How Apple -- and Millennials -- Stopped the Rise of eBooks (vox.com) 156
As this decade winds to a close, Vox looks back 10 years to when ebooks "appeared poised to disrupt the publishing industry on a fundamental level."
Analysts confidently predicted that millennials would embrace ebooks with open arms and abandon print books, that ebook sales would keep rising to take up more and more market share, that the price of ebooks would continue to fall, and that publishing would be forever changed. Instead, at the other end of the decade, ebook sales seem to have stabilized at around 20 percent of total book sales, with print sales making up the remaining 80 percent. "Five or 10 years ago," says Andrew Albanese, a senior writer at trade magazine Publishers Weekly and the author of The Battle of $9.99, "you would have thought those numbers would have been reversed."
And in part, Albanese tells Vox in a phone interview, that's because the digital natives of Gen Z and the millennial generation have very little interest in buying ebooks. "They're glued to their phones, they love social media, but when it comes to reading a book, they want John Green in print," he says. The people who are actually buying ebooks? Mostly boomers. "Older readers are glued to their e-readers," says Albanese. "They don't have to go to the bookstore. They can make the font bigger. It's convenient."
Ebooks aren't only selling less than everyone predicted they would at the beginning of the decade. They also cost more than everyone predicted they would -- and consistently, they cost more than their print equivalents... The Department of Justice accused Apple and the Big Six publishing houses of colluding to fix ebook prices against Amazon, and although the DOJ won its case in court, the pricing model that Apple and the publishers created together would continue to dominate the industry, creating unintended ripple effects... "Overnight, because of this conspiracy, ebook prices went from $9.99 to $14.99," says Albanese. "That set the tone for the future of the ebook right there...." While [presiding judge] Cote's sanctions required publishers to briefly modify the agency model so that resellers could set their own prices, within a few years, those sanctions expired. Today, the agency model that Apple developed is once again the standard sales model for ebooks.
And in part, Albanese tells Vox in a phone interview, that's because the digital natives of Gen Z and the millennial generation have very little interest in buying ebooks. "They're glued to their phones, they love social media, but when it comes to reading a book, they want John Green in print," he says. The people who are actually buying ebooks? Mostly boomers. "Older readers are glued to their e-readers," says Albanese. "They don't have to go to the bookstore. They can make the font bigger. It's convenient."
Ebooks aren't only selling less than everyone predicted they would at the beginning of the decade. They also cost more than everyone predicted they would -- and consistently, they cost more than their print equivalents... The Department of Justice accused Apple and the Big Six publishing houses of colluding to fix ebook prices against Amazon, and although the DOJ won its case in court, the pricing model that Apple and the publishers created together would continue to dominate the industry, creating unintended ripple effects... "Overnight, because of this conspiracy, ebook prices went from $9.99 to $14.99," says Albanese. "That set the tone for the future of the ebook right there...." While [presiding judge] Cote's sanctions required publishers to briefly modify the agency model so that resellers could set their own prices, within a few years, those sanctions expired. Today, the agency model that Apple developed is once again the standard sales model for ebooks.
well (Score:2, Troll)
well.. ebooks can cost $0.00 if you know where to look
Re:well (Score:5, Informative)
Unsurprisingly, as this is from Vox, but the article completely misses reality. Ebook sales continue to climb and to increase their share of book sales, but the numbers he's citing only take into account American Association of Publishers numbers. The numbers cited completely ignore [geekwire.com] who sells 45% of eBooks [justpublishingadvice.com], Indies and small presses. The Big 5 are down to publishing only 13% of Amazon's best-seller list.
So yeah, it's true that since the big publishers decided to keep their eBook prices high to try and preserve their print sales, those publishers don't sell as many eBooks as they might. It's also true that many authors prefer 70% royalties to 10% royalties and readers prefer eBook prices in the $2.99-6.99 range instead of "might as well buy the print book" levels. They've both moved their transactions out of tradpub. If you count those sales, eBooks have been outselling print for a few years now and the sales continue to grow.
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I'm seeing eBooks as common, if not more than regular books. Yes, eBooks may be a "boomer" thing, but there is nothing like the convenience of having all your reading available on your device, and oftentimes, you can buy the physical book, get the eBook free or at a discount, so might as well have both.
