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Theory on paperbound books extinction

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posted on Apr, 15 2012 @ 08:36 PM
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reply to post by pheonix358
 


oh no! you'll have to do your own spellchecking and editing!

it's a way to get your books out there, make more money doing it, get a wider audience, and not have to go through the paper publishing industry.
just like paper books, there are some ebooks that aren't worth the money. it's no different. people like your work,they buy it, they don't and they wont.

i've found spelling and grammatical errors in paper published books many a time.



posted on Apr, 15 2012 @ 08:45 PM
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How many times have you gone through their index. 100,00 book titles.

We have all found the odd error in printed media, they are the odd error.

With all due respect, you have not looked deeply into this issue. It is not 'some of those e-books are pretty bad', it is that a huge chunk are absolute crap. I know, I've looked into it. When an author starts off with saying 'Welcome to the new age of publishing where spelling is a variable thing like mother nature,' you know your in for a wild ride!

It is easy to get caught up in the hype. When you have a good work and you have an idea of how the publishing industry works you have to be a little more cautious. As I have said, the times are a changing. There are deep problems on both sides of the fence.

P



posted on Apr, 15 2012 @ 08:56 PM
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Originally posted by pheonix358
How many times have you gone through their index. 100,00 book titles.

We have all found the odd error in printed media, they are the odd error.

With all due respect, you have not looked deeply into this issue. It is not 'some of those e-books are pretty bad', it is that a huge chunk are absolute crap. I know, I've looked into it. When an author starts off with saying 'Welcome to the new age of publishing where spelling is a variable thing like mother nature,' you know your in for a wild ride!

It is easy to get caught up in the hype. When you have a good work and you have an idea of how the publishing industry works you have to be a little more cautious. As I have said, the times are a changing. There are deep problems on both sides of the fence.

P


with all due respect
you didn't even know you could make money from publishing ebooks a page back. you researched it well enough to have a distinct opinion in 10 minutes?! you are amazing. if such a "huge chunk" were absolute crap, they wouldn't be making any money on online bookselling sites. you know where the problems come in with ebooks and terrible spellings with bad scans? google books. all sorts of scan errors and transpositions like ! for l. i have 200 or so ebooks, very few of them have any errors or mispellings in them. less than 10 if i recall correctly. buy from reputable books sellers like barnes and noble or amazon(for kindle), read the reviews see if the digital copy has errors.



also, what sides? there is no either or in this. there is nothing saying :"buy physical books or buy digital, you can't have both".



posted on Apr, 15 2012 @ 09:01 PM
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I have researched this over many years. I have not yet heard of more than ten authors that have made any real money on E-books. Yes some may have a following and be making change. The problem is one of copying without paying for the copy. People like things without paying for them.

On one side of the fence you have traditional publishing / on the other you have self publishing. For a while E-book publishing was making money through on-line advertising, the same as google, or by sucking their authors dry.

As I said, problems abound on both sides.

P



posted on Apr, 15 2012 @ 09:03 PM
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Hi,

Great thread thanks for posting!

I was just thinking about this a few weeks back. I picked up some Encyclopedia Britannica from a person online and we got to talking a bit. He told me that they had stopped printing the encyclopedia in 2010 after 200 years in print! They will now be publishing it online.

I found this disturbing and i started thinking about the future. Will all our entertainment, media and knowledge be in this placed called the internet which can be shut down so easily? We are slowly seeing everything going digital... and i'm sure in the end this will be used to better control information by the elites.

That's why i'm happy to have started collecting books, they look awesome on the shelves and if the internet breaks i've got knowledge here at my disposal. I have to say that at the moment i'm only collecting encyclopedias and books that teach something rather than stories or fiction. I want to have an arsenal of knowledge from gardening to the universe, books that i know if SHTF i will be able to make good use out of them and possibly pass some knowledge around.

Cheers~



posted on Apr, 15 2012 @ 09:05 PM
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reply to post by MarksThoughts
 


Good points. However, the democratization of information would be for digital bits only. The beauty of real books lies in their very physical properties. Some here have mentioned the smell of books. Others like the rustling made by turning the paper pages. I like typography, the way words are designed to fall on a page, how the initial capital in a chapter can be ten times larger than the others, and nestled into the first paragraph.

