 "No one buys [their] books" a report on the big publisher's court testimony. wow: "The DOJ’s lawyer collected data on 58,000 titles published in a year and discovered that 90 percent of them sold fewer than 2,000 copies and 50 percent sold less than a dozen copies. " Yet, they sue to make sure libraries can not buy them (above and beyond copyright). They changed the laws so copyright lasts 95 years-- so no one can get to them. good stewards of our cultural legacy? 5 comments
 he seems to say 50% of the published books sell fewer than 12 books *per year*, maybe 99/year. Thank you for pointing this out. But the problem stands that these ebooks are not for sale at any price, and are kept from library collections. big publisher's saying they are like venture capitalists of silicon valley mistreats our cultural legacy -- old books are valuable. unlike dissolved companies. Locking up books does not help the public. it is simple-- sell ebooks. @brewsterkahle Owning and controlling information is the same kind of imperative for publishers that preserving and disseminating it is for the IA. It, not books, is their asset. Yet it's so hard to value individually that they simply hoard it until some nugget shows potential, and they will milk it dry and speculate and diversify to improve their odds. It is as much quantity as quality, and the more, the better. Past sales be damned; there's always a chance for more as long as you own it. |
Gregory's Server
@brewsterkahle and they forced a huge increase in the prices of ebooks, to match paper books.