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from the there's-nothing-like-the-smell-of-pixels-on-silicon dept.
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Nielsen survey finds UK ebook sales declined by 4% in 2016, the second consecutive year digital has shrunk
[...] The shift was attributed to the explosion in adult colouring books, as well as a year of high-profile fiction releases, including The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. "Readers take a pleasure in a physical book that does not translate well on to digital," the Publishers Association report read.
But Nielsen's survey of 2016 attributed the increase in print sales to children's fiction and to younger generations preferring physical books to e-readers. A 2013 survey by the youth research agency Voxburner found that 62% of 16- to 24-year-olds preferred print books to ebooks. The most popular reason given was: "I like to hold the product." While Nielsen found that 50% of all fiction sales were in ebook format, only 4% of children's fiction was digital.
Steve Bohme, research director at Nielsen Book Research UK, who presented the data on Monday ahead of this year's London book fair, said young people were using books as a break from their devices or social media. "We are seeing that books are a respite, particularly for young people who are so busy digitally," he said.
(Score: 1) by Soylentbob on Thursday March 16 2017, @09:24AM (3 children)
Call me weirdo (or preferably, don't), but actually I'm fine with paying for my books. There are few readers I really like (e.g. Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Isaak Asimov, Neil Gaiman; previously: Stephen King, J.K. Rowling), and I want them to be able to life from their book-selling because I want them to stay motivated to write more good books (those still alive from that list). I checked a couple of less famous authors, and every once in a while do again, but somehow I never found any gem where the story flows as well as with the real famous ones.
I just agree with the dead-tree fans, that after buying it, I should own it, and an ebook-reader worth its name should be able to properly support any ebook-format worth its name.
What really bugs me is that, just like with movies, the paying customer is always at a disadvantage (beyond losing the money). I could buy the paperback edition and afterwards download pirated version with halfway good conscience, but would feel stupid for contributing to the pollution (ink, water usage, transport, wood) to put a product in my house which I don't actually want. I can buy the e-book version, but have to deal with conversion tools, half-legal drm-hacking tools, often requiring Windows VM (On Linux, I can not convert an Amazon ebook to unencrypted epub.), and whatnot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 16 2017, @10:37AM (1 child)
Call me weirdo (or preferably, don't), but actually I'm fine with paying for my books.
Most people are. It's not the paying that's the problem. It's being treated like a thief afterwards.
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(Plug: I don't have an e-reader, but if you like SF and fantasy, I've heard very good things about e-books from Baen Books [baen.com]:
Digital rights management restricts the number of formats in which you can enjoy electronic media you have purchased. At Baen, we believe that when you purchase an Ebook, you should be able to access that book however you choose. For that reason, we sell only DRM-free Ebooks -- when you purchase one you have access to any and all formats we offer.
I do have about a dozen of their dead-tree format books.)
(Score: 1) by Soylentbob on Thursday March 16 2017, @10:52AM
Yes, I read about them as well, but didn't find any of my favourite authors there.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday March 16 2017, @01:09PM
> I'm fine with paying
Pretty much everyone is fine with authors making a living. It is the means that we do not like. You don't like it either. (I note that half the authors on your list are dead, Asimov for 25 years now, surely it should be okay to release their works to the public domain? And 2 of the living ones are the most famous and wealthiest authors in the world, they don't need any financial help.)
> feel stupid for contributing to the pollution (ink, water usage, transport, wood) to put a product in my house which I don't actually want.... have to deal with conversion tools, half-legal drm-hacking tools
We should all be feeling stupid for not empowering or even allowing ourselves and our public libraries to fully use digital technology. It's insane that libraries are forced to waste lots of taxpayer money maintaining print collections, with all the limitations. The little they are allowed to do digitally is artificially crippled with restrictions which serve no purpose other than to attempt to force digital media to conform to the limitations of print, for the sake of an obsolete business model. DRM on ebooks and e-readers is indeed quite stupid. We should lean harder on publishers to get with the times and modernize their business model. It really is only the will of the people that lets these publishers continue to abuse us, as if we're parents who will not discipline our ill-mannered children, falling for their childish complaints that they're at a disadvantage and therefore they should be allowed to cheat in games, beat up others, steal from them, and keep the loot when found out, to compensate for how unfair life is being to them.