One day, thanks to the iPad and its ilk, they tell us that printed books are dead; the next, this:
But where does this leave us as booksellers, publishers and writers on this, the longest day of the year? How long have we got before a Blogger or WordPress widget offers the same functionality? Is it my imagination, or are the days getting shorter already?
- h/t Paul Wilkinson at Christian Book Shop Talk: Customizing Individual Books from Web Content
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June 21, 2010 at 8:36 am
I think authors will do just fine. Unless the rest of us adapt I think within a generation we will be left behind, in the main.
June 21, 2010 at 9:39 am
I don`t know what to say!!…Just “Quelle Nightmare”!!
(I nearly said “Surfing the isles”)!:-( …But I hope you get my drift!!!
Obviously I`m OLD and Very set in my ways!..But
hopefully once the novelty has worn off…???
But I for one shall still be found in Waterstones and the likes,spending whole days browsing the isles!!
June 21, 2010 at 11:29 am
Personally I’m not looking at this as a negative but as a positive – think how many customers you get in that want a book on a particular subject etc that just isn’t available or printed ;0) well now look at a possible solution.
(for a real idea of a potential way to work with the idea of self-publishing then check out Lukes initiative at the hub!)
we assume too easily the worst, we sound our own death knell and in thinking it we become it – look at the birds of the fields. Yep the object is not to be the Ostrich and bury ourselves in the sand and ignore the oncoming danger, but the object also is to not build the problem up to one bigger than it needs to be, why do the devils work for him?
These are all ways we can grow if we but look at them with excited childs eyes, see the potential and try to grow with it, to make it our ally not our enemy, our friend not our competitor.
At the end of the day I ahve to say that these are hurdles but not killingly high ones, ebooks are still more talked about than utilised, yes that will change but by the degree everyone touts?? Cd’s are still here and still selling.
Self Publishing has been around for quite a long while and yes with things like this,lulu etc it’s getting easier, but you know I carry some of these books for my niche markets and I can and do still sell them in the shop, but one thing I hear most often from those that have gone this way is their disappointment with the quality (and size) of the finished product. Yes maybe in time that will change but for now it’s how it is.
So is this a killing blow? not yet.
Will it be a killing blow? I don’t think so.
I think there are still miles to go before we sleep – and we still have many promises to keep and potential to fulfill, starting now on this the longest day of the year.
June 21, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Agreed wholeheartedly. We need a POD machine in every shop and a deal with publishers to supply the files … could this be the bookshop of the future? Instead of £50,000 of stock languishing on the shelves, we have a machine that outputs on demand…
Customer comes in, looks up the book they want, inserts credit/debit card … moves along to the coffee zone … ping! By the time they’ve finished coffee, their book is printed, bound and maybe even gift-wrapped, ready to take away…
Or if we’re properly networked, it’s printed out on another machine in another shop, a gift for a friend ready to collect…
June 22, 2010 at 8:24 am
Oooooh, I want one!!