Will The Kindle Kill The Used Book Business?

kindleThere’s been a lot of speculation lately about what the future of reading will look like. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard a lot about the Kindle and a lot of peoples various opinions on what impact, if any, it will have on the publishing industry.

For those rock-dwellers out there, the kindle is Amazon’s handheld device for reading e-books and other electronic media. Since the original Kindle came out in late 2007, two new versions, the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, have already been released.

The Kindle isn’t the first attempt to replace paper books with digital counterparts, but it has certainly been the most talked-about and the most successful. Amazon has even developed a “Kindle for iPhone” app.

So should we all be looking for a new line of work? Is the paper book destined to go the way of the dodo? Will the Kindle kill the used book business?

No.

The first video ever broadcast on MTV, way back in 1981, was a song called “Video killed the Radio Star”. Only it didn’t. Turn on your radio and you’ll still find news, music, politics, advice and more up and down the dial. Video may have killed radio serials like The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet, but that’s about it.

The same principle holds true for the Kindle. Sure it may absorb part of the reading market, but what part do you think that will be?

I’ts going to be the casual buyers who read for entertainment. In other words, mass-market paperbacks, the books that aren’t worth trying to resell anyway. Buyers looking for specific non-fiction, textbooks, modern first editions and most of the other kinds of books you can actually make money on will still be in demand.

Besides that, the Kindle is still way too expensive to gain wide adoption. The Kindle DX sells for $489.00. That’s almost five hundred dollars! Way too much for most people to shell out, especially in this economy. Those who can just drop that kind of money on it are going to be those who are pretty well off, and were probably never looking for deals on used books in the first place.

There’s also a bunch of technical issues that Amazon is going to have to iron out. For one thing, the light text and poor contrast ratio on the Kindle 2 have led to complaints of eye strain and headaches. This is really a developing technology sector. Who knows how long it will take to fine tune the concept to fit the needs of the average consumer. The Kindle may be the clunky, expensive Laserdisc to the streamlined and affordable dvd and blu-ray formats of future digital books.

The bottom line is that books aren’t going anywhere any times soon, especially used books, and especially the kind of used books that you really want to be selling in the first place. So don’t go filling out employment applications at Starbucks just yet. After all, if video killed the radio star, why doesn’t MTV ever play music videos anymore?

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  • Kevin D

    Just received the Kindle DX last month I’m not sure I agree with all your points here. To me, the benefit is having numerous books and magazines available in one box. This morning I read the Free Press, some WSJ, and part of a book I’m reading. I don’t think the casual user will get near this device, especially due to the cost.
    I will admit that there are some things to get used to. I always have a book with me for those time when you are stuck in line or by a train. The fear of losing a $500 device keeps it in a safe place most of the time.
    Have had no problems reading the screen, but really wish they had put a backlight on it for nightime use.

  • Marie

    I don’t believe Kindle will be killing the paperback business anytime soon. I’ve noticed that while Kindle may gear towards more of the younger generation, a majority of the Senior population have a much harder time operating anything technological. If you want to make a senior citizen happy, buy him or her a paperback on LARGE print.

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  • Roger

    What has surprised me, as a used bookseller, is the perverse joy that I’ve encountered in people telling me I’m going to be out of business any day now. Most don’t even own a Kindle. But they are actively rooting for the destruction of physical books. There’s something profoundly anti-intellectual and mean-spirited about it.

    It’s kind of like the whole collapse of the music industry never happened, or that people are looking forward to a similar tragedy befalling the book world. I’m also reminded of the vitriol that people have unleashed at public school teachers recently…

    I’m beginning to think that Americans have a real problem with the ideas of learning and reading.

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