Books without batteries

[4eyesbooks]

With many people transitioning to the Kindle and the Nook do you think there is still a big market for books without batteries?  Ebooks right now seem to be all the rage, but I expect that especially for children there is something different about holding an actual physical book and turning those pages.  I wonder if the ebook market will drive paperback prices down.  What do you guys think?  Are there others out there who feel that books without batteries will continue to thrive?

[jumbojohnny]

EBooks are a many pronged thing. They are with us because the technology allows them to be with us, but they are also the way forward in paper-saving, so either as we lose more forests or there's just more enthusiasm for paper free products or both, then, 'proper' books will be further marginalised. I am sure they'll be with us a good few generations yet of course, due to the existing paper books and those that will still be printed, but I suspect as we finally reach that techno/space age Tomorrow's World said would be with us by the year 2000 (beef and Yorkshire pud nutrient pills; travelling to work by opening your front door and stepping on a mono-rail to go to work etc), then, many things paper will have met their doom. So a death - but a slow death.

[Todd Trumpet]

I still read "books without batteries"...

...but I tend to get them cheap.  In other words, I can't really think of any paper book nowadays that I'd pay more than $10 for, and most often I pay far less.  [The only recent exception was the final "Harry Potter" book which I bought on the day of release at - of all places - Fry's Electronics for $10.]  As you mentioned, overall book prices seem to be trending downward, what with all the sales and discounts that are readily available.  Further, I've personally found the aftermarket for books (i.e., "used" books) to be at an all-time low.  I buy used books at garage sales, swap meets, thrift stores, etc. and find that $1/book has become the going rate for most hardbacks and trade paperbacks, while mass market paperbacks can be had for $0.50 or lower.  In fact, on more than one occasion, I've come across sellers who just want to get rid of their inventory, and are willing to sell by the bag or box.

In other words, with a little patience, paper books can be had for very cheap.

I don't think they'll entirely disappear, but the advantages of eReaders can't be denied.

- Snail mail gave way to email.
- Film gave way to digital photography.
- The pen gave way to the typewriter gave way to the computer keyboard.

None of these antecedents have completely disappeared...

...but they've all become niche markets.

It's inevitable, too, for "books without batteries".

Todd

[Tony Richards]

There's absolutely no sign as yet of ebooks driving down the price of conventional books ... in fact, the major houses are mostly pricing their ebooks the same as their paper ones. But ebooks now make up around 42% of the total sales of major houses, and that figure is only going to rise. My guess is -- and it's being born out by what is currently happening -- that publishers are going to concentrate more and more on turning out well produced, great looking trade paperbacks for the people who don't like ebooks, and then they're going to throw the entire rest of their effort into new ebook lines. The price of those might well come down owing to stiff competition.

To put it very simply ... 'watch this space.'

[jason10mm]

Whether or not the ecological cost of making a kindle outweighs the impact of the few hundred books read on it over its lifetime is still to be determined, I think. Will landfills be filled with dead electronics instead of biodegradable paper? Forests can be replanted, oil deposites and metal ore, not so much.

I think the tactile feel of a book is a distant second to the immersive quality of the STORY, I think most e-readers quickly let it go after a while. For kids the physical construction of the book with durable thick pages, pop-up figures, different surfaces, etc can be replaced with imbedded audio, video, or hot links to satisfy curiosity in a way a book can not. So there are trade offs, but I certainly feel paper books have a place, especially for young kids. I also feel that current e-readers are a crude ancestor of what we will have in a few years when/if e-books really replace paper books.

[Tony Richards]

I also feel that current e-readers are a crude ancestor of what we will have in a few years when/if e-books really replace paper books.

I honestly don't think paper books are going to disappear for a long while yet. Some people -- including some younger people -- simply prefer them.

[Rook]

I can't imagine paper books disappearing within our lifetimes, but as fewer of them get sold the cost for each will rise, which will mean fewer get sold, and so on... Plus, they are more expensive to create and ship, so I would bet in the next few years publishers will reach a tipping point.

That being said, there are some books which will just never be right in an electronic form. Cook books, for one. Coffee table books, for another. My breakfast readings right now are in a GREAT one called Prehistoric Life by DK publishing-- amazing visuals and diagrams in a book big enough to club a dinosaur that, I'm afraid, would never look anywhere as good on a kindle even if the screen were twice the size.

Bottom line: nobody's going to be throwing out the printing presses any time soon.

[Lursa (aka 9MMare)]

The price of e-books is artificially kept high so that hard copy books dont become irrelevant....or at least irrelevant too soon, before the publishing houses and associated industries can try to restructure in a more moderate fashion.

And as yet, the technology for e-books to reproduce certain types of images, graphics, charts, etc isnt up-to-speed with books, but tablets are changing that pretty quickly.

[Todd Trumpet]

I think the tactile feel of a book is a distant second to the immersive quality of the STORY...

This is an excellent point.

One proof is the number of times a story has been so immersive that I forget I'm holding anything.

Todd

P.S.  BTW, why does KindleBoards flag (red underline) "immersive" as a misspelled word?

[Neil Ostroff]

I think ebooks will become such the norm in school and at home that paperbacks and hardcovers will become more like special occasion gifts than something you purchase to read for entertainment. I also think this is an amazing time to be an author and sell your own books worldwide.

