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The future of readership
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Nope, I don't think so either. I think ereaders, and the ability to have a book even on your phone, so it's with you everywhere, is bringing a whole new side to reading. But perhaps it's harder to see, because people are so sure that anyone looking at their phone is texting, they don't even consider that they could be reading! (Can you tell I've had rude individuals tell me to get a book when I was looking at my iPad?)
Poor Rinelle. I've never had anyone comment on what in doing on my iPhone or iPad. I can't imagine being told to read a book when I'm using either. I'd fell sorry for the person who did as they got my enthusiastic pitch on the wonder of ebooks.
Rinelle wrote: "Nope, I don't think so either. I think ereaders, and the ability to have a book even on your phone, so it's with you everywhere, is bringing a whole new side to reading. But perhaps it's harder to ..."I've had a few people do this to me as well. They wouldn't be talking to me directly. They would just make a snide comment to a friend or someone sitting beside them. Usually it's, "Everyone's always got there nose in facebook." or something similar. I'm always happy to reply with my own snippy reply though :)
As far as a decline in reading, I'm not too worried about that. There has always been a decline in this or that when something new comes out but then individuals miss what they dropped and go back to it. Studies have shown a drop in ebook sales. Some of that could be because people are missing reading in print. Print books have steadied out and are even up a little.
Smartphones and ereaders actually contributed to making me read more. I doubt I'm the only one in this case--and book length doesn't matter.
Bill W.Y. wrote: "I've just read an article today that says book publishing and readership in general is in decline; that there are just too many other things to preoccupy people's time, especially on the internet. ..."People blame a lot on ereaders for killing bookstores, but if you remember, they were dying way before the ereader became popular again. No offense to heavy ereaders because they are legit, but there are many who temporarily jump on it because it's newer, fun technology, but don't read often still and it dies away for them. People each generation just seem to read less :( The reading comprehension level in schools continues to bite, and also a lot of kids are bored with the selections.
I would remind you that not too many years ago, kids were yelling, "Mom, Dad, turn down the TV. I'm trying to read the latest Harry Potter."
Depends on what you look at. Is publishing and readership going down when you look at traditional publishing and the book? Well, yes to the publishing side, because a lot more places are going digital, which tends to mean smaller physical print runs so that there's more of a chance of profit. However, when you factor in ebooks or newspaper websites, publishing and readership has actually stayed about the same if not possibly increased.
Did the article actually state where it got that information from?Smashwords owner Mark Corker said that it was the longer books that sold better.
And when you consider how many more people are now self-publishing, I'm going to call bullshit on the claims of the article.
It's also probably not taking into account the whole print-on-demand phenomenon that's come about. Something that can be used by either traditional publishers or self-publishing programs.
If they're calling a 100,000 word book short, then that could be where their problem is. And to be honest, I'd be hesitant to take a publishing companies word about what is happening with books right now, as there are so many new models and places people are reading (take wattpad for example), that the printed book is only a small slice of the pie, and not representative of the publics reading practices.
I think readers are looking for all sorts of things. Short stories, novellas, and serials are making a comeback but that does not mean longer books don't have a place also.