Re: Two Links to Industry Sales and Questions

From: "Anthony Stevens" 

>I just got these two links ..... The second is a commentary followed by a bunch of really good questions:
> 
> http://www.idealog.com/blog/ebook-growth-explosive-serious-disruptions-around-the-corner
> 
> Hope these are useful and stimulate some discussion. Perhaps we'll solve all the problems at once. [wry grin]
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> MAS

;-) First Anthony this debate has been ongoing for awhile, on this list as well as elsewhere.

Reading idealog I am reminded on an old UK radio series - The Brains Trust. On it was Professor C E M Joad. Every answer from him was prefaced with 'It all depends what you mean by...'.

Idealog mixes his statistics like an old alchemist trying to make gold (the search for 'the philosopher's stone'). The solid figures of the moment are about $982m for print books in June and $14m for ebooks. That is 1 1/2%, not 3. There are certainly many unreported ebook sales, but because of POD in particular there are countless unreported print book sales too.

So 'it all depends what you mean by'... Guesses, rumours and beliefs may indicate, but they need to be based on something. And each may work with others or they may not.

His assumptions are very much assumptions, and they fail my test of being made from an understanding of the whole business. Like the conglomerates who bought into book publishing, like many aspiring authors, like Google, he seems to assume that there is a book, and each 'a book' is very much like another. 

To me his questions are just another set from someone who does not realise how massive the growth in titles has been in recent years, how explosive the growth in new publishers and has no concept of what point denotes failure or collapse. In this downturn I forecast that it is the digital side that will have a bigger hiccup than the print. Later it will continue to grow without any sort of knockout blow to print.

If you want to open a new line in this debate why not express your views of those articles, or some other views you have, and see if anyone agrees, disagrees or asks you to explain further.

Joseph

Joseph Harris  -  Debt Control Man
author: Control Your Debt Crisis on Your Own Terms
blog: http://debtcontrolman.wordpress.com
http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk
debt dictionary: http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk/debtwiki/


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