[Dara England]

I believe paper books will always be around. Despite the convenience of my Kindle, I still like to have physical copies of my favorite books on the shelves and I think there will always be people who feel like that. For example, my sister collects leatherbound classics.

[flipside]

Yep.

And right now, print still dominates most of the publishing market.

It's predicted--and that's just a prediction--that eBooks might command 80% of the market but right now, that's not the case.

And coming from someone outside of the US/UK, eBooks for everyone is impractical. (I'm from a third-world country, so...)

[QuantumIguana]

The market for film is significantly reduced, but snail mail and pens are still going strong. It is not so much that we have stopped sending letters, e-mail caused us to communicate more. I still get plenty of paper mail in my box. And pen and paper still sells pretty well. I go through a lot of paper at work. Jotting down notes is more efficient with a pen.

I think paper books will survive, but the market will be smaller. The e-book market can't continue to grow at this rate forever, nothing does. There are a few areas where paper books will have a lasting place. One of them is Bibles. I'm not a religious person myself, but churches by a lot of Bibles for their own use, and people like to give them as gifts. That alone will keep the presses running.

Another market will be children's books. Children are hard on things, and a paper book can is easier to replace than an e-reader.

Another is prisons. I don't think prisons will want to spring for e-readers, there is a high probability that they will disappear, get broken or generally get abuses. Books for prisons will probably remain paper.

[Brad Murgen]

I don't think paper books will ever fully go away.  There will always be a place for them.

[Lursa (aka 9MMare)]

Another market will be children's books. Children are hard on things, and a paper book can is easier to replace than an e-reader.

Another is prisons. I don't think prisons will want to spring for e-readers, there is a high probability that they will disappear, get broken or generally get abuses. Books for prisons will probably remain paper.

Altho I havent thought about prisons, I have thought about small kids and school kids. And already we see very small kids using tablets. And schools giving iPads to students.

In schools and prisons, the object would be for everyone to have one, or access to one, so I dont think theft will be a factor, not to mention that prices will come down below $50 for basic versions, esp. now that we have $79 Kindles. To me, the issue has been durability....esp. for kids. And I see no reason that a more substantial, less breakable version couldnt be made for institutional purposes. They still will be lighter than books!

I think this will have to happen for schools to take full advantage of e-books/tablets (for Internet access).....and most likely will in the next yr or so.

Edited: typos

[history_lover]

I regularly see people on other forums expressing their distaste for ebooks (even though most haven't even tried an eInk ereader) whenever the subject comes up.

[Tony Richards]

I believe paper books will always be around. Despite the convenience of my Kindle, I still like to have physical copies of my favorite books on the shelves and I think there will always be people who feel like that. For example, my sister collects leatherbound classics.

Yes, exactly. This is the point that people who just bang on about new tech superceding old don't get. It is not at all like telegrams being replaced with faxes and then emails. Very few (sane) people had an emotional attachment to telegrams. Loads of people have an emotional attachment to paper books. The feel, the smell, the way a shelf of them fills up a room. The memory of when they first began reading. The joy of owning something rare or very well produced. Maybe all of this will be forgotten by later generations, but for the ones still around it's deeply relevant.

[DevonMoroi]

I don't think kids will value traditional books. Ebooks and tablets and cell phones are simply too interactive. That said, I think paperbacks will continue to do well, at least as print-on-demand titles. Full publication runs seem a bit silly at this point, if only because they're so inefficient. I imagine they'll be a lot like vinyl records; they'll continue to be made, but only for a select audience.

[Atunah]

It will be interesting to see how this all will play out in years ahead. But I don't think Paper will go away quite yet.

There were a couple of survey's done in the Romantic Times Magazine about the usage of ereaders and Paperbooks. I was a little surprised to see the high number of those that do not want an ereader and want to read their books in Paper. I think it was like 60 percent. I don't have the issue in front of me just now. Some are quite adamant in never wanting one either.

I think part of this is that in a genre like Romance, readers tend to read a lot and they tend to share their books with friends and family and the used book market is huge.

For me its more of a matter of being able to read. I can't read Paperbacks easy. The print is small and since I tend to buy mostly used books, they can be a bit yellowed. For my eyes, e ink in particular is just much more easy.

But there are still many backlist books I want to read and the only way I can, will be Paperback.

[Kathelm]

Paper still has its place.  It holds more gravitas, and a greater feeling of permanence.  It also does a better job with images.

For reference material, I'm still all about physical books.  For fiction, it's ebooks, no contest.

[liafairchild]

I think it will be a long time, if ever, that ebooks take over. Even many people with ereaders still like to read from a print book from time to time, including myself.

[acellis]

I agree with JumboJohnny. But, you know what The traditional publishers did it to themselves. Pricing hardbacks out of nearly everyone's reach. Treatng mid-list authors (who were the backbone of their business) horribly.

[DubaiReader]

I can't speak for other countries but, living in Dubai, I'm sad to see the number of traditional bookshops that are closing down.
Amazingly we still have Borders, which has struggled in US and disappeared in UK, perhaps it's just a franchise?
Waterstones has downgraded significantly in UK in recent years.
Our big bookseller, a localy owned business, was up to 4 large stores and in the last 18m has reduced to just one.
My worry is that we soon won't be able to buy print books, there won't be any shops selling them!
Rather like Kodak, who has recently gone out of business.