From a local (peripheral) perspective, talk about books, reading and me

In the past few years, I have never been in the mainstream publishing system. In the countryside, I engaged in independent publishing and became a freelance writer, using local resources, writing about local people and local affairs, and trying my best to explore various possibilities for writing, dissemination, and living by writing. In the publishing industry, I am a producer (collecting materials and writing by myself), an editor (it is difficult to find professional editors in the countryside, and in order to save budget, I have to undertake part of the editing work before outsourcing), and a seller (set up my own stalls) , I promote my own PO articles, and sell it through word of mouth. In addition, it only sells through two local independent bookstores and several large e-commerce channels), although I don’t know every detail of publishing, but at least from the production I have personally experienced several major aspects of sales, and most of them are alone and learn while walking.

My life is full of reading and books. I like to go to bookstores and libraries. As long as I am in a space surrounded by books, I feel at ease. Even I have always lived near the school. I often think that writing is inseparable from my life. However, in recent years, although my relationship with books and reading has been close, it has also undergone obvious changes. The life experience of a small individual like me also reflects the changes in the industry.

Looking back at the past few years from the perspective of a producer, I find that my paper works are getting thinner and thinner, and this year, the content produced is entirely through the online platform. The reason is simple, because of the ROI. Paper books cost a lot of time and manpower (this problem is more serious in the countryside), and the sales flow is too slow. After realizing all this, in order to survive, I had to adjust the mode of knowledge production and dissemination, so I turned to the Internet road. It is true that the efficiency has improved, but can we live on words in this way? Of course not, I had to develop multiple income channels to support writing.

From the reader's point of view, there has also been a marked shift in my relationship with books and reading. From the very beginning, the relationship between us was very straightforward, and we just paid for any book we wanted to read. First, the books in the past are cheaper, and secondly, because I am not yet old, I have not yet felt the economic pressure that comes with the burden of life. But after I started writing and became more and more invested, the amount of books I needed to read became larger and larger, and I began to be unable to pay for every book I wanted to read, and to carry out the so-called action of supporting the book market with all my strength. I had to pursue discounts, find second-hand books, and even starting this year, I started to borrow books from the library (previously I only read books and didn't lend them). If you don't do this, you'll lose money when you combine the fees earned and the literature costs needed to produce an article. If someone asks me today: "As a creator, your works are also sold in the book market, but you don't actively buy books to support the book market, isn't it very contradictory?" It is indeed contradictory, but the root of the problem is not the individual, but the in the industrial sector. First of all, for a creator without the blessing of fame, the time and money costs of producing content are far out of proportion to the royalties and royalties earned. Second, after the works are released, they will be discounted again and again, and there will be few independent publishing channels. As a result, the source content producers must reduce the cost of collecting materials in order to continue to create, and they must also pursue discounts like consumers. Is this right? Can it be written as a ridiculously realistic drama?

From a personal point of view, let’s talk about the relationship between buying books and the library. So far this year, I have borrowed 149 books from the library, so can one say that the book market is equivalent to selling 149 fewer books? Of course not, these days, "reading" is less and less equated with "buying books". Libraries provide opportunities for reading, and reading may reduce, but may also induce, consumption opportunities. For me personally, going to the library does save some of the cost of buying books, but it also increases my chances of buying good books. Whenever you find a book or content you like from your lending, you will buy it. For example, my day as a mob boss , 40 open classes in economics , the love of mountain and animal husbandry . The existence of the library makes me look at it if I want to, "I'm curious to read it", "I wanted to read it at first but it didn't meet my expectations after reading it" and "Books I really like", "Good books that inspire me" filter between. In short, the number of books purchased has indeed decreased, but at the same time, the probability of buying Lei Shu has decreased, and the quality of buying books has been significantly improved. One of my favorite functions of the library is to dig and rediscover some good books that are out of print. Because of the discoveries in the library, I managed to buy the out-of-print "Four Lessons from Bernanke: The Union" from the second-hand book market. Meetings and the Financial Crisis. Therefore, instead, the possibility of buying books is triggered by a large number of borrowings. As long as a good book touches the hearts of readers, whether in libraries or bookstores, there is an opportunity to induce readers to take supportive behaviors. Is there any way for publishers to make books that are penetrating and stand the test of time and various reading environments? What about books? In my heart, there is indeed a list of good books that fit these criteria.

