college). I'm sure the publisher picked it up because of her celebrity and not the subject, but it is popular and made an impact on me and many others that grew up with narcisstic parent(s). I wouldn't discount the popularity of the book as people just wanting to read it because she was a minor celebrity a decade or so ago.
That's the #1 reason it's on my list. Jeannette seems cool, but I wouldn't read about her life if we didn't have narcissistic moms.
How did you like the book? I usually read to relax, and reading about my mom doesn't sound relaxing so I've been putting it off.
I enjoyed the book a lot. It helped me come to terms with a lot of feelings that I had about my own childhood, and validated my decision to go no-contact with my mother.
I definitely had to be in the right mindset to read it. I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much had I not been no-contact for over 6 years and low-contact for 4 years before that. I also read it while traveling with my husband, close friends, and my father (who all understand my feelings towards my mother and are very supportive of my non-contact status).