The Death of Print

reply to post by Grifter42


I have hundreds of books and could get any book i wanted on my phone something i take with me anywhere and no one would steal it.. I don' tneed paper.. I think paper should be reserved for important historical documents only from now on and stop making it all together and stop killing trees i tmakes no sense.

reply to post by Grifter42


"You'd keep it down to a fourth grade reading level so the proles can understand their prolefeed. Next, you'd cut education to the bone so literacy suffers for it, "


here in New Zealand they have already taken Shakespeare out of the school curriculum and replaced him with Raybon Kan, a NZ comedian. Even Raybon Kan couldn't believe it.

Nothing compares to a real book! You can find them for like .50 cents to a few bucks at the most in second hand stores, yard sales and flea markets. You can trade with friends or donate to the poor when you're through with them. I read every single day and love getting lost in the pages of a good story.

You know, I was thinking about this earlier today while cleaning out my garage. I have a smallish library of books, ! 300 total. I was thinking how hard it would be to go out and replace the physical books in this day and age. Aside from that, how many people do you see with a book in hand, rather than a tablet, laptop, or other electronic media? It is like someone else mentioned in this thread... It is a lot easier to destroy/ erase computer files than a real book. Plus, with electronic books it is hundreds of times easier to change things in the text, than it is to recall or reprint a book with a glaring alteration.

I fear within a generation or two books as we know them will effectively cease to be produced in mass quantities.

You should see my house, we could start our own small library and I'm being literal. When me and my then boyfriend, now husband moved out on our own, he gave me so much crap about all the stuff I moved with. I really didn't have much stuff, I just had more than he did. Then ohhh 10 years later his mother showed up with about 20 boxes of books that he left behind at home. Hubby buys books like a chain smoker buys smokes and now our third son has become just like his dad. He has enough of his own books to fill a few book cases.

I think it's because they can max profits on books better like that....think about it, digital copies are slightly cheaper than the print version, but not by much. Think how much they save in raw materials not having to buy ink, paper ect.
Another good example is CDs...Digital copies are about $1 average; if I remember right there used to be about 20 songs to an album (probably less these days) If you get a whole album on download, you roughly spent what the CD costs (or more) but it's not like they have to invest hardly anything in shipping, packing, manufacturing, raw materials, ect.
Not condoning or suggesting, but no wonder some people want to stick it to them by pirating this stuff online. There's nothing wrong with making a buck, but way to bend customers over.

I love paper books, always have.

But I tell you this right now.

The Publishing industry is in it's death throes.

Linky 1

Linky 2

Both of these are literary agents. If you wanted to get a book published in the old days, you approached a Publisher. Now you have to approach an Agent first then they approach a publisher on your behalf. These two Agents in the linkys have not had their doors open to new Authors in a year! It seems Publishers are having a hard time.

Sure, if your Mum and Dad own a publishing company, you can get Published. If you know someone in the industry you may get published. If you are a well known Author, you can get Published. For the remainder of new Authors, good luck!

The entire industry is beset by nameless people who think they can tell a good yarn, type it up on the computer in a week and hey, send it in! Many of these even have their own take on spelling and grammar.

As long as the industry continues to resist change and not explore new models they will go down the drain. What you will have left is the e-book market. An Author may make $1.00 a book from a Publisher. They can make four times that through e-books.

Unless the industry changes it is doomed.

P

LOVE books. The physical kind that I can hold in my hand. I do read from a device or the computer at times but I still much prefer to get comfy with a good ol' fashioned printed book. I'm running out of material to read though!

I....need.....more....booooks.....

I quite enjoy my kindle. I read more now than many years back before the net frankly. its convenient, I download and in a instant start reading, voila.

I think print is indeed dying..and will one day be seen as cave paintings...not too soon, but eventually.

and no big loss. e-readers are becoming cheaper and better. eventually will be able to charge via solar power and never have to worry about powering up again

Originally posted by pheonix358
I love paper books, always have.

