Spot false dilemmas now, ask me how!
(If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much room.)
Just noted this is my 100th post in ranch
happy as my 100th post supports for anti-piracy
No more Blub for me, thank you, Vicar.
Lexington Smith wrote:Piracy is wrong. But, if i was an author and I saw "financially challenged", but intelligent/hardworking kids pirating my books, I would do my best to overlook it. It would be nice if they could buy my books after getting that job at Google or MS
and then donating the books to someone or to a library. But, some folks don't even do that. Sad.
Lexington Smith wrote:Okay, now what about the books that cost $150+ ? In some cases (too many errors, poor style of writing etc) , these costs may be not justified. I guess that piracy is justifiable only in these cases.
[OCP 21 book] | [OCP 17 book] | [OCP 11 book] | [OCA 8 book] [OCP 8 book] [Practice tests book] [Blog] [JavaRanch FAQ] [How To Ask Questions] [Book Promos]
Other Certs: SCEA Part 1, Part 2 & 3, Core Spring 3, TOGAF part 1 and part 2
Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:Why should anyone buy a book with two many errors in it?
Spot false dilemmas now, ask me how!
(If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much room.)
Lexington Smith wrote:But, what I don't understand is why "financially sound" people pirate books, even the "cheap" $20-30 ones. Even those who go to college and don't really need scholarships do not pay for cheap books. Some of these folks spend $180 (yes, 180)
on head phones even when $80 headphones offer similar quality. But, they won't buy 3 cheap books for $90 !
Many birders I know balk at paying $30 or $45 for a bird book full of color images. Yet these selfsame people happily -- and frequently -- spend that much on a single meal or even a bottle of wine at a restaurant. A book, in contrast, can last a lifetime and would seem a far better investment.
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Lexington Smith wrote:Sometimes people pirate only because they need 3-4 chapters of a book. Have authors/publishers ever considered renting/selling only the parts people need ?
Would that work ?
The Sun Certified Java Developer Exam with J2SE 5: paper version from Amazon, PDF from Apress, Online reference: Books 24x7 Personal blog
... is one of those books where it appears nobody edited. Java class/method names and acronyms are used in lower/upper case interchangeably. Writing class names in all lowercase in a Java book doesn't inspire much confidence in the accuracy of the rest of the book. There are many typos and inconsistencies that make it hard to read.
[OCP 21 book] | [OCP 17 book] | [OCP 11 book] | [OCA 8 book] [OCP 8 book] [Practice tests book] [Blog] [JavaRanch FAQ] [How To Ask Questions] [Book Promos]
Other Certs: SCEA Part 1, Part 2 & 3, Core Spring 3, TOGAF part 1 and part 2
Pat Farrell wrote:I expect that the printed book business model is near death, its been dying for a long time. I won't even offer a guess as to when those in the industry recognize that its dead.
"The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to do. The bad news is that they do what you tell them to do." -- Ted Nelson
Jk Robbins wrote:[ I dislike ebooks and will never make the switch. I want a real book to hold in my hands. I can't loan an ebook to a friend or donate it to the library.
Jk Robbins wrote:
I can't loan an ebook to a friend or donate it to the library.
Pat Farrell wrote:
Printed books will exist, but they will be a niche market for the very picky and very rich who demand to hold a real book in their hands.
The economics simply won't support mass market paper books.
Pat Farrell wrote:Printed books will exist, but they will be a niche market for the very picky and very rich who demand to hold a real book in their hands. The economics simply won't support mass market paper books.
Bear Bibeault wrote:Novels I read on my Kindle. Technical books, usually in PDF, don't lend themselves well to that device, but they are brilliant on my iPad. So I use each device to their best advantage.
While print books aren't dead to me, the vast majority of my book purchases in the past two years have been electronic. YMMV.
Greg Charles wrote:Some of them are cheaper. Manning, in particular, gives a pretty nice discount on the electronic versions of their books. For a small fee, you can read your books in the bath, shower, or at the bottom of a swimming pool. Try that with a paper book!
Lexington Smith wrote:
Greg Charles wrote:
Swimming and reading ? Whats next, reading while sleeping ?
Spot false dilemmas now, ask me how!
(If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much room.)
