We all knew books were being illegally downloaded over the net as soon as they’re digitized, but who knew the would-be captains of industry were off to such a felonious start?
From EIN Press Release Network:
According to file-tracking company Attributor, piracy has already cost the publishing industry almost $3 billion in lost sales. The company believes that nearly 10,000 copies of every book published are downloaded for free, with business and investing books being the genre of books pirated the most.
Oh the irony!
fillingspaces.wordpress.com 
Now I would never stiff an author, but I can’t say I feel all that bad for some of these big publishing companies, who want us to believe that it costs them as much to download digital books as it does to print, bind, store and hard copies. Who are the real pirates in that scenario, matey?
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Oh I am so with you on that. As I’ve blogged in the past, even industry insiders have admitted that it costs them PENNIES to produce and distribute e-books. Unfortunately it’s always the author who gets the shaft in these schemes.
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BTW, I meant to say “print, bind, ship and STORE hard copies.”
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Unfortunately, this doesn’t surprise me at all.
The e-book companies may contact me if they are ever able to duplicate the joy of browsing in a store and discovering new treasures.
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That’s going to be a tough one for them. I feel like a salmon swimming upstream, some of us aren’t going to make it.
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May I ask again why people think e-books are this wondrous invention that is going to rebuild the book industry? Because, I’m just not seeing it. In any way.
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As we’ve mentioned, the publishers love ’em b/c they are cheaper to produce (nobody’s saying “wow, we’re saving a buttload of $$ on printing – let’s pay the authors a little more, or invest a little in experienced editors who can help bring along promising young writers”) I think they are trying to sell the technology as something that will intrigue tech geeks who don’t revel in the printed word as we do – the way special effects bring in moviegoers who don’t really care about a good script or good acting, or the way the most tone-deaf guys always want the biggest speakers for their car stereos. BTW, have either of you walked into Barnes & NOble & seen how they sell that “nook” device – they always have these skinny pretty young women pushing them, as though it were the car show or somehting.
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I think you’re right about them trying to make it appeal to the techies. People are gadget freaks these days. As long as it buzzes, clicks and whirrs people will want it. I like my toys, but there are times when I just want to get away from all that and what better way than with a good old-fashioned small rectangular object known as a book?
I don’t think the B&N by me had anyone pushing the Nooks, they were just sort of there the last time I was in. But you’re so right about F/X being the big draw at the movies. I finally saw Avatar and wow, thin script, cardboard characters, total stereotypes, cultural strip-mining, in-your-face moralizing… if Cameron gets the Oscar for anything other than F/X, I will never see another of his films. Wait, I probably won’t anyway.
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So should I see Avatar? Wait for the DVD? Even bother w/that? Have you read “After the Flood” by Margaret Atwood? I ask b/c that book, and also Oryx & Crake, have subplots involving genetically engineered supercreatures – maybe human, maybe not, – who turn blue when aroused, (it’s so cute: when they say “she smells blue” they mean it seems that she’s in the mood for mating,) and I’m wondering how much Cameron mooched from her for his creatures.
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I had a lot of problems with Avatar, as you have surmised. I also heard some reviewer call it “Dances with Wolves in space.” It would probably be visually spectacular in 3D, which is the best I can say for it. The visuals are very pretty and they had some interesting plant life on the planet, but most of it was just cartoonish – the way the guy (Sam Worthington) talked (snarky, smart-ass, Saturday morning kiddie show level); the hard-bitten, chain-smoking scientist (Sigourney Weaver), the soulless Wall St. flack (Giovanni Ribisi) who was dressed in very 20th century white button down shirt and dark pants. I’ve probably ruined it for you already but I’ll stop there.
I haven’t read Atwoods books, but I’ll definitely have to.
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I just don’t think it’s up my alley at all – I probably won’t bother, especially since “Up in the Air,” which I’ve been wanting to see, comes out on DVD soon and I’m more likely to put the time and $ toward that. “Hurt Locker,” as well.
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I was disappointed because, as you know, I’m a hardcore sci-fi geek. It was totally predictable, and downright ridiculous in places. I wouldn’t sit through it again.
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The only good thing about Avatar was the 3D, apart from that, it’s almost as bad as watching The Cell
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I skipped “The Cell,” J.Lo makes me want to claw myself.
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Nothing will ever beat the feel of a hardcover or leatherbound book.
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Preach it, Brother!
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It’s my “sermon on the mountain” and if you don’t like it; I have a good book to use as a weapon
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That’s another advantage to a good old-fashioned book, especially a hardcover: you can fling it across the room without much damage (to the book); throw a Kindle/Nook/i-Pad and you’re out a couple of hundred dollars, plus it flies at a lousy awkward trajectory (you’ve read Vanity Fair, of course? I just can’t see Becky Sharp throwing her Kindle out the window.)
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That’ll be the next classic defiled: Vanity Fair on a Hot Tin Roof.
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Besides if you need an ebook; most of the good old books are free anyway, thanks to Project Gutenberg.
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Indeed, an excellent resource.
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I haven’t seen Avatar. I’ll probably watch it one day, but it’s not at all on my radar. I actually laughed out loud while watching the trailer. Some of that dialogue…
I’m much more interested in Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, Up, and A Single Man (if only to see Colin Firth and Julianne Moore’s performances). ALL of the foreign films this year look fantastic, but I especially want to see Das Weisse Band, the Milk of Sorrow, and Secret in Their Eyes (which is supposed to be a very intelligent suspense).
Have any of you seen the trailer to Secret of the Kells? It was made by an independent Irish company and came out of seemingly nowhere to be nominated as one of the best animated films. I love the look they created.
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I’d be surprised if A Prophet didn’t win best foreign film this year, it’s so dark and amazing.
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I haven’t even heard of any of those movies, Tasha, but will be on the lookout for them. I guess one of these days I’ll have to join NetFlix, but I’m holding out on that, too. I don’t like them taking the money every month, whether I use it or not. I’ve also heard it’s really hard to cancel the membership. Which reminds me, I need to cancel my gym membership…
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Everyone I know who has Netflix loves it, but I so don’t want another monthly payment, even if it’s only $9.
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I’m sure it’s very convenient, but my son’s gf works in collections for a large bank, and she tells me Netflix is one of the worst to try to get out of. Apparently it’s like AOL used to be, they’d keep billing for months after you told them to cancel, and you’d have to fight every step of the way to stop them and try to recoup the charges. I’d rather be on a pay-as-you-go deal, instead of them helping themselves to X amount of money out of my account every month.
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Yeah, I pretty much won’t subscribe to anything where they ask for a bank account or credit card nunber – the good thing about the old skool system is, when you stop sending checks, they stop sending you the product.
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