Jason Pinter over at the Huffington Post writes about this being the most exciting time ever for booklovers:
"Amidst all the doom and gloom (Books are dying! Print is dead! The Kindle will destroy us all! Big Publishers want to kill your pets! ARMAGEDDON IS NIGH!!!), I just want to take a moment to proclaim that this is quite possibly the most exciting period to be a reader in my lifetime. Think about it: when was the last time books and publishing were as much a part of the daily conversation as they are now? So enough with the catastrophic headlines. They might draw traffic and get people riled up, but they're empty bloviations. The bottom line is that, in my opinion, the written word is healthier than ever. The health of the book industry is never about the success of one book--it's a rising tide that lifts all ships. And the tide of buzz about books and publishing is perhaps higher than ever."
He makes a good case. Interesting description of the current reading world including stats on e-readers and the increase in successful books-into-movies.
Read the whole POST
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6 days ago
Thanks for pointing us to this article. I find it encouraging. However, it does nothing to address the question of whether authors should get a bigger piece of the pie since publication costs go down for eBooks. That question is not being aired anywhere I'm aware of.
ReplyDeleteWish it were so, Sharon, but
ReplyDeletefrom what I'm reading, author payments will go down -- not up.
The cost of the book will be less, publishers will get less and so will author royalties lessen.
Although many of us believe that the cost should be less for an e-book than a print one, the publishers say No!
Entertainment Weekly magazine, which used to have a solid book review section, continues to trumpet the dying of the book industry and how sad that is. And meanwhile, their book review section has dwindled from 4 pages to 4 books... Hmmm... People still like to read!!! There were no reviews for the latest books by some familiar authors like Richard Russo and Chris Bohjalian. It makes me crazy (and sad)!
ReplyDeleteHeather,
ReplyDeleteThe classic book review sections in traditional publications do continue to dwindle (and put professional writers out of work) but enewsletters like bookreporter.com and bloggers take up the slack -- in creating new book buzz.