An interesting G&M article on the state of the publishing industry.
On discounts:
Indeed, they've been reinforced by the discount gambits practised by Costco, Wal-Mart and Amazon.ca, with the result that “purchases are more informed by price and less by the unique aspects of the individual book, including its literary or artistic merit.â€
On the plus side, it would appear that what Steve Jobs said about reading in the U.S. doesn't apply here.
... Canadians, unlike Americans, continue to be book buyers and readers (average time spent reading: 4.5 hours a week; average number of books read each year: 17; percentage of Canadians who buy at least one book a year: 81)
