For the first article I used the database Ebsco as my deep
web resource, and all I needed to do was search the terms “Print” and “Future”.
The article showed up as the fourth on the page, so my terms were pretty
reliable when it came to finding this article.
ASPECT: There is an author’s and publisher’s name with this
article and the author’s credentials. The article is presented as fact and
contains credible sources that are documented in the book. This source was
written to inform and argues a perspective, it is a pretty general topic and
just right for research. The date of this article is also appropriate, being
published in 2011. Because this article contains so many areas from the ASPECT
evaluation, it is very much so a trustworthy source.
For the second article, I used Google as my open resource. I
used the terms “books” and “dead” and “authors”, the article showed up as eight
on the list.
ASPECT: There is an author’s name and publishing date that
is current and publisher name, but no author credentials. The article is
presented as fact yet is written to inform and argues an opinion. The topic is
somewhat general and mostly fact, but is good for research. The author provides
many sources for his information. This is also a trustworthy article to use,
because it fits the evaluation criteria.
I
decided to read the article, “Are books dead, and can authors survive?”,
which focuses on the extinction of paper books and the era of digital
publishing. The article discusses whether author’s can continue writing for a living
and actually make a profit or fall from the profession. Based on statistics,
Barnes and noble sells three times as many digital books as it does paper,
amazon alone sells 242 ebooks for every 100 hardbacks. And of course with the
majority of society consuming their news digitally, it isn’t surprising that
ebooks have taken a new turn. But that’s not to say that hardbacks and ebooks
can’t both exist, for example not only do we have digital news, but also
printed news which continues to flourish.
Unfortunately,
with the rise of digital publishing, the midlisters (neither bestsellers nor first
timers) are dropping like flies. And many writers are also beginning to abandon
the profession entirely, believing that publishers and their distribution
systems are out of date. Mainstream publishers struggle to compete with digital
publishers and cause authors to end up with a load of debt. Many writers begin
to convert to digital publishing, due to the removal of their living wage they
end up in the digital market known as the long tail.
The
long tail is essentially graphs of sales against number of products. Publishers
use to focus on selling only a few heavily promoted bestsellers in bulk,
however digital shopping has meant that publishing has become increasingly profitable.
Instead of selling, say, 13m copies of one Twilight book, a long tail provider
can now make virtually the same profits by selling 13m different or failed
books. However, authors continue to make a profit off of hardbacks, because
many individuals seek paper made books rather than digital. And individuals
that do not own tablets, computer, cell phones, or laptops continue to purchase
hard backs due to their lack of technology. Not only do schools use hardback
text books, but colleges too.