A lot of eBooks, and good ones are prices well under $10. I've picked up a number of "penny dreadful" anthologies which had medicore writing, but for a cent per story, I can deal with some duds.
The advantag
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A hard drive only requires energy to read and write, you know. It's not like RAM.
A hard drive is always on. It can "sleep", but it's still using electricity. Further, and something I missed, don't forget all the switches and routers needed to transport the "book" to you. Last I looked, they still required electricity.
This is like people saying Linux is free, then we hear all the developers and whatnot are looking for money to keep updating the distros. Just like healthcare, nothing is free.
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All of that energy combined costs some tiny fraction of a cent for storing and distributing the tiny file that is an ebook - close enough to zero to be largely ignored in the discussion. If you have a single ad on the page from which you download the e-book, then the incremental distribution costs are amply covered.
Nothing is free - but a great many things are so cheap that the distinction is almost meaningless. No, Linux development isn't free, even when developers are donating their time for the love of
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This may come as a surprise to you, but the internet does not power up only when you connect to it to download an ebook. The electricity is being used whether your ebook is travelling across it or not.
Also, you recharging your device is not a part of distribution and shipping. if you're going to be that ridiculous, you might as well claim the food that the reader ate and the air they breathed as part of distribution and shipping costs since the reader wouldn't have lived to purchase the ebook without the
Re:well (Score:5, Informative)
Genre matters, though. Indie scifi and fantasy do just fine, whilst indie middle-grade fiction is a wash. (Ask me how I know
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Ask me how I know ...
How do you know? Not a joke, genuinely curious.
Re:well (Score:4, Informative)
He presumably tried writing middle-grade.
The problem with Indie middle-grade is that:
1. Middle-grade readers don't buy their own books as much. Typically it's a parent, teacher, or librarian recommending and/or buying.
2. They sell lots of books via scholastic and school promotions.
3. They are less likely to have expensive electronic devices (although that may be changing).
4. Tradpub has the "awards" locked up. Newberry and such is still important in the middle-grade market.
All of that adds up to a tough sale for Indies in middle-grade, especially compared to say Romance, Sci-Fi, Mystery, etc... where 80-90% of sales are eBooks to people spending their own money.
(Yes, I'm also an author, which is why I also know so much about the market. Even though I write military techno-thrillers, I keep up with the rest.)
Depends where you look (Score:4, Informative)
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It's also true that many authors prefer 70% royalties to 10% royalties
Publishers probably don't... Maybe that's why they keep the price of e-books high: in that market, they set the terms; authors can take it or leave it. But in a thriving e-book market, why would anyone need a publisher? Hire a good editor and proofreader on your own terms and you're good to go.
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Great guy. Love ya, Ogre. (An ironic nickname considering the genre he's editing.)
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So yeah, it's true that since the big publishers decided to keep their eBook prices high to try and preserve their print sales, those publishers don't sell as many eBooks as they might. It's also true that many authors prefer 70% royalties to 10% royalties and readers prefer eBook prices in the $2.99-6.99 range instead of "might as well buy the print book" levels. They've both moved their transactions out of tradpub. If you count those sales, eBooks have been outselling print for a few years now and the sales continue to grow.
And let's not forget, DRM issues and remote deletion of ebooks you bought and paid for [digitaltrends.com] didn't help the cause either. Publishers that play fair with their customers have tended to do well. Publishers (and retailers) that try to micro-manage their customers use of ebooks, not so much.
Re: well (Score:4, Informative)
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I like to pay for ebooks because I want to support the authors I like. And anyway I don't read that many books, so it's not a big spending. But when I see the price of the ebook significantly higher than the print book, it pisses me off and I do pirate it. I don't like being ripped off; like most people I guess.
Yeah, probably the guy you're ripping off is pissed at you. And if you dared to think about it, the high-priced ebook seller isn't ripping you off; you're not being forced to buy what he's selling. Thus, you're the only scumbag in your message.
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Actually a good point: Could the apparent lack of interest in ebooks in the millennial demographic be in part explained by higher piracy rates?
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Better question: Could the apparent lack of interest in ebooks in the millenial demographic be explained by commercial ebooks being a DRM-crippled piece of shit?
I'm a millenial. I read e-books regularly but I make them myself from public domain books on Wikisource. It's just a few lines of Python to convert HTML to DocBook and then apply the open souce XSLT stylesheets to generate Epub and PDF.