But I tell you this right now.

The Publishing industry is in it's death throes.

Linky 1

Linky 2

Both of these are literary agents. If you wanted to get a book published in the old days, you approached a Publisher. Now you have to approach an Agent first then they approach a publisher on your behalf. These two Agents in the linkys have not had their doors open to new Authors in a year! It seems Publishers are having a hard time.

Sure, if your Mum and Dad own a publishing company, you can get Published. If you know someone in the industry you may get published. If you are a well known Author, you can get Published. For the remainder of new Authors, good luck!

The entire industry is beset by nameless people who think they can tell a good yarn, type it up on the computer in a week and hey, send it in! Many of these even have their own take on spelling and grammar.

As long as the industry continues to resist change and not explore new models they will go down the drain. What you will have left is the e-book market. An Author may make $1.00 a book from a Publisher. They can make four times that through e-books.

Unless the industry changes it is doomed.

P

Which is another bonus for ereaders.
Some of my favorite authors are indie authors from amazon that decided to forego the whole looking for publishing and all that nonsense..just write it, self publish, voila. How it should be imo.

reply to post by SaturnFX


I am thinking of heading that way myself, as an author. The old way is just impossible!

P

I love the feel, smell and looks of old books.
Never going to stop buying them!

reply to post by Grifter42


I've not yet read the replies in this thread, so forgive me if this has already been put forward, but I have a much more sinister hypothesis. Its something I've thought of and am concerned about.

Imagine when a few generations into the future, after everything is accessed on the cloud, generations who grew up on books are old or dead, and print is a thing of the past.

What will happen if something were to happen to the cloud, say a virus, EMP, or some other sort of equipment failure that led to its destruction. Or even access to electricity being cut. We would end up right back in the stone age. We would lose all of our collective knowledge. With no printed records that do not need power to read, we would be right back to square one. Which lets face it, would be of significant benefit to the elite, who want ultimate control over us all.

After a few more generations, everything would become mythology again. The elite would become gods again. And the cycle will repeat. There are still some religions and governments that operate on the principle of limiting knowledge that its followers are entitled to, which gives the leaders significant power over their subjects, even in this "informed" world we live in, so imagine how it would be with the information gone.

reply to post by Hellas


Well they are trying to get rid of that too, where do your wages go when you get paid. Into a bank Yes?
And you can buy online (electrical transaction),or you can use a plastic card to take physical money out of an ATM
(For a cost) and purchase something in a shop.
But its not that big a stretch that one day, physical money is gone and all your savings are in a card or worse tied to a barcode on your arm.
When that happens those outside their paradigm will be screwed. No Barcode no food and then you have to live outside the law to survive.
Science Fiction? Maybe.

reply to post by Firefly_


All part of the Master plan I'm afraid.

reply to post by pheonix358


You are right, Printing companies have vanished in the last 15 years. I know as I have been retrenched half a dozen times due to the Printing company closing its doors.
Electronic media has taken over and with it the correct use of the written word.
Most young people today have no idea how to formulate a sentence let alone write a novel.
My seventeen year old daughter and her friends can somehow fit the word "like"" into a sentence more times than I care to think about.
To see ""You are"" written as UR etc, makes me cringe every time I see it.
What will it be like in 25 years time? Can you imagine reading a book written like that.

reply to post by pheonix358


With respect,

How big are these two literary agents? Are they not seeking submissions because they are swamped with Harry Potter wannabes? Maybe they've already got the money-makers they need for this year.

I worked in the literary world for a while, and learned that it is now all about money-what book will make the most cash as fast as possible? That's what gets published. Not good writing (although some of what is published is good), not that which is good for the mind, heart and soul, but whatever is most lucrative.

I mentioned Harry Potter-prime example. Big, fat books can command a higher price. Books with sequels guarantee that people keep coming back for more. The series is aimed at the segment of the population that reads and has the most disposable income.

