| Sysop: | Amessyroom |
|---|---|
| Location: | Fayetteville, NC |
| Users: | 43 |
| Nodes: | 6 (0 / 6) |
| Uptime: | 108:40:19 |
| Calls: | 290 |
| Files: | 905 |
| Messages: | 76,698 |
On 1/3/2025 4:57 PM, Ahasuerus wrote:
On 1/3/2025 5:19 PM, Garrett Wollman wrote:
In article <vl9mo7$3fsk$1@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuireá <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
I am surprised SFBC lasted this long.á I have not ordered a book from it >>>> since the early 1970s.á I think that ôDuneö was the last book I bought >>>> from it.
I wrote a blog post more than a decade ago about how the book-club
business model no longer made any sense, and I am quite surprised that
it took the private-equity investors so long to come to the same
conclusion.
Certain business models can take a long time to be phased out. For
example, telegram services are still not quite dead (see this list of
companies -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Worldwide_use_of_telegrams_by_country). AT&T shut down its 411 service
just 2 years ago -- see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/
articles/2022-11-08/at-t-to-end-411-directory-saying-farewell-to-
telephone-operator-era
I wonder how paper books will fare over the next 50 years.
I would say that over half of dead tree books that I buy from Big River
are POD (print on demand). I suspect that MMPB is going away and will
be replaced with POD trade paperbacks for the novelty of them.
The real question is, is POD going away ? The POD machines are
reputedly high maintenance and not totally automated, yet. From what I
can tell, Big River has over a dozen POD machines across the USA which
cost well over a million USA Dollars each.
ôSFBC shutting downö
https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/1hsnqmd/sfbc_shutting_down/
ôReported in Ansible 450.ö
https://news.ansible.uk/a450.html#14
"The "How it works" page now says this:"
https://www.sfbc.com/how-it-works
"How Your Membership Works<br>Cancel anytime."
"After 2/1/2025, orders will no longer be processed at Science Fiction
Book Club."
"You can still redeem your existing credits on the site as normal until >2/1/2025."
"You can also still purchase books using a credit card on the site as
normal until 2/1/2025."
I am surprised SFBC lasted this long. I have not ordered a book from it >since the early 1970s. I think that ôDuneö was the last book I bought
from it.
On 1/4/2025 10:40 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
On Fri, 3 Jan 2025 18:39:31 -0600, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
On 1/3/2025 4:57 PM, Ahasuerus wrote:
On 1/3/2025 5:19 PM, Garrett Wollman wrote:
In article <vl9mo7$3fsk$1@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuireá <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
I am surprised SFBC lasted this long.á I have not ordered a book from it >>>>>> since the early 1970s.á I think that ôDuneö was the last book I bought >>>>>> from it.
I wrote a blog post more than a decade ago about how the book-club
business model no longer made any sense, and I am quite surprised that >>>>> it took the private-equity investors so long to come to the same
conclusion.
Certain business models can take a long time to be phased out. For
example, telegram services are still not quite dead (see this list of
companies -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Worldwide_use_of_telegrams_by_country). AT&T shut down its 411 service >>>> just 2 years ago -- see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/
articles/2022-11-08/at-t-to-end-411-directory-saying-farewell-to-
telephone-operator-era
I wonder how paper books will fare over the next 50 years.
I would say that over half of dead tree books that I buy from Big River
are POD (print on demand). I suspect that MMPB is going away and will
be replaced with POD trade paperbacks for the novelty of them.
The real question is, is POD going away ? The POD machines are
reputedly high maintenance and not totally automated, yet. From what I
can tell, Big River has over a dozen POD machines across the USA which
cost well over a million USA Dollars each.
The local drug store had one for a few months, but it apparently took
up more space than it was worth. IIRC and understood the signage
correctly, you could write your own book, format it properly, and
print it out. As well as, no doubt, a catalog of books written by
others.
That drug store is going away, which is a great loss. According to the
employee who advised me of this, it is because they lost their lease.
But they didn't have much stock (the parent company is just emerging
from bankruptcy so stock requires cash) and so can't have been doing
much business. Well, except the Pharmacy, I suppose.
The Amazon POD machines are the size of the drugstore. Supposedly they >print, collate, print the cover, apply the glue to the collation, glue
the cover to the collation, cut the book to the appropriate size using a >guillotine.
The book covers are made on separate machines feeding to the process.
The collations are B&W, the covers are high definition four color.