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Re: well (Score:2)
Exactly. There is a small percentage that value the portability or zooming features of ebooks but everyone else would rather just have the physical book. Also ebook pricing doesnâ(TM)t take into account the used or discount market. Itâ(TM)s pretty common to see the print book at a significant discount to the ebook version when it should be the opposite.
Local Library (Score:2)
Our local council has an excellent e library. 2 week loans and it’s a free service!
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Exactly that. Is it surprising that 80% of sales are physical? No because I'd guess for every 1 digital sale there's 10 $0.00 discounted items.
Same thing if you consider dvd rentals vs digital set top boxes about 8 yrs back. It'd make you think there was still a market for video stores, till you realize every apple store or whatever download/rent was followed by 20 or so torrented copies. The demand is way way higher than the money going into the system and it's being met by pirated copies, or shared netfli
This decade has been about hating a group (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: This decade has been about hating a group (Score:3)
Well, at the end, it is self-hatred.
After all a generation does not grow in vacuum, detached from parents, society and history. If the millennials failed in some aspects the blame should go to their parents and grandparents too.
Anyway, self-hatred is quite prominent among westerners these days...
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After all a generation does not grow in vacuum, detached from parents, society and history. If the millennials failed in some aspects the blame should go to their parents and grandparents too.
Quite: the participation prize generation (if there is such a thing) didn't award themselves pries for taking part, their parents did.
WTF was that and what was the "insight"? (Score:2)
Or is the hated group supposed to be bibliophiles? Stop looking at me. I only read 241 books this year. None of them were ebooks.
I actually tried to read ebooks. Started trying some years ago, and did manage to finish a few books in electronic form, but never enjoyed the experience, even when the books were well written. Tactile thing? Or just contamination and revulsion because of Amazon's dominance? Can't say enough bad things about Amazon, but the market has spoken and I'm obviously wrong. Can't even do
Re: This decade has been about hating a group (Score:2)
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Re:This decade has been about hating a group (Score:4, Insightful)
Ah, bollocks. Every generation gets a label. The Golden Generation, the Boomers, Gen X, Millennials.
People hate on the Boomers, people hate on the millenials. Nobody hates on the other two.
Some generations are full of cunts, that act like cunts and try to impose their bullshit on others. Of course we're going to hate them.
Doesn't mean that every millennial is a cunt. Just collectively.
Apple? (Score:2)
Headlines. (Score:2)
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Well you know we have to hear from the #1 ebook retailer to know how the biz is going, oh wait ...
eBooks just don't feel right to me (Score:4)
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Re:eBooks just don't feel right to me (Score:4, Insightful)
Huh? The ability to search is the killer app for reference books. Novels are good on e-ink readers, particularly when you need to move them.
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The ability to search is the killer app for reference books.
I agree that searching *should* make it easier for reference material. For some reason though it still feels strange to me.
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When it comes to reference materials, search is really convenient, *after* you've already read the book.
The first time through, though, it's so much easier to "skip around" with a paper book. Plus, with a paper book that you are really familiar with, you develop a bunch of "mental bookmarks", and know approximately where in the book things are. I do this with fiction, too. With my physical books, I know where the good parts are physically located, and can get to them easily. For studying, that kind of famil
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Try a good tablet PDF viewer. Your own highlights and comments in searchable form. Most also have a quick access index so you can jump around.
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I want an e-paper tablet that can display things like datasheets and reference web pages. It needs to be A4 size and have access to files on my local network (SMB). It also needs to be cheap and the battery last for a very long time.
Also I want the moon on the stick, but that's by the by.
These kinds of tablets exist and run Android, but are expensive. Technology Connections on YouTube bought a couple and reviewed them. He uses one to edit scripts.
Kindle Paperwhite a game changer for novels (Score:4, Insightful)
I really tried to use eBooks on everything from a Kindle, to an iPad, to laptops, but it just never felt "right". I just couldn't get used to reading print from a screen for long periods of time. I still prefer good old-fashioned books, especially when it comes to technical reads such as programming bibles. I feel that I can find information quicker and easier with a paper book than I can with an eBook. Perhaps I'm just showing my age?
I largely agree. However for plain ordinary books with just text the Kindle Paperwhite was a breakthrough for me. The first device I could read novels on hour after hour comfortably, felt just like paper in that regard.
