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Ebooks Are NOT DEAD

by dougp
6 replies
In matter of fact, they are alive and well .

I have stumbled across an interesting article that you can check out here: Oxford English Dictionary 'will not be printed again' - Telegraph


In short, the Oxford English Dictionary MAY NEVER be printed again because their internet sales are so massive. The annual fee for the current edition is 240 euros! In short, ebook sales are doing well. One lesson to learn from this which is to agglomerate specializes and hard to find data, as people are willing to consistently pay a lot of money for this.

I'm not saying that you should try and compete with Oxford and hire a team of lexicographers yourself to do decades worth of research, because thats not practical. However, you can hire college students to do research utilizing various libraries to compile data that is hard to find on the internet in a different specialized niche market... just some friendly suggestions .

Doug
#dead #ebooks
  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    Those who THINK they are dead are probably having no luck with them. Those of us who have done our research, and who have been successful, know quite well that eBooks aren't dead.

    Originally Posted by dougp View Post

    In matter of fact, they are alive and well .

    I have stumbled across an interesting article that you can check out here: Oxford English Dictionary 'will not be printed again' - Telegraph


    In short, the Oxford English Dictionary MAY NEVER be printed again because their internet sales are so massive. The annual fee for the current edition is 240 euros! In short, ebook sales are doing well. One lesson to learn from this which is to agglomerate specializes and hard to find data, as people are willing to consistently pay a lot of money for this.

    I'm not saying that you should try and compete with Oxford and hire a team of lexicographers yourself to do decades worth of research, because thats not practical. However, you can hire college students to do research utilizing various libraries to compile data that is hard to find on the internet in a different specialized niche market... just some friendly suggestions .

    Doug
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Coleman
    Yikes. That is great and scary at the same time. Things are changing fast. By the way, I love the old hardcore scholarship where these guys devote decades of their lives to a project. Amazing.

    Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by dougp View Post

    The annual fee for the current edition is 240 euros! In short, ebook sales are doing well.
    Let's bear a few little things in mind, here (I've done occasional editing/proofreading for OUP and happen to know a little bit about this one) ...

    (i) The price of the (full-sized) OED, the last edition, was incomparably more than 240 Euros

    (ii) It has a highly unusual sales history: basically, it sells to almost every University in the world (even in non-English-speaking countries), to publishers, newpapers, some magazines, and other educational institutions (in English-speaking countries) - very few "private individuals" have ever bought it (they buy the "Concise" and "Shorter" versions)

    (iii) Univerisities and colleges want it for their library, and it's far more convenient for them to have access to an online version which can be consulted from multiple terminals and so on

    (iv) It's really not representative of any other publication in the world, including in the world of lexicography

    (v) By no stretch of the imagination is it, or will it ever be, an "e-book"

    I'm "just saying".
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    • Profile picture of the author dougp
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Let's bear a few little things in mind, here (I've done occasional editing/proofreading for OUP and happen to know a little bit about this one) ...

      (i) The price of the (full-sized) OED, the last edition, was incomparably more than 240 Euros

      (ii) It has a highly unusual sales history: basically, it sells to almost every University in the world (even in non-English-speaking countries), to publishers, newpapers, some magazines, and other educational institutions (in English-speaking countries) - very few "private individuals" have ever bought it (they buy the "Concise" and "Shorter" versions)

      (iii) Univerisities and colleges want it for their library, and it's far more convenient for them to have access to an online version which can be consulted from multiple terminals and so on

      (iv) It's really not representative of any other publication in the world, including in the world of lexicography

      (v) By no stretch of the imagination is it, or will it ever be, an "e-book"

      I'm "just saying".

      For the price, i was referring to the online edition, as i just got that from the article. For points ii-iv, i was more than aware of it, and believe that i factor this into the article. I said that it would be impractical to try and compete with the oxford dictionary, but there are still lots of money to be made selling information in highly specialized but lucrative niche markets. It requires some creativity and elbow grease, but it still can be done. For point v, is this a joke? If it is not, then you can use your favorite search engine to find the veracity of the statement. Cheers.

      Doug
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  • Profile picture of the author abhi1
    I love ebooks. They are perfect when you have to do a short
    step-by-step blueprint sort of presentations. Webinars, videos &
    audios don't always work out as perfect as ebooks do...
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