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Book Club 1w
Libby is such an insane concept to me bc wdym I have to wait in line for months to have my turn with a digital copy of a book
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27
upvote 848 downvote
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Anonymous 1w

Fucking publishing companies man We could literally be living post scarcity with so many things in this world (such as food or books) but if the companies can’t artificially control the supply, then they don’t make profit.

upvote 218 downvote
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Anonymous 1w

corporate greed #staywoke

upvote 143 downvote
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Anonymous 1w

Unfortunately we live in a capitalistic society where artists need to be paid and publisher want to squeeze as much money out of people as possible

upvote 42 downvote
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Anonymous 1w

Libraries have to buy a digital license from the publisher that functions similarly to a real book copy where it can only be loaned to one person at a time and after a certain number of uses it expires (like how real books get worn down / damaged / lost). If the book is popular, libraries have to buy multiple digital licenses. It’s all so that the company and author can still profit off the lending

upvote 20 downvote
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Anonymous 1w

Ya like why can I listen to music a hundred time and millions are listening to the same thing. And the artist gets a fraction of money. Why can’t we do that with books?

upvote 9 downvote
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Anonymous 1w

Have you actually had to wait that long? Maybe it’s just my library or the books I read, but most of mine come in way sooner than expected

upvote 7 downvote
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Anonymous 1w

Authors need to eat too.

upvote 7 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #3 1w

Yes

upvote 16 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #3 1w

i’m currently in line for a book with a 6 month wait on libby

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Anonymous replying to -> #6 1w

Except that most of the profit goes to corporations unfortunately. Many small authors give up bc the effort is not worth it when they get almost nothing for it

upvote 40 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #8 1w

I know, but making books free would result in there being zero books. Not justifying the system, but it’s just a reality.

upvote 1 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #6 1w

Books aren't being actually made if it's digital. The entire point of the internet and digitalization is easy access. Our reality can be changed

upvote 12 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #1 1w

That doesn’t change what we’re talking about though.

upvote 1 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #6 1w

I’m not saying they should be made for free or that we should pirate instead, just that it’s usually not the authors’ fault

upvote 10 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #6 1w

I don't think you know what we're talking about

upvote -2 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #1 1w

You think digital books should be free for all? How does that business work exactly?

upvote 7 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #3 1w

The more popular a book the longer the wait so current best sellers can have crazy long waits

upvote 14 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #9 1w

Donate to your local library so they can afford more copies.

upvote 7 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #9 1w

Yeah I tend to dance around the most popular

upvote 5 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #1 1w

I mean, they very much are being made. There’s a massive amount of labor that goes into a digital book - the author writing it, the publisher providing multiple stages of editing and editors, the publisher handling legal matters, advertising, etc. I would love if all books were freely and openly available, but we’d have to completely switch our model of how the industry works away from private companies.

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Anonymous replying to -> #10 1w

Plus a whole separate team has to handle formatting and such. I have no experience, but I imagine it’s difficult to create a file that will work and look equally professional on a phone, iPad, computer, kindle, kobo, nook, etc

upvote 4 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #5 1w

The real issue with ebooks, especially from a library’s perspective, is almost predatory pricing (on their end, ofc it’s free on our end). That’s not okay

upvote 4 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #1 1w

And yet… the author spends months if not years writing and eating ramen

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Anonymous replying to -> #14 1w

like you said. artists get fractions of the money they should. Spotify severely underpays their artists

upvote 5 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #14 1w

plus with Amazon trying to move to a more streaming model, we’re seeing how they’re just further screwing over authors. I’m sure there’s a way it could be done, but it hasn’t been successfully implemented anywhere I’m aware of (my definition of successful includes fair compensation to the artists)

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Anonymous replying to -> #5 1w

Spotify is not even sustainably profitable.

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Anonymous replying to -> #14 1w

well first it’s because people listen to music more than they read books. you might listen to 50+ songs a day every day for weeks, but not many people are even reading one book a day. in the US, audio streaming platforms work on a pay-per-stream model, while libraries work on a pay-per-license. we *could* switch to pay-per-loan (like the UK), but that would mean libraries would have to have significantly more federal and state funding

upvote 1 downvote