Technical books I still lean towards paper. For ones I may need on the road (i.e. work) I will use an iPad so that graphics and illustrations are readable. Fortunately I've read the book on paper so I am just briefly looking something up on the iPad so its all short duration stuff. But that's about it for a traditional tablet.
Re:eBooks just don't feel right to me (Score:5, Insightful)
Its because ereaders don't do book-quality typography.
With a good book you get things like ligatures, paragraph-optimized justification, hanging punctuation, and optically-sized margins. All of these little things work together to make reading easier, and a reader will never even notice. When you try an ereader and these things are gone, at best you can tell something is wrong but can't quite put your finger on it, and at worst the experience has really obvious warts.
These things are totally possible to do automatically, but the ereader companies don't seem to care enough and would rather just present what is basically a website.
Wrong: How Greed Stopped the Rise of eBooks (Score:5, Funny)
The issue was never the content, it was the absurd price of it compounded by low wages.
Selling e-books that only works on a particular reader (which is expensive to start with) and then price it at 95% of the price for the physical object then you are going to deter people. They made e-books expensive and they loaded them with DRM all while knowing that they would sell fewer but net a higher profit.
On top of this, the generations with the lowest wages aren't about to start throwing money at everything because they don't have money to throw. Boomers can keep crying about how Millennials are "ruining" everything but the honest truth is they created this problem (and several others).
There is no mystery to what stopped the rise of e-books, it was and still is greed.
Re:Wrong: How Greed Stopped the Rise of eBooks (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wrong: How Greed Stopped the Rise of eBooks (Score:5, Informative)
As a "Boomer glued to an eBookReader" I started with eBooks about 10 years ago (when the "HD" era began on eInk-Displays). And 10 years further I'll be able to read those eBooks from 10 years ago just fine (or in 20 years...).
There's a reason for this and this reason isn't a pleasant one: from the fist purchase on I've stripped all DRM (which is forbidden) and changed all deviant formats to epub. That means in consequence the whole consume of eBooks is basically self-service - the market does not support this technique. It is possible and a working solution (for me) just because of -1- incredible software package: Calibre. As long as Calibre is working, consuming eBooks is possible.
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The only eBooks I'ma ware of that have DRM are Amazon kindles. ... perhaps you want to visit http://gutenberg.org/ [gutenberg.org] once ...
All others are simply *.epubs
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Kindles are the only e-readers that *don't* support epub. Quite deliberately though. If they supported epub, people might be able to buy or obtain their ebooks from someone other than Amazon, and Amazon isn't going to let that happen easily.
I tried to buy an e-reader on Amazon just last week. Interesting observation: If you search for "nook" or "kobo" on Amazon, most of the results it returns are for the Kindle. Even when you are explicitly searching for someone else's brand, Amazon search will still helpfu
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I like my Kobo, and I have a Nook, too.
Background is: they both run Linux and not a castrated Android. You can root them and make funny toys with them. And as ebook readers they are ok. Kindle, at least the App, simply sucks in my eyes (I have(had) a kindle app on my android tablet(iPad) ... incredible primitiv).
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as the previous post said: Calibre. Problem solved. ebooks aren't just for boomers, anyone moderately technical could in a few minutes find out calibre or the like exist can easily cross convert files and discover torrents and never pay for books again. Or buy undrm'd books from whatever store they want and convert it to their kindle. Or heck comparison shop ebook readers and have bought something not a kindle in the first place.
My mother is a boomer and she has a technical son. So she hands me her device,
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pretty sure you don't: https://www.amazon.com/All-new... [amazon.com]
epub not supported even on new devices. If you use a book manager like Calibre probably what's happening is it's converting it to the format that will work (mobi probably) automatically when you send it to your device. Which leads to the guy you were replying to: its a very minor problem one that anyone moderately technical or hell just trying to manage their book collection would end up solving by accident. Equivalent to wanting to upload a pic but ca
That's pretty much why I buy only paper (Score:2)
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I am in development, i have seen standard change and morph and i expect them to further change and morph, and i expect fully current ebook to be "obsoleted" at some point to force a new buy in.
Ebooks are simple to convert into other formats (epub/mobi/...). As long as no DRM is involved, it will always be possible to write a converter.
Re:Wrong: How Greed Stopped the Rise of eBooks (Score:4, Insightful)
Hmm, let me see, $15 for a single DRM infected eBook or $0 to download 100k_ebooks.torrent that will work on any device forever.
