Sorry, I realize the tone of my earlier comment was a little accusatory...my apologies! I don't blame the independents, I blame cerberus.
"It's not a bug, it's a feature!" is actually something I've heard computer programmers say before. Jokingly, of course! But they say it for a reason. They have to keep improving their software or they'll be out of a job, even if we don't want those particular improvements (or we don't want them every single freaking year).
Anyway, I agree that changes in bookselling would definitely have to be incremental. I think that POD stuff is actually a little less drastic of a change, even if the machines are costly; because once a LOT of people start buying digital copies of books (and not just the small numbers we're seeing now), it could open up a big can of digital worms. I imagine that there'd be tons of file-sharing and lawsuits and all the other things that the music industry has been dealing with. But the music industry seems a lot more varied and possibly even healthier than it used to be, so.
Anyway, thank you for all the great food for thought!
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Date: 2 Feb 2009 02:21 am (UTC)"It's not a bug, it's a feature!" is actually something I've heard computer programmers say before. Jokingly, of course! But they say it for a reason. They have to keep improving their software or they'll be out of a job, even if we don't want those particular improvements (or we don't want them every single freaking year).
Anyway, I agree that changes in bookselling would definitely have to be incremental. I think that POD stuff is actually a little less drastic of a change, even if the machines are costly; because once a LOT of people start buying digital copies of books (and not just the small numbers we're seeing now), it could open up a big can of digital worms. I imagine that there'd be tons of file-sharing and lawsuits and all the other things that the music industry has been dealing with. But the music industry seems a lot more varied and possibly even healthier than it used to be, so.
Anyway, thank you for all the great food for thought!