News on Paper Books Grows Ever More Dire, But Reaction Is Generally Encouraging

Again, the Wall Street Journal is first to report yet another slice closer towards the death of a thousand paper cuts of traditionally printed bound books.  Dorchester, a venerable publisher since 1971 of mass market paperbacks -- those "pocket books" made of the least expensive paper with the narrowest margins possible in order to be able to sell them at the current pricing of $7.99 (83% of Dorchester's books are at this price point, still lower than a pre-iPad-era download), is abandoning this model and "going digital."

Of the factors to have led to a 25% drop in book sales, one specifically cited in the article is the notion 65% of Dorchester's titles are romances and many readers of romance novels prefer a digital download, because they don't have to hide the cover when reading in public.  I guess there are still a lot of closet romance readers.  Read Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels and Unite!

However, they will still be printing, through wholesaler Ingram Book Company's Lightening Print-on-Demand service -- which Books on First uses, which is a wonderful happy bridge between printing tens of thousand of paper copies to printing none at all.  A printed bound book is only made when ordered.  I wrote about this oh, so long ago.   

What I always find interesting to read are the online comments to such articles.  I find it gratifying that a couple of them (out of only 5 total thus far at the time of this writing) still express a desire to have printed bound books, whether to share with friends and family or for "curling up" and reading a "'real' book" after a long day of staring at a computer screen.  Amen.