Unpopular Opinions Society

[das_nut]

A kindle is pretty simple.

 

[Freesia]

Yes it is simple, but it is harder to read electronic screens than paper, and harder to deal when losing a page.

 

[das_nut]

I find e-paper to be pretty readable myself.

 

[Freesia]

That is good for you, I dont though.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I think someone should invent the Replicator....then we can have really paper books that we can download.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

You're misunderstanding.

No. I said it's not a sustainable business model for everything to be free. You countered with "this guy gives his stuff away for free."

Giving away some free things in order to get your name out there typically falls under an advertising expense. Which is fine. But, for example, my author friend... I'm not sure if she self-funded her book or not, but she just can't afford to give it away for nothing- she has to eat. She does promotion online and goes to events, which is less costly to her than giving her book away.

Free books, whether they are free because they're in the public domain or because the author wants to promote their work and is using a giveaway as a promotional tool, are a totally separate issue.


Anyway, I'm done with this, because I really don't care. I'll be dead and gone long before books are obsolete.
Read what you want, how you want.

 

[beancounter]

Books that aren't eBooks should be referred to as books, not paper books.

Why? Would the books be offended?
Polical correctness for book. We've come far as a society.

 

[beancounter]

Why are people ignoring the vast amount of free ebooks?

I make a substantial effort to get free ebooks, but in my personal experience, the majority of (current*) free books are of a lower quality than books you have to pay for.

* I've already downloaded (for free) all of the "classics" that I'm interested in.

 

[Spang]

Why?

It's redundant.

 

[FortyTwo]

I'm not sure what the problem is even if eBooks are expensive. As interest increases, prices will decrease.

As for compasses, I use one! It's on my phone.

 

[beancounter]

I'm not sure what the problem is even if eBooks are expensive. As interest increases, prices will decrease.

It often happens that way where demand decreases and supply remains constant, prices decrease, but not always. With ebooks, there is no "supply" in the traditional sense. And without inventory holding cost and the traditional infrastructure, I'm not sure the old models will persist.

Also there seems to be an oligopoly in the ebook market with Amazon and Barnes & Noble being the overwhelminly dominant players, which could keep prices artificially high indefinitely.

But as always, the "right" price is whatever the market will bear.

 

[FortyTwo]

Meh. I won't debate that, because I know little about economics and wouldn't be able to hold an argument.

Besides, it's what I hope happens, not what necessarily will.

 

[das_nut]

Also there seems to be an oligopoly in the ebook market with Amazon and Barnes & Noble being the overwhelminly dominant players, which could keep prices artificially high indefinitely.

Some of the niche publishes will sell books directly.

But I am somewhat doubtful that people will seek out alternative sources of ebooks if prices are reasonable.

 

[mlp]

Yeah, the future of physical books (like with vinyl) is going to be pretty much exclusively collectible. It's already almost there. I worked in the book business for a significant amount of time and saw the changes. I could give you all a lesson on the changes in the past 20 years and how the internet has essentially killed the used book trade but I'm lazy. I love physical books, but am not opposed to e-books either.

IME, the used book trade is alive and well on the internet

 

[mlp]

I've never read an eBook. That probably won't change until such time as my eyes can so much more readily read a book on screen than on paper as to justify paying the high cost of ebooks. (Currently, I use the library extensively, and with respect to those authors and books that I know I will re-read, I buy the books used, online. I can almost always find them, in good to new condition, for under $5, including shipping.)

 

[Renee1]

IME, the used book trade is alive and well on the internet

In a way, absolutely. However the current book trade on the internet is not set up for long term sustainability.

 

[thefadedone]

I've never read an eBook. That probably won't change until such time as my eyes can so much more readily read a book on screen than on paper as to justify paying the high cost of ebooks. (Currently, I use the library extensively, and with respect to those authors and books that I know I will re-read, I buy the books used, online. I can almost always find them, in good to new condition, for under $5, including shipping.)

Same here.

 

[das_nut]

I'm currently reading a work of fiction that would be quite difficult to find published. It was free.

Before that, I read some fiction collections that were released for free in ebook format.

I also use long-reads websites and instapaper to send long online articles to my kindle to read later. I also follow some blogs of specialized interest, and use a program to automatically send those blogs to my kindle for reading offline. I do a little bit of borrowing from my public library's ebook lending system as well.

I don't recall the last time I paid for a book on my kindle. Maybe several months ago?

 

[FortyTwo]

On my phone alone I have Les Miserables, On the Origin of Species, The Bible (for reference), Lovecraft's complete works, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (which I believe is like half of the total work of the series), and Dracula. I have more on my iPad, such as a couple H.G. Wells classics. Didn't pay a penny for any of them.

 

[Envy]

On my phone alone I have Les Miserables, On the Origin of Species, The Bible (for reference), Lovecraft's complete works, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (which I believe is like half of the total work of the series), and Dracula. I have more on my iPad, such as a couple H.G. Wells classics. Didn't pay a penny for any of them.

Let me guess, is it for argumentative purposes?