In August, 3 million people read ebooks on their iPhones.
A school library in Massachusetts went digital.
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and other companies are investing more in ebook readers.
It looks like ebooks are finally becoming accepted.
I’ve been buying more ebooks than regular books, lately.
At first, it was non-fiction. I vowed to never read fiction on my iPod Touch or iPhone, but I gave in and read Jeffrey Ford’s The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque on the iPhone Kindle app. My wife is on an ebooks kick, lately — finally catching up on a pile of classics she’s wanted to read forever.
Does this mean we are done with regular books?
Of course not!
My wife loves The Complete Peanuts books, and the Annotated Sherlock Holmes books. I’d love to find a hardback copy of my favorite book. We like books.
I think there’s room for ebooks and regular books.
Even if there comes a day when ebooks are the norm, I don’t see physical books going anywhere. Subterranean Press and Golden Gryphon Press specialize in limited, special edition printings. Some readers will always love the sound and feel of a book in their hands, even if it’s just a paperback. And you don’t have to turn a book off during the first and last 10 – 15 minutes of a flight.
What do you think will happen as ebooks become more acceptable? Do you think they will never become the norm? If you think they will become the norm, what do you think will happen with books?
Discuss it below…
I’m not sure what will happen to ebooks and regular books. I’m interested in seeing what happens in the future.
For me, both have their places. There are things I don’t like about ebooks, and there are things I love about them. As you mentioned, there are times I will most certainly buy books for (and in fact, I’d love to replace some paperbacks with some nicer hardbacks in the future) and then there are things I will be happy just having an ebook for, or of course go to a library. I still haven’t read a lot of books on my iPhone yet, but we’ll see how it goes and what more I notice with my likes and dislikes. I also still see myself going to the library for those books I don’t want to buy.
Honestly, I’d love to think they’ll both have their places and just give us all more variety and options for how we read. I’d also like to think it will help get people reading more… again, as you mentioned, I’ve finally downloaded some classics I’d always meant to read. Our town’s library is limited, so I couldn’t get some of them there.
I think they will both have their place. The weight and feel of a book, the smell, too comforting to give up. And although I haven’t read ebooks, they are convenient and will probably continue to gain popularity. I don’t see either of them going away. As Tom, the librarian said when I was complaining about Kindle taking over the reading world, anything that gets and keeps people reading is okay with him. Now, I tend to agree.
I like the links you added to this post. Thanks.
Print is dead. Sorry. It is only a matter of time.
The good news is that a book was never the print and the binding, it was ALWAYS the content. The Torah is still the Torah whether it is passed from person to person via an oral tradition, stored on a scroll, bound in a codex, or stored in ones and zeroes.
I wonder if similar dialog occurred around the time of Gutenberg? Did the advent of the printing press mean the end of the artistry of the hand-written, hand-copied tomes so popular with monks and scribes of the day? Yes it did. But it was a trade-off. The increased accessibility of the mass-produced content was the game changer. I suspect the same thing will happen with eBooks. Eventually.
Larry,
I agree that it’s a matter of time before print as we know it is dead.
I think books will always exist, but they will be more collectible, with higher prices and low print runs. Hell, there are still people who bind books by hand and put their hearts into it…and people who collect books like that. But, in general, hand copied and bound tomes are long gone.
As a writer, I think there’s that dream of going into a bookstore and seeing something your wrote on a shelf. It makes it “real” to so many people, but there are people releasing their books for free as podcasts or ebooks who are making much more of a living than many of those with real books on shelves in bookstores.
You’re right: it’s the content that matters.
If I can get a free or affordable ebook and have it in my pocket at all times, what’s not to like. The only argument against ebooks that I’ve seen is that yes–you can’t read them while taking off and landing on a plane since electronic devices need to be powered off.
I’ve heard people talk about how ebooks will hurt Barnes and Noble and Borders. Well, B&N and Borders have hurt a lot of independent booksellers over the years, and I tend to buy books through Amazon. If I’m buying from a big company, I’m buying from the place that has what I want in stock and will ship to my door…not make me wait several days while they get it in and drive back to the store.
With ebooks, I don’t have to wait or pay for shipping. Paper is saved. I don’t have the clutter of new books everywhere in the apartment. What’s not to like?
An argument I’ve heard about Amazon in particular, is that with the Kindle, it can make Amazon a publisher. And traditional publishers aren’t keen on that idea.
Large publishers try grabbing all they can. Many small press publishers are owned by large publishing houses…they’re just an imprint of something larger. Large publishing houses are slow to change, so I can see why they are worried that Amazon may eventually become direct competition.
I don’t think there’s anybody who wants one company to be in charge of what’s published; I think the fears that Amazon will become that very thing are just that–fears.
People point to successful writers who released free or affordable content in electronic forms as exceptions, but any writer making a living writing is an exception. The average advance on a book is below poverty level, and that’s before an agent and government cut. Then that payment is handed out in 3 installments.
Writing isn’t a profession to enter for the money.
And if the likelihood of making money is so slim, why not work hard at getting known and releasing your own stuff electronically?
I’d take tens of thousands of ebook followers and enough money to pay for Web hosting over a small print run of a “real” book that maybe 975 people read any day.
At least with a following, I have a chance of something good happening.
Cynthia: I think we represent where books may go–buying hardback copies of cherished stories, and not caring so much how we consume other kinds of stories. Granted, I can’t loan an ebook to somebody like I can a physical book, but that will come along soon, I’m sure.
Both mediums definitely have their place. For affordability and always having a library in my pocket, I’m digging ebooks!
Mary: Yes, anything that gets people reading isn’t a bad thing. I love Stanza and the Kindle app for iPhone because I don’t have to buy a standalone device to read ebooks. (The iPhone screen isn’t too much smaller than the actual Kindle screen.)
The other thing that I like about e-readers is, as a writer, I can format my stories to several formats and offer my work directly to people who are enthusiastic about reading. It makes it a little easier than being one of a gazillion books in bookstores with no support from a publisher.
Things are definitely changing; I have no idea where they are going. I never try guessing where to move next–I just know that not fearing something new leads to more possibilities, and that’s always a good thing when dealing with something [writing] that is a long shot to begin with.