Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by paxys 1078 days ago
> Buy from a book shop.

Authors use on-demand printing from Amazon because ordering a full print run is significantly more expensive, and due to lack of demand they'd never be able to recover the costs. These kinds of books aren't promoted by a top publisher and don't have shelf space at your local bookstore. Chances are if it weren't for Amazon they wouldn't be available for purchase at all.

People don't seem to realize how absurd it is that you can have an idea for a book, type it out, upload it to Amazon, publish it on the Kindle store, and print and ship a hardcover copy to anyone in the world all in a matter of days. If you told this to an aspiring author lining up in front of publishing houses 20 years ago they would have laughed in your face because of how unbelievable it sounds. "Oh but the cover art is blurry"...seriously? Who the hell cares?
2 comments
KingOfCoders 1078 days ago
`"Oh but the cover art is blurry"...seriously? Who the hell cares?`

I care.

link
paxys 1078 days ago
Stick to the big five publishers section at Barnes & Noble then, and excuse the indie authors who don't have the budget to make your bookshelf look good.
link
cinntaile 1078 days ago
No, our standards shouldn't be that low that we accept blurry covers. It's likely a good quality proxy of the content though. Attention to details is often important.
link
KingOfCoders 1078 days ago
Published some books, none of them had blurry covers.
link
ljm 1078 days ago
The books themselves feel a bit flimsy though, compared to well-printed books that have a sturdier feel. They still cost £30+ each and the quality of the finished product doesn't really match up with the price. And we're not just talking about indie self-publishers, I've noticed a drop in print quality from PragProg, Packt and O'Reilly too. For a while I thought this was just Amazon shipping shit quality material until Waterstones and Bookshop were sending them too.

The lower barrier to entry for self-publishing is not an excuse for a race to the bottom on quality. I can't imagine many of these books surviving as long as, say, my battered copy of K&R C.

link