On 1/3/25 5:36 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
In article <vl9mo7$3fsk$1@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
ôSFBC shutting downö
https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/1hsnqmd/sfbc_shutting_down/ >>>
ôReported in Ansible 450.ö
https://news.ansible.uk/a450.html#14
"The "How it works" page now says this:"
https://www.sfbc.com/how-it-works
"How Your Membership Works<br>Cancel anytime."
"After 2/1/2025, orders will no longer be processed at Science Fiction
Book Club."
"You can still redeem your existing credits on the site as normal until
2/1/2025."
"You can also still purchase books using a credit card on the site as
normal until 2/1/2025."
I am surprised SFBC lasted this long. I have not ordered a book from it >>> since the early 1970s. I think that ôDuneö was the last book I bought >>>from it.
Lynn
I can still tell you what my membership number was for many years, until
they sold I guess. (I won't, but I can). In the post-Amazon years,
I would pretty much buy only the omnibi or art/comic offerings, but
still many fond memories.
Same here. When I first started reading this group in the mid-1990s, i >quickly learned that I'd had a non-standard intro to written SF, and
that I had missed a lot of the common classics most others had read.
SFBC was my primary way of "catching up", including their awesome >introductory deal at the time. I also greatly appreciated Andrew
Wheeler's contributions and insights here in rasfw over the many years
he was here.
I haven't been a member for years, but I'm sad to see it go,--
In article <vlbrvk$ibja$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
On 1/3/25 5:36 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
In article <vl9mo7$3fsk$1@dont-email.me>,
Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
ΓÇ£SFBC shutting downΓÇ?
https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/1hsnqmd/sfbc_shutting_down/ >>>>
ΓÇ£Reported in Ansible 450.ΓÇ?
https://news.ansible.uk/a450.html#14
"The "How it works" page now says this:"
https://www.sfbc.com/how-it-works
"How Your Membership Works<br>Cancel anytime."
"After 2/1/2025, orders will no longer be processed at Science Fiction >>>> Book Club."
"You can still redeem your existing credits on the site as normal until >>>> 2/1/2025."
"You can also still purchase books using a credit card on the site as
normal until 2/1/2025."
I am surprised SFBC lasted this long. I have not ordered a book from it >>>> since the early 1970s. I think that ΓÇ£DuneΓÇ? was the last book I bought >>>>from it.
Lynn
I can still tell you what my membership number was for many years, until >>> they sold I guess. (I won't, but I can). In the post-Amazon years,
I would pretty much buy only the omnibi or art/comic offerings, but
still many fond memories.
Same here. When I first started reading this group in the mid-1990s, i >>quickly learned that I'd had a non-standard intro to written SF, and
that I had missed a lot of the common classics most others had read.
SFBC was my primary way of "catching up", including their awesome >>introductory deal at the time. I also greatly appreciated Andrew
Wheeler's contributions and insights here in rasfw over the many years
he was here.
I haven't been a member for years, but I'm sad to see it go,
Tony
Interestingly, I never dropped out -- they just eventually stopped sending
me packets. I guess I wasn't profitable enough at the end. Somewhere
I have a stack of their booklets from the 70s onward when they still did >their own art.
I wonder if Columbia House is still around -- they chased me for years trying >to get me to renew.
Or MHS, from which I built a large collection of very good (if very
old) music.
Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
Or MHS, from which I built a large collection of very good (if very
old) music.
MHS always sent me records in boxes marked "Delicate Classical Music >Enclosed." But the music wasn't always delicate. Sometimes it was
heavy and ponderous. I got the von Karajan set of Beethoven symphonies
and it was anything but delicate.
kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes:
Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
Or MHS, from which I built a large collection of very good (if very
old) music.
MHS always sent me records in boxes marked "Delicate Classical Music >>Enclosed." But the music wasn't always delicate. Sometimes it was
heavy and ponderous. I got the von Karajan set of Beethoven symphonies
and it was anything but delicate.
I also got that one. I still consider it the best version of the
9th on vinyl (the tenor, in particular, was fine).
On Mon, 06 Jan 2025 15:07:38 GMT, scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:
kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes:
Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
Or MHS, from which I built a large collection of very good (if very >>>>old) music.
MHS always sent me records in boxes marked "Delicate Classical Music >>>Enclosed." But the music wasn't always delicate. Sometimes it was
heavy and ponderous. I got the von Karajan set of Beethoven symphonies >>>and it was anything but delicate.
I also got that one. I still consider it the best version of the
9th on vinyl (the tenor, in particular, was fine).
If you are referring to /9 Symphonien/, it's available on CD as well.
I listen to it when it comes up on my Final Playlist.