Thursday, December 20, 2007

The case for eBooks -- Paper Costs and Out of Print Titles with a Riff on Parenting

Lots of interesting news items about publishing this week.  Here are my personal favorites.

The Cost of Printed Books rising -- Looks like China will be converting to eBooks sooner than later.  The price of the new Harry Potter book is twice what the last one cost according to a long article by the Associated Press.

Paper prices are up by 10% this year.  The reasons cited are an increased demand for bookspaper mill and a crackdown on pollution. So far the problem is confined to China.  But before you get too complacent, remember that we live in an increasingly global economy.  A huge number of the books in your local Borders were printed in China. 

Looks like we may all be converting to eBooks

The Most Wanted Out of Print Books --The Boonce a runnerokFinder Journal has released its annual list of the ten most wanted out of print books.    If you have a copy of Once a Runner (1978) by John L. Parker, Jr. hanging around it might be worth big money.  The book is going for anywhere between $221 and $500 on Amazon.

The striking thing about this list is that not one of these books is available as an eBook.

One of my favorite arguments for eBooks is that they never go out of print.  I can't help but wonder why so many publishers are leaving money on the table.

One Final Cheap Shot that I Can't Resist -- This one is just too easy! 

Two months ago Thomas Nelson Inc. - Publisher of Inspirational Books, Videos, Software, Bibles and lynn_spears Children's Books - announced an upcoming Lynne Spears memoir about raising high-profile children" (Britney and Jamie-Lynn) "while coming from a low-profile Louisiana community."

After 16 year old Jamie-Lynn's announcement of her impending motherhood Nelson has made the decision to delay publication  "indefinitely."  Please note that they stress "delayed, not canceled."

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