Another Appalling Cost--Pulped Books
The numbers of pulped books are for Great Britain alone--77 million--a great many of them "literary fiction." If someone begins to actually look at these numbers it may eventually dawn that literary fiction just isn't a lucrative proposition in the old tree-pulping world of publishing. But, if we could consider, if only for a moment, Bookify, we might find ourselves in a position to continue to support the best writing today while also better serving the economy, the environment, and in many cases the reader.
I love books. I love the feel, the smell, the tactile sensation, the heft, everything about them; but it has long since become time to consider viable alternatives that treat our resources and our economies more gently. That booksellers fail to recognize this, is simply the blind panic of those who have not yet figured out how to make the business models work. This will happen, and the publishers that make it happen are the ones who will succeed in the coming years.
Bookstores, even large chains, were bookstores until the advent of Amazon, and while there is still a place for bookstores (like furniture stores, there are those of us who just need to see and hold and feel the books in our hands to make a decision), the same may not be true in the straitened economy when it comes to publishing.
I love books. I love the feel, the smell, the tactile sensation, the heft, everything about them; but it has long since become time to consider viable alternatives that treat our resources and our economies more gently. That booksellers fail to recognize this, is simply the blind panic of those who have not yet figured out how to make the business models work. This will happen, and the publishers that make it happen are the ones who will succeed in the coming years.
Bookstores, even large chains, were bookstores until the advent of Amazon, and while there is still a place for bookstores (like furniture stores, there are those of us who just need to see and hold and feel the books in our hands to make a decision), the same may not be true in the straitened economy when it comes to publishing.
It would not surprise me to eventually see the book market polarise into high-end productions and limited editions for collectors, and the mass-market editions going purely onto some form of virtual reader. Its an appalling prospect but the economies are just so attractive.
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