Davos Newbies

What’s the fuss

I don’t understand the fuss authors are making about Amazon.com’s growing used book sales. Apparently nearly new books are a booming part of Amazon.com’s business, and authors, of course, don’t receive royalties from the secondary market in their work.

There have been attempts in other markets (France tried it in fine art) to ensure creators get paid from secondary sales. And in the UK, there is a public lending right system where authors receive payments for library lending of their works. But it seems short-sighted for authors to kvetch at any book sales, whether new or used. If people want to buy once- or never-read copies of books, they will do so. Impeding Amazon.com is irrelevant.

Personally, as an incurable bibliomane, I’ll continue buying new books new and old books old. For some reason nearly new books hold little appeal to me.  

Michael Smolens, who has been trying for some time now to deal with the archaisms of the publishing industry, writes that the reaction against Amazon.com is utterly typical of the hidebound world of authors and publishers.

What’s the fuss

I don’t understand the fuss authors are making about Amazon.com’s growing used book sales. Apparently nearly new books are a booming part of Amazon.com’s business, and authors, of course, don’t receive royalties from the secondary market in their work.

There have been attempts in other markets (France tried it in fine art) to ensure creators get paid from secondary sales. And in the UK, there is a public lending right system where authors receive payments for library lending of their works. But it seems short-sighted for authors to kvetch at any book sales, whether new or used. If people want to buy once- or never-read copies of books, they will do so. Impeding Amazon.com is irrelevant.

Personally, as an incurable bibliomane, I’ll continue buying new books new and old books old. For some reason nearly new books hold little appeal to me.  

Power of explanation

I was speaking to a scientist yesterday who explained he can measure certain chemical reactions with a femtosecond delay, which is getting pretty close to real time. “What’s a femtosecond?” someone asked. Most scientists would have answered 10^-15 seconds. Instead, this eloquent scientist said, “One second is the time it takes for light to travel from the moon to the earth. A femtosecond is the time it takes for light to travel the width of a human hair.”