The Downfall of Books
In response to chatter I’ve been reading on the demise of book quality and sales volume…
Without a massive research study, it’s hard to say if books are becoming mediocre for lack of editing. Even still – assuming this is true – I doubt it’s at the heart of the upheaval in book publishing – and is more likely a consequence than a cause.
Also, even if 40% of people haven’t read a book in the last year – that actually sounds about like how it’s always been – and that still leaves a ton of readers out there.
Yet clearly things are changing – and as far as I can see, it’s about the same scenario that’s recently transpired with recorded music. Not long ago everyone wanted an expensive stereo to play their library of CDs. All the talk was about perfect sound reproduction and thunderous bass. Yet, except for home theater DVDs, in just a few years – for the sake of convenience – people with iPods have completely abandoned the notion of big-sounding systems and libraries of physical disks. Inferior to CDs, mp3 files are nonetheless far more portable for personal listening, and when it comes to perfect sound, almost nobody cares anymore.
Books are like home theater systems playing DVDs and recorded HD content in large chunks of time using a conventional approach – still the best way to enjoy the material at its greatest depth. But most people are perfectly happy with slightly lesser writing quality for the sake of other factors appealing to them.
For news, it’s timeliness. For lifestyle pieces, many are satisfied with blogs. For general information, people refer to Wikipedia – constantly updated and current.
It isn’t the publishers, editors, internet writers or any other sort content delivery killing off books — instead it’s the reading behavior of content consumers in age where people are simply more accepting of lesser quality and alternative media outlets.
Today, more than ever, people are making and sharing their own content – subscribing to obscure blogs – following edgy web comics – tweeting and instant-messaging – entertaining and communicating with each other all at the same time. Books? Oh that’s what you buy when content is unavailable anywhere else.
Books won’t die, but the preeminence of the printed word as a communication mainstream is already long gone.
Ken Ramsley