This is a hard one.
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That is where my thoughts went too.
The ebooks I have read are public domain. Most recently Jane Austen. No DRM there.
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"Selling e-books that only works on a particular reader (which is expensive to start with)"
You can get a 7inch Fire for Fifty bucks brand new - how is that expensive.
and of course you can use it as an internet tablet too.
Of course there is also a free reader app for your android phone and PC .
Some Kindle eBooks are $3 or less
But the big thing for me is being able to read in a slighly larger font, white text on a black background. (I have vision problems)
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What file format are these DRM ebooks? I've ever only seen .mobi and .epub files.
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Cause and effect? (Score:3)
Ebooks aren't only selling less than everyone predicted they would at the beginning of the decade. They also cost more than everyone predicted they would -- and consistently, they cost more than their print equivalents
I don't think those are independent of each other. I've stopped buying most mainstream books as eBooks, I refuse to pay more for an eBook than a paper book.... and when I do buy, I buy a used copy. Pretty much the only eBooks i purchase are from small independent/self-publishing sites like Smashwords, though I also enjoy reading (or re-reading) many of the classics from https://www.gutenberg.org/ [gutenberg.org] as eBooks
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These people live in some bizarre world where people will lock themselves in to their platform and pay even more for "convenience" or something.
Even the mad bastards at the MPAA didn't think they could charge MORE for a broken DRMed copy of an album than for the CD.
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Ebooks aren't only selling less than everyone predicted they would at the beginning of the decade. They also cost more than everyone predicted they would -- and consistently, they cost more than their print equivalents
I don't think those are independent of each other. I've stopped buying most mainstream books as eBooks, I refuse to pay more for an eBook than a paper book.... and when I do buy, I buy a used copy.
Yep, that's how I fight back against excessively high prices, both digital and dead tree: Used books.
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There's this policy (Amazon, etc.) that you can "lend" some (but not all) eBooks out once in a lifetime for, I think, two weeks. And that's it.
So I go for used paper books whenever possible, which is almost always.
From one who loves ebooks... (Score:2)
I was skeptical back in the early 2000's when e-readers first appeared. However I was avoiding reading, I didn't want to buy books (just more 'stuff', and sucks when moving), and the library was more of a rental model, since it could vary greatly week-to-week how much time I actually had to read.
Stopped in a local Sony store and took a look at their reader, and was instantly hooked. That model was a bit slower to turn pages, but was still pretty fast, and the text was great to read.
Bought a newer model seve
It's Simple Economics (Score:2)
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Most eBooks, especially on Apples's iTunes: cost nothing.
As much as I'd like to blame Amazon and Apple (Score:3)
The fault really lies with the actual "Publishers".
They took the easy way out, instead of creating a common industry interface for purchase themselves, and let Apple and Amazon do all the heavy lifting for a few percent of the profits.
If the publishers hadn't avoided the whole sales part of e-books, prices would have probably fallen quite a bit, as there would have been some actual competition.
Re:As much as I'd like to blame Amazon and Apple (Score:5, Informative)
No, prices will not have fallen.
The reason ebooks are expensive is because books are expensive. The actual electrons part versus having to ship deadtree around is extremely low - over the course of printing, warehousing, shipping, retailing, etc, the total cost of all that per book amounts to well under 10% - usually a couple of bucks tops.
We've had centuries of experience of moving books around efficiently and cheaply that it doesn't cost too much. Most of the cost is in retailer markups - there's a reason why Amazon can offer 40% discount on books - the retailer markup is around 100% so even discounting 40% Amazon still makes money over the wholesale price (Amazon's "retail" price would be 200% of what it costs Amazon to buy it from the publisher. thus a 40% discount still means Amazon makes money. If Amazon discounted it 50%, they'd be selling at wholesale price).
Since such discounts are extremely common with print books, you can't really discount the ebook any less - the wholesale price would be slightly slower due to not needing to ship or warehouse, but it's so efficient you're saving a dollar or two over the print version. So in the end, you're not saving too much more money, but getting things much worse with DRM and all that.