As far as I can observe, the reading atmosphere in larger towns (not so-called remote towns) is not as thin as imagined, and the enthusiasm for borrowing in rural libraries and the popularity of the book market are roughly linked . , Libraries in every township along the Taitung Rift Valley all show that they have been borrowed and reserved. The same is true for the recently popular " Habits to Get Rich ". I found that readers in the eastern countryside will still closely follow the news of new books, that is, make an early reservation and queue up to borrow, although they would rather pay patiently and wait for a few months, or are unwilling to buy it. Read first. . Whether the existence of the library has an impact on the book market has always been an issue. As far as I can see, the super best-sellers that sell well usually have a high borrowing rate in the library. The two are often positively correlated, but the correlation is not necessarily cause and effect. The cause and effect of mutual interference needs to be further explored. Books that sell well above a certain level basically break through the barrier of library lending, and a good sale is a good sale. If library lending will affect sales, it will be more likely to happen to books whose sales are not very popular, as well as some recreational books that can be flipped through quickly. And for readers like me, the role of the library is not necessarily bad for the book market. The library is equivalent to an additional inspection process before purchasing a book to determine whether you really like it and want to read it again and again. When the book is brilliant to a certain extent, you will naturally want to own it, and you can also annotate and write your experience on the book you bought. From this point of view, the library is a helper for the exhibition of slow-selling and classic books.

Speaking of this, I would like to complain from the consumer's point of view. When you open a book you just bought, you will sometimes feel cheated. The most common thing is that the sales copy is written better than the content of the book, otherwise the paper quality of the book The book is getting thicker and thicker, and the book is filled with unnecessary biographical introductions of authors, including letters and articles from related friends, and too many celebrity recommendations taking up many pages. Books are more common, I guess because business readers are more willing to spend more. I have also encountered a situation where the original book was disassembled into thin upper and lower volumes and sold separately. The introduction and reference materials of the two books were nearly half the length of the book. After I bought it, I felt cheated. When used books are sold. The uncomfortable point is not the amount, but the feeling of selling water-filled products to consumers in order to increase sales. In fact, after collecting a certain amount of books, I will find that space is very precious. I have to screen books from time to time, and sell or donate books that are too much water content, take up too much space and are not currently necessary. In addition to trying to raise book prices and increase profits, publishers have actually lost some readers, although I can understand that publishers cannot satisfy every type of readers, especially in harsh environmental conditions. . From an economic point of view, when the consumer market shrinks and profits decrease, the unit price of some types of commodities must increase (such as financial insurance commodities, drugs, drugs, and books?), and they tend to be sold to subjective and objective urgent needs. core consumers of such products. However, in such an ecosystem, many consumers will unconsciously develop some screening mechanisms, such as going to the library to read first, to ensure that they buy books that they really like instead of content that does not meet expectations.

When the economy gets tight, unless you're a big reader or a fan of a particular author, buying a book is usually the budget that gets saved first. From my experience of producing and selling books by myself, it has become more and more difficult to get readers to buy books out of their pockets over the past few years. They might compliment your work and even connect you with some job opportunities, but they don't necessarily buy books. I definitely don't mean to blame them, but the writers in this era must have a clear understanding: as long as they have read your works, even those who have not bought or paid any money for your works are still readers. Books as a commodity and your ability to write as a craft must be thought of separately. People who have not bought your book but have read your articles may also be nobles in your future career.

My strong relationship with books and reading should endure forever. Although in recent years, the consumption of books has become less and less, because of limited money and limited space (FIRE and separation are being implemented), however, the quality and taste of buying books have become more and more accurate, and the books left on the shelf , almost all of my favorite books. During the debate between 1111 e-commerce discounts and brick-and-mortar bookstores, many people put forward various views from the perspectives of publishers, bookstores, and consumers, and I also shared the idea of doing independent publishing, producing and selling in the countryside, and purely from observation of life. Local (marginal) viewpoints, no matter which viewpoint, I think we are all standing in different directions, facing the same changes of the times, and have made different interpretations and responses.