Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Book Industry
Technological shocks are known to alter industries. One way is when the new technology changes the way people people can make money providing the product. Take for example TV and radio. When these industries began people struggled with an economic system centered around a product that you could not exclude people from (until they mastered the art of marketing). This is going on today in the journalism industry as well as the book industry. This is an excellent example of the industry trying to change to keep up with technology shocks. These issues are excellent ones for position papers as well.
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CMac MWF 9-9:50
ReplyDeleteThe ebook companies need to compromise or they'll find themselves in the same situation that the music industry was in. If they don't offer lower prices then eventually people will find ways to illegally download them. Also, I'm not entirely sure why the ebook companies are making it difficult on libraries, I think that ebook purchases should be treated the same way tangible book purchases are. Ebooks are also really cheap to manufacture and people can no longer give books to their friends to read or resell; so an ebook should not be just as expensive as a regular book. Ebooks will definitely shock the way the public uses the library and buys its books so publishers should find a way to be rational rather than overcharge because in the end they'll be destroying themselves.
Samantha Anderson
ReplyDeleteMWF 9-9:50
I never really thought about ebooks in a library. After reading this article and seeing that after libraries PURCHASE an ebook it will only be good for one year I am very surprised. Ebooks really need to think of another way to make a profit, while still providing a service that people want. Either way (low prices or not) people will attempt to download and copy things illegally. Lower prices and library access however will certainly limit some illegality.
I believe that the E book providers like MacMillian have a strong argument. They want to preserve their intellectual property and withhold it from libraries. In any event, the more e books become readily available, the less people will go to the library to borrow books. The whole library experience is almost dead, with the emergence of downloading and Kindles, Nooks and other portable reading devices. When the library buys an e book, they can lend it out. This can reduce profit for the E book providers since people rather borrow than spend 10 dollars to download a text. So the whole thing is that Harper Collins and other providers want to continue to generate revenue from E books; with the library having access to them will reduce it.
ReplyDeleteMichelle Zei
ReplyDeleteMWF 10-10:50am
I think that placing a limit on how many times an e book can be checked out is more than fair. E books are the new wave of reading and comparing them to old books is not completely relevant. While old books can be checked out as many times as possible, e books are already cheaper to begin with. Therefore, they can not have the same freedoms as regular books. Furthermore, since e books are a new technology and becoming more and more popular, it only makes sense that publishing companies and authors would want to protect the sale of the product rather than having everyone simply check out e books from the library. They have to make money too. I think libraries are mad because in the future people may start checking more e books out than regular books and since e books are more costly, the libraries will be in trouble.
I feel that ebook companies need to back off and let books remain as they have for hundreds of years. Eventhough ebooks can eliminate the need to purchase textbooks and other educational goods, they will ultimately ruin the essence of the written word. Also, it is incredibly uncomfortable to stare at a screen for a length of time, espically with glare. I don't know too much about the ebook industry except that I will never buy an ebook under any circumstances because I feel technology is overstepping its bounds,and the ebook is a prime culprit. Besides who wants to curl up next to the fire with a rigid ebook?
ReplyDeleteBruce Chubb MWF 10-10:50 AM
Nicholas Poiron
ReplyDeleteMWF 10-10.50
The E-book industry is something that I was unaware of being around for the last decade. I think that they are a great alternative to regular old paper books, although books should never become obsolete. Well anyway, I think that the E-book publishing companies should do whatever they feel is necessary, even if that means raising prices in order to fulfill their desire for profits. Since there is no price floor or ceiling on these prices, I am assuming that eventually the price for E-books will reach equilibrium and everyone will be happy. Besides that though I believe that E-books will be great for the environment. If you think about it, since people dont have to drive to or from the library to take out or return books, there will be less gas consumption and therefore less emissions. It would take less factories to produce the books and that too would lessen emissions. plus it would save people money to not have to take the trip. Then again you would lose jobs in those factories and at libraries that need less man power for less books. It could really go either way.
Zhao Liu
ReplyDeleteMWF 9-9:50
The bottom line is that the publishers need to change their business model. For these publishers who sell these books to libraries is working on the cost leadership strategy, which they try to minimize cost and sell it to customers for cheaper. At this point, they realized that selling it for so cheap cannot make them any money and especially when they look at iPad books and Kindle books.
It is entirely useless if they just sit there and complain about how they should charge more for the books and people can only check it out 14 times before it expires. It was the old system how library functions, which people can read the same copy over and over again, the only difference is now they are able to realize how many times people read these books and they feel bad for not charging them individually.
So instead, they should work on a differentiation strategy, which they should add value to their product before selling it off. For example, like iPad and Kindle, people can carry their books in one small device. Maybe these publishers can offer paid sound systems or any other compliment to their books and sell it that way.
Kyree Lewis
ReplyDelete9:00-9:50 MWF
The article a bout e-books is very convincing and interesting. E-books have the potential to remove the idea of regular hard back books. However it very beneficial in order to collaborate all of technology in order to create more products accessible for consumers.
Nicholas Camaioni
ReplyDeleteMWF 9 - 10 AM
It's hard for people to avoid the forward march of technology. Whether they are seeking the latest cell phone or purchasing the newest gaming system, we are a society that craves what is new and quickly forgets what is old. Yet, there are exceptions to this norm. Two examples of this I see are with music and books. iTunes, Napster, Limewire, and numerous other free and paid file sharing services has all but killed the ability for artists to make money through the selling of albums. It's so much easier for an individual to carry one thousand songs in their I-Pod as opposed to lugging around a case of CDs or Tapes. Despite this, I have seen a growing movement of people seeking Vinyl Records and Tapes, claiming points that they believe the music sounds better and they enjoy the retro feel.
Books will face the same problem as E-Readers and eBooks become more prominent and affordable. Instead of only carrying a single book around with you at any given time, you'll be able to carry an entire library in the palm of your hand. Despite this, I don't see the idea of Hardback books becoming an idea of the distant past. Books will always exist in their traditional form before they are translated into the digital form as long as it is profitable to write in this way. Once it becomes cheaper for an author to simply create a story in the digital format, we could end up seeing libraries of the future as nothing more than Flash-Drives organized in alphabetical form.
This article show concerns on two levels, the author/ publishers and libraries’ point of view. The e-book technology is new and will take time to work out all the kinks, but until that time libraries and publishers need to figure out a convenient system that will be cost-effective for the reader. Libraries want to offer the consumer a low-cost way to borrow e-books that will continue serving the public as if they were borrowing paperback/hardback books. But authors/publishers do not want to lose a profit because the public wants free/low price e-books in libraries. I believe a compromise is in the works, both parties understand the potential on this technology and the advantages of convenience the public demands.
ReplyDeleteTerrie Hawkins