Publishers used to cultivate realtionships with authors, nourishing them, encouraging them. Now, they ask you: "Are you marketable?" If not, tough luck.

What happened is that giant corporations began buying the small book companies. These corporations were used to seeing large returns on thier investments, and the return on books is very small. So the publishing companies fired a lot of their "mid-list" authors and concentrated on finding and promoting superstars. The majority of books published in America are from just six companies, and from less than twenty authors.

People buy what they are told to buy from the media or thier friends and family. So advertising budgets are spent to promote a certain book, and everyone hears about it, and goes and buys it. The companies could spend that money on any decent author and get the same effect.

What blew my mind was when I learned that the New York Times Best Seller list-the defining list of what is hot in the publishing world-is based on projected, not actual sales. They have formulas based on previous marketing of similar books, and they plug these in and make predictions. If a book makes the list, it's because the NYT thinks it will, and of course, it does, because everyone sees it on the list and thinks, "oh. it must be good."

So what you end up with are American libraries throwing out classics like Thomas Hardy to make room for J.K. Rowling. (Yes, this really happened, look it up.)

What you should do is buy as many physical books as possible, read them, keep the good ones, and pass them on to your children. Read stories to them every night. Give books as gifts.

We may see a return to the Dark Ages, where only a few people know how to read. I plan to have my descendants counted among those people, because they will have an advantage.

When I was out of work for a few months last year, I was lucky enough to be gifted a collection of assorted e-books.
Soon, I was joyfully reading a book or two a day and was able to broaden my horizons in terms of what I used to read. These were books on subjects I never had the opportunity to read before because when I bought a book, I tended to purchase a book that I was really interested in ie. Science Fiction.

I love books but they are too expensive to buy and very expensive in terms of environmental impact. Consider the following excerpt from a recent article:

The more eBooks read on a single eReader, the greater the potential offset vs paper books. Depending on who you believe and what is being compared, that might be 20-100 paper books for equivalent CO2 emissions, or 40-70 paper books taking into account other impacts like fuel, water, minerals and human health. But that does not mean either has an impact that is good – both can improve;

Link to Article

Here is a quote from an eye-opening article on the environmental effects of the pulp and paper industry:

Pulp pollution is a serious problem. Pulp and paper mills pollute our water, air, and soil. The pulp and paper industry is one of the largest and most polluting industries in the world; it is the third most polluting industry in North America. There are about 500 kraft mills (including about 45 in Canada and 100 in the US), and many thousands of other types of pulp and paper mills, in the world. Primary concerns include the use of chlorine-based bleaches and resultant toxic emissions to air, water, and soil. With global annual growth forecast at 2.5%, the industry, and its negative impacts, could double every 28 years. People need paper products and we need sustainable, environmentally safe production.

Link

Man if print disappeared what would I get for my birthday or x-mas? For x-mas I received a hardcover complete works of HP Lovecraft Once I get done reading it my dad wants to read it. If you think that kindles and e-books are green then you are mistaken. The components for these toys are not made by rubbing two sticks together. Look into the threads about minerals in Afghanistan. Those are some of the components for our high tech toys. Our hunger for these devices will cause worse environmental damage than deforestation.

Originally posted by Snsoc
reply to post by pheonix358

 

With respect,

How big are these two literary agents? Are they not seeking submissions because they are swamped with Harry Potter wannabes? Maybe they've already got the money-makers they need for this year.

snip

Yes these two are big, but, they are only examples. The whole industry is going down the same path. It is next to impossible to get the industry to read a proposal let alone publish one.

This is why the industry is dying. You are correct, the only thing they want is a best seller and they are swamped, very much so. They need a new business model, sadly, they are on their way out and some within the industry do not see it, others do and bemoan the situation while doing nothing.

Books will always be around, but new work is increasingly only coming out in e-book format because that is the only choice!

P