Opening an Online Bookstore
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- leadtrum
I'm opening an online design bookstore with a friend partly because we love books and partly to fund our book addictions.
Does anyone know the answer to these questions:
1) Do any major publishers actually drop ship books for you? I'm assuming no but I guess its good to know for sure.
2) What book publishers do you guys consistently find to produce consistent content?
3) Do any of you read pdf books? It kind of defeats the point in my mind but they have their benefits.
4) The obligatory, what's your top 5 favorite design books?
Our goal is to hopefully get to a point where it pays for one or two books a month. Not a lofty goal by any means, but a goal nonetheless.
- Jaline0
3) nope, I like them in a tangible form, generally.
- neue75_bold0
"3) Do any of you read pdf books? It kind of defeats the point in my mind but they have their benefits."
In terms of academic use, eBooks have way more use than their physical counterparts. Being able to click on a footnote/reference, etc, opens up a myriad of possibilities that can help you quickly dig deeper into your research...
Not to mention 24hr access from anywhere that has an internet connection and the fact that they never run out of print...
In terms of design books, I could see these principals applied in the future...
- How many hours access daily do you usually get out of your books?detritus
- meaning if I want to get a book from the library or a store, they have closing times... but not sure what you mean?neue75_bold
- cock...neue75_bold
- blaw0
I'll speak to point three: I'll often download a book in .PDF form, but they never get read, barely even scanned. If it's something I need to learn, I'll eventually print it out and read it.
- leadtrum0
Yea I guess its like the Kindle argument. Although the great thing about the Kindle is its resolution actually feels like print.
- neue75_bold0
I'm slightly biased, most of the work I do now is for Elsevier whose one the worlds largest publishers of scientific content, their focus for the past few years has been putting all their content online... so it's easy for me to preach the virtues of eBooks and paid search tools for research... not to mention it's been a phenomenal success and the sales are blowing away last years projections..
- has it been a massive shift only in the last year or so, or longer?leadtrum
- for them I think they started digitizing their collections [dating back to the late 1800's] a few years ago...neue75_bold
- 1800's eh? Really early in the game. j/kleadtrum
- blaw0
Searchability, convenience... good, strong points. That's a bit different from a lot of other reading situations. Design books, for instance, are often read not out of a need for direct research--there's a cozy, relaxing aspect, too.
- When I say 'design books', I mean whatever non-fiction tickles your fancy.blaw
- agreed...neue75_bold
- neue75_bold0
in terms of publishers...
http://www.die-gestalten.de/
http://www.bispublishers.nl/
http://www.rotovision.com/
- Jaline0
For school, nearly all of my required readings are online in PDF format. It's useful in that sense because we don't have to spend money on books, and we can print the text out.
- I wouldn't want physical books in school. Things always magically disappear in class studios all the time.leadtrum
- not too mention when you move... books and vinyl = back breakersneue75_bold