I like graphic design. I like illustrations that you can study in detail. I like how real books are *coherent* in their form, functionality, and beauty.

Digitization of texts is inevitable, of course, but my point is that our culture itself is dependent upon unified bodies of work. A Nook book jsut doesn't give the whole picture . . . it gives only a tiny digital bit at one time. I actually really dislike reading things on the Nook, and now use it only for a book that I would have no intention of keeping. So, digital ereaders to me are much like reading on the internet . . . fleeting, ephemeral, and messy. The books in my home are rock solid and they are permanent, home to stay, part of my life, real cultural tangibles that have formed who I am.

I feel badly for kids who are NOT checking out real books, and enjoying the complete coherence and unified presentation that a physical book gives. Books are cultural entities that when consumed expand the mind of the reader.

Digital archives are fine in theory, and probably highly functional. But no one really likes to read digital text for very long. It's hard the eyes. And if kids don't learn to read full-length books (because they read everything digitally) then we will have generation after generation of progressively more coarse, illiterate, and passive people. They have not bothered to expose their minds to the rich complexities of long books of imagination, thus, they will lack imagination, clarity of reasoning, and the ability to see larger pictures, or a kind of thinking in landscape, as novels, for example, teach. The really troubling thing about the situation with ebooks is that I fear we are losing a generation of younger people who simply cannot be bothered to consume an entire book digitally when they can game, chat, text, email, post on Facebook, etc., etc. Why read a whole book? There's a world of fun online . . . thus, I think the real tragedy is in decreasing literacy, and especially, the decline of even basic writing skills.


edit on 15-4-2012 by Thaxter because: Corrected grammar.



posted on Apr, 15 2012 @ 09:22 PM
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Originally posted by pheonix358


The other point no one has mentioned is this. I am an author. How do I get paid for my book if I publish in E-book. The publishing industry does not yet have an answer to this riddle.
P


that doesn't look like you've researched it for many years.
( if you were being sarcastic in the quoted post, perhaps you should have added /sarcasm, otherwise i take you at your word as it's typed)

no not every person who publishes an ebook is going to make it rich, or even a moderate amount of money. your work has to be good, people have to want to read it. it's the same way with traditional publishing, only you have to convince the publisher that it's good and people will want to read it, rather than letting the people themselves decide.

traditional publishing is going to get edged out....unless they drastically restructure they way they go about their business. similar to the recording industry. it's not an if, but a when.
it's not something to be feared or mocked.

people will always want physical books, or physical CDs. and there's nothing wrong with that, likewise is there nothing wrong with wanting your media in digital format. it can be protected as well or better than physical media, contrary to what some think. i like physical books better for reading, but as i said earlier, i just don't have the space anymore, ebooks fullfill my need to read and my space requirements, i can also browse all 20k+ books at B&N.com and read whatever strikes my fancy 10 seconds later...beats driving to their store, looking for 20 minutes only to find out they have to order it from their warehouse and it will take a week.



posted on Apr, 15 2012 @ 10:36 PM
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Originally posted by AK907ICECOLD
we have all heard about Atlantis and its mysteries of technology. That humans may have been around for 10’s of 1,000’s of years on earth,


That wasn't Atlantis. It is Australia.




posted on Apr, 15 2012 @ 10:52 PM
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Old paper books are so cheap, no way to make a living.

www.abebooks.com... 51&sts=t&x=22&y=17

Unless you deal in rare books or first editions, not worth the effort.

As far as new books, sometimes I will preview a book electronically and then order a paper copy to read.

I prefer paper.

Also have lots of "in case SHTF" books here, in paper.

They are so heavy though. I used to go on trips, liked to take study books, but too heavy to do that now. Airlines got wise.

Another little known thing about paper books. Post office has a "media" rate. Cheap way to ship heavy books.



posted on Apr, 16 2012 @ 12:35 AM
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If these books are disappearing, I do not think it has anything to do with a conspiracy, and everything to do with the natural result of society and societal trends. I don't think you meant that the ancients stored information in computers, lol, but if you did, as you referenced the Antikythera device, I must vehemently disagree.

