A couple of interesting tweets from Litopia over the weekend were kind of a one-two punch for writers, would-be authors and book buyers.
This one from Litopia is sobering, and ties into my previous discussion on e-books, self-publishing, etc. More evidence that the written word — or, rather, the printed and bound version of the written word — is vanishing before our eyes. The good news comes in the second graf — e-book sales up 161 percent over the same period. That’ll make your eyes pop.
More on this from E-book Newser: “What’s most interesting about these figures is that the rest of the market dropped an averaged 20% or more. Now, eBook sales didn’t increase enough to make up the difference, and that brings up an interesting point. There’s no proof that eBooks are cannibalizing print sales, but they do seem to be more immune to the recession. Perhaps it’s time for publishers to reconsider how they price eBooks, and stop trying to price them like books?”
The second tweet brings up a novel idea: Could Spotify, the music-sharing service, work for e-books? Interesting concept, even though I have no idea how. I’m still new to Spotify, but I love the idea — and the price (free).
Phillip Thompson 