And don't forget while Amazon is discounting 40%, that's because they're doing it on volume - they can order 100 pallets of the book and sell basically 99 of them at 40% discount making money, and the last pallet will be sold at milder discounts of 20% or so because it's off the "new list". So Amazon is moving the physical product quickly to get cashflow going and quick profits. The ebook will often not be discounted - if you're so impatient to read it you probably will just pay full price over buying the "inconvenient" paper version.
It's just how the market works - Amazon doesn't need to discount the electronic version as much because people will pay the increased prices (and it costs little for Amazon), while Amazon moving 99 pallets of a book quickly generates quick profits and cashflow and frees up warehouse space. In other words, physical books are efficient, but still cost money to store and can represent money locked up in inventory. Ebooks cost barely anything to store, and Amazon doesn't buy 10 million copies of an ebook that sit on a virtual shelf - they just pay the publisher every time someone buys the book, so it's not even tying up any cash.
yeah bullshit, many predicted it (Score:2)
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if yo prefer physical books, why are yo posting in an eBooks thread? You could have saved your time, our time reading your comment and my time responding ... oh ... why did I actually respond ....
Re: yeah bullshit, many predicted it (Score:2)
Your paperwhite reader *also* takes at least 500ms to flip pages, and is damn-near IMPOSSIBLE to read technical books on because flipping between 2 pages (to refer to a diagram discussed on an adjacent page) is so slow & mentally-jarring, you forget what you just read by the time the other page is finally visible.
Ebook readers just plain suck for tech books. They're too small & low-res to comfortably view facing pages side by side, and Android e-readers rarely implement 2-up viewing well... when the
Re: yeah bullshit, many predicted it (Score:2)
You have pretty much described my iPad Pro. Other than being Android/Windows of course. Itâ(TM)s performance is exactly what your describing.
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Re: yeah bullshit, many predicted it (Score:2)
Digital Copies (Score:2)
I for one use the library. It's free, I can get on a list for new releases, and they do digital books/delivery too. I only buy books that I know I will want to keep in my personal collection. Similar to how I prefer CD over MP3, or IF I REALLY LIKE the band/artist i'll go for the vinyl.
I want a physical copy of a book and in hardcover please. Convenience is great until one day the service is gone or your ebooks are lost A book in hand can last hundreds of years. Don/t need to plug it in, powe
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'IF I REALLY LIKE the band/artist i'll go for the vinyl.'
So you prefer less dynamic range and a higher S/N ratio that exponentially degrades each time you use it in comparison to a CD or a lossless codex. I mean you're not buying half-speed masters on virgin vinyl these days [even they don't have equal quality to a CD].
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Dynamic range is useless on a CD when its normalized to 100%. A good example was the release Depeche Mode had in 2005. People posted screenshots of the vinyl compred to the CD versions. See https://www.diyaudio.com/forum... [diyaudio.com]
I listen to the music, not the imperfections of the medium.
Three words: "Digital Restrictions Management" (Score:2)
This is what kills digital culture.
period !
Fuck them all to Hell (Score:2)
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People are really good at rationalizing, and always cast themselves as a hero.
I like independent bookshops (Score:2)
Publishers trying to have their cake and eat it to (Score:3)
Ah, see. That's due to publishers lying through their teeth about what it is they're selling. If you buy a paper book and make photocopies of it to give to your friend, they'll scream that you can't do that! You didn't buy a book, you only bought a license for the content in the book. And the copyright to that content still belongs to them, so you can't make physical copies of it to give to anyone else.
But if you say fine, then let me buy a license to the content of the book, they'll turn around and tell you that it'll cost you more since it's a virtual copy instead of a physical one. Regular people get this, which is why most people refuse to buy an ebook which costs more than the paper version. It's the publishers trying to live in a fantasy world where books are licenses when it comes to buyers making copies so physical and virtual books are the same. But physical and virtual books are somehow different when it comes to setting prices.
You can't have it both ways. Either people are buying a book (and can make photocopies or virtual copies of it if they want), or they're buying a license (and the price will be the same regardless of format, maybe charge extra for materials for a physical copy).
Yes and no.. (Score:2)
I love my ereader because of the sheer number of books I can carry in one device, and the ability to change font size, ( old eyes suck!) I really wish there was a cheap 10 inch ereader available!
Both my kids won't touch it with a barge pole, they like the tactile nature of books.!
I suppose it goes hand in hand with vinyls resurgence.
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I really wish there was a cheap 10 inch ereader available!
I use exactly that, the iPad Pro. And if you want, there is a 12" version.