The "computer" you referred to was extremely advanced for the time, both in design and craftsmanship, but was not of the sort that could store information. Calling it a "clock" is an understatement as well in my humble opinion. Overall, I just cannot see the need to hide or hoard any information that appears in widely-distributed and available books. If the information was precious, then I could understand this occurring, but if that were the case then the information would not have been available to those who aren't "in the know" in the first place.



posted on Apr, 16 2012 @ 12:59 AM
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reply to post by beezzer
 

451 degrees is the temperature that paper ignites at...

When the power goes out, you can...

go outside...
start a conversation...
or read a book...

I got a ton of books.



posted on Apr, 16 2012 @ 06:41 AM
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You will pleased to know that The Internet Archive is now backing up their books. On paper.


Internet Archive is building a physical archive for the long term preservation of one copy of every book, record, and movie we are able to attract or acquire... The goal is to preserve one copy of every published work," writes IA's Brewster Kahle in a lengthy blog post about the plan.

Kahle cites a number of reasons for wanting to preserve physical copies of works that are being digitized; for instance, a dispute could arise about the fidelity of the digital version, and only access to a copy of the original would resolve it. Kahle also told Kevin Kelly that we'll eventually want to rescan these books at an even higher DPI, so the digital copies will be waiting when we do.


Article


I can also recall reading about a guy who was storing all the books he could get hold of (about to be destroyrf, donated, bought) and storing them in massive warehouses. Can't find a link though,



posted on Apr, 16 2012 @ 09:11 AM
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Things may be a changing, but books won't go away in our lifetime, at least. Some people can't get rid of things.





That's just the fantasy and sci-fi books my Mom owns. When my Mom passes, all these wonderful dust catching books become property of myself. I won't just throw them away but I don't know where I'll be in my life at that time so holding onto a few thousand books is difficult to gauge. When I pass, who knows what'll be left or who they will go to, as there are no children.

There really isn't any more room for books in this house. I'm not joking on that. It's quite crowded. Mom has started using a Kindle so the only new additions will mostly be to my collection as I won't use a kindle. Don't need one, as I've got enough to read for at least this lifetime.

As to why the knowledge was lost I often wonder about that. Interesting thoughts, OP, not sure if I agree but interesting to ponder, for sure. I can speculate all I want but I know nothing so my opinion is moot.



posted on Apr, 16 2012 @ 09:24 AM
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reply to post by TheLoony
 




That looks kinda like mine man.... add to that two cases of dvds and 3 more shelves of dvds and graphic novels

:shk:


I am slowly trimming down my collection but still....


I like your mums style




posted on Apr, 16 2012 @ 05:32 PM
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reply to post by deltaalphanovember
 


This is one of the directions I was looking for in responses to my thread, Star!

Now I'm not saying that books will be gone in 2-3 years, but a technology gains speed
other tech if left behind. Which could be a good thing in the long future of the human race
if held onto, I'm thinking 1000-2000 years later.

Thanks for the extra info



posted on Apr, 16 2012 @ 05:34 PM
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reply to post by TheLoony
 


Damn those hoarders, can't they share anything.. I really
wish that I had a collection like that. Need a bigger house
and a bigger bookshelves.

Good pictures friend

edit on 16-4-2012 by AK907ICECOLD because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 16 2012 @ 05:38 PM
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reply to post by JiggyPotamus
 


Not computers, but maybe a lost type of tech that held storage that was lost, the lost "info," I mean

I like your reply, Thanks



posted on Apr, 18 2012 @ 03:24 PM
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Most books are junk anyway. They are only deemed important if intellectuals deem them such. Most are entertainment drivel at best...

This is all about MONEY…to print a book there are costs for the publisher, manufacture, distributer, marketing, and finally the agent and then the author.

Now you have just the money involved in keeping 1 digital copy that can be transferred unlimited times, eliminating the publisher, manufacture and distributer.
So just like the music industry they lowered the cost by eliminating overhead and will continue to charge the consumer the same price for a digital copy, increasing the revenue.

You can still buy a hard bound book it is not like they are illegal, the true conspiracy rub comes from changing the text which is possible but only in revisions (which they did in print).
edit on 18-4-2012 by abeverage because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 22 2012 @ 05:28 AM
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reply to post by blupblup
 


Youmake a very good point, looking at the trends of the music industry. However, all music formats are still a very recent media. Books have been around for millenia, I think it will be a much, much longer period before they are phased out.




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