Where have all the old books gone?

Submitted by mwilliams on Fri, 2008-05-30 23:16.

In a very competitive culture that emphasizes newness and fashion, and promotes the reading of a current blockbuster which is forgotten in a moment's time, the backlist is a vanishing phenomenon. The volume of sales of one-year-old or older books is shrinking, while newer books capture an increasing share of the market.

Meaning some good books drop rapidly from cultural memory. What to do?

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Google Books. Also, limit copyright so that someone else can republish these books within the next couple of decades. Otherwise, we won't see these books for *at least* 75 years and probably longer.

Rat's Reading - http://reading.kingrat.biz/

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kingrat said on May 31st 2008

Hopefully digital availability (for full books, not just excerpts) will allow publishers to keep these books "in print" and in the public eye longer.

Travis @ BookGlutton

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talber said on June 26th 2008