Okay, new ones are not cheap, but used ones, just as good for ereading, are.
Depends on the book (Score:3)
Today on the millennial death count... (Score:2)
Millenials are killing... flips page ebooks?
Aren't these the same millenials that killed traditional books a few years ago?
Boomer thing? (Score:2)
So, placing a huge library (mostly tech books which change rapidly), at lower cost of ownership, on a tablet or e-reader is a âoeboomerâ thing? Sorry, it sounds like a wise use of money.
I reserve purchasing a paperback or hardback book for literary works that I want to keep and display (after reading) on my bookshelves.
My boys, all in their 20â(TM)s are prolific readers and spent a lot of time growing up with paper purchases borrowed from the library.
Itâ(TM)s not a generational thing.
ageist troll (Score:2)
Here's an example of leveraging hate, ageism in this case, for clicks. This is what we need to reject, not patronize.
The success/failure of ebooks has nothing to do with any "actions" taken by millennials nor is it representative of any victory by one age group over another.
Also, the article linked to support "Analysts confidently predicted that millennials would embrace ebooks" says no such thing. Millennials aren't even referenced.
Lizard-brained trash, nothing more.
OK, I'm a boomer (Score:4, Insightful)
The people who are actually buying ebooks? Mostly boomers. "Older readers are glued to their e-readers," says Albanese. "They don't have to go to the bookstore. They can make the font bigger. It's convenient."
I can't speak for the overall validity of the author's stats, but his is exactly how I switched. In 2007 when I retired, we sold the city house and moved into the smaller mountain retreat. We no longer had room for thousands of books accumulated over the years, most of which we realized had only been read once, so we took the e-book plunge and haven't looked back since. E-books are just so much more convenient in all ways. I like being able to use a tablet most of the time but being able to knock off a chapter or two on the phone when I find myself standing in line for something, while Kindle automatically keeps track of where I left off on each device. I love living in the future.
If there really is a lag in e-book adoption, blame those fixed high prices. I often see the paperback being cheaper than the Kindle edition. Become aquainted with subscription plans, and free library borrowing through Libby/Overdrive.
ebooks are crap (Score:2)
No more screens (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Publishers set their eBook prices on Amazon. Amazon doesn't. The Big 5 publishers set their eBook prices high enough to try and make their print prices look okay by comparison. You can't blame Amazon for their prices. Amazon sued to keep them from price-fixing to set higher prices with Apple.
This article is crap. It's only about tradpub. Indie and small press now account for most of the eBook sales. That's in part because they price their stuff reasonably, well below tradpub's attempts to preserve their dis
Re:A big Fuck Ya'll for blaming Apple (Score:5, Informative)
This comment is just about as wrong as you could get - Apple was the one trying to control pricing, by requiring publishers to not have cheaper prices anywhere else, forcing them to raise prices elsewhere (because Apple charges through the nose for the privilege of listing books on their service). Overnight ebook prices rose - not because Amazon did anything, but because Apple did.
Add to that the fact that Apples ebook system absolutely sucks, it’s ebook store is utterly abysmal if you want to actually find anything - I heavily read ebooks and tend to avoid Apples offering these days, despite all my devices being Apple.
Apple was never “competing fairly”, that’s a fantasy.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple was the one trying to control pricing, by requiring publishers to not have cheaper prices anywhere else, forcing them to raise prices elsewhere ...
How do you come to that stupid idea? That is illegal all over the world
Re:A big Fuck Ya'll for blaming Apple (Score:4, Informative)
It was a stupid idea, but Apple did it anyway. That's why they lost a lawsuit over it [wikipedia.org] and were fined $450 million.
Re: (Score:3)
Add to that the fact that Apples ebook system absolutely sucks, itâ(TM)s ebook store is utterly abysmal if you want to actually find anything ...
You are completely out of your league.
Apples iTune/eBook store is the biggest on the planet
Re: (Score:2)
Your turn for Apple.
Re:A big Fuck Ya'll for blaming Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps toss some brickbats at Microsoft? (Score:2)
I wonder if Microsoft getting out of the eBook market (and thus any DRM-ed pubs purchased under them became useless) had something to do with this. As with anything DRM-ed, you are at the mercy of the DRM provider.
Re: (Score:2)
Amazon does not set the price, the author does.
Re: (Score:3)