Wendy Gibbons wrote:I refused to buy books on my iPad, they cost the same as a real book
Bear Bibeault wrote:The vast majority of the cost of a book is producing the content, not the printing. Printing is a commodity and isn't even close to the major cost of producing a book.
Spot false dilemmas now, ask me how!
(If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much room.)
Pat Farrell wrote:I can see a day when an author hires an editor and perhaps a layout person, and cuts out all the rest. Then the price would drop by 80% or so
Bear Bibeault wrote:
Pat Farrell wrote:I can see a day when an author hires an editor and perhaps a layout person, and cuts out all the rest. Then the price would drop by 80% or so
As would the book's quality.
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Pat Farrell wrote:
Bear Bibeault wrote:The vast majority of the cost of a book is producing the content, not the printing. Printing is a commodity and isn't even close to the major cost of producing a book.
Depends upon one's definition of "producing the content." I agree, physically printing the book is a tiny amount. But managing the manufacture, shipping and distribution, handling from print to distributor, to wholesaler to retailer, etc. is a big deal that adds a lot of cost. Plus with traditional (dead tree) books, the selection, editing, publishing and advertising are huge costs. Once you take an axe to most of those costs, the value of the publishing house starts to look shakey.
I can see a day when an author hires an editor and perhaps a layout person, and cuts out all the rest. Then the price would drop by 80% or so, and the author would still make more money.
Lexington Smith wrote:I thought of one business model to reduce the costs of books -
Make a large cheap printing company, like a Amazon-7-11 hybrid(call it A7). Set them up like 7-11 all over the place. The 7-11's will mainly store printouts shipped from mega-printing warehouses, with the option of paying extra to get printouts immediately.
Authors can self-publish using A7. A7 could even have an author page where he/she can communicate with readers for errata, feedback etc.
A7 get its cash from all kinds of printouts, banners, flyers and such. Maybe even do custom wedding cards, greetings etc to add sources of cash...any more sources ?
Has this even been tried before ?
Could you please share your thoughts about why do you think so? Other than Author, Editor, Reviewers and Typesettor, what is the contribution of other roles in the quality of the content of a book (specially, technical books). For example, it is difficult for me to imagin the contribution of cover designers, marketers, printers, accountants, assistants, the whole nine yards of running a publishing house, in the quality of content of TAOCP referred above? To me, they just seem to increase the cost of the book.
Movie and books are probably similar only for books meant for entertainment. For technical books, I don't think there is any similarity at all.
Spot false dilemmas now, ask me how!
(If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much room.)
Lexington Smith wrote:Could the authors use something like this ?
Lexington Smith wrote:I thought of one business model to reduce the costs of books -
Make a large cheap printing company, like a Amazon-7-11 hybrid(call it A7). Set them up like 7-11 all over the place. The 7-11's will mainly store printouts shipped from mega-printing warehouses, with the option of paying extra to get printouts immediately.
Authors can self-publish using A7. A7 could even have an author page where he/she can communicate with readers for errata, feedback etc.
A7 get its cash from all kinds of printouts, banners, flyers and such. Maybe even do custom wedding cards, greetings etc to add sources of cash...any more sources ?
Has this even been tried before ?
The Sun Certified Java Developer Exam with J2SE 5: paper version from Amazon, PDF from Apress, Online reference: Books 24x7 Personal blog
Bert Bates wrote:
Could you please share your thoughts about why do you think so? Other than Author, Editor, Reviewers and Typesettor, what is the contribution of other roles in the quality of the content of a book (specially, technical books). For example, it is difficult for me to imagin the contribution of cover designers, marketers, printers, accountants, assistants, the whole nine yards of running a publishing house, in the quality of content of TAOCP referred above? To me, they just seem to increase the cost of the book.
Movie and books are probably similar only for books meant for entertainment. For technical books, I don't think there is any similarity at all.
Well most anytime you get a group of people on any kind of project you end up with accountants and often assistants, so those are a wash.
To me a key factor that publishers bring to the equation is a stamp of quality.
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Spot false dilemmas now, ask me how!
(If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much room.)
Bert Bates wrote:
So my guess would be that if a typical author partnered with a typical editor and self-published, they'd get a mediocre book that no one will ever hear about.
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Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs. |