I love ebooks. I’ve loved ebooks since I first found them a few years ago. Ever since, I have wanted to stick to ebooks only. When an entire shelf of books falls on you because you were less than careful in jiggling a particular title out, switching to ebooks has the potential to save your life.
But I didn’t make the switch. I couldn’t.
For one thing, fewer print books were on the online ‘aisles’ of ebook stores. I’m an equal opportunity reader and I like small e-pubs as much as big New York houses, but small e-pubs aren’t quite good enough when what you want is that latest release from Favorite Author who is NY pubbed.
Plus, I was a regular teenager. In other words, I didn’t have my own plastic, and therefore couldn’t buy ebooks. I’m inclined to say that this makes all that talk about young people getting into books through ebooks just talk at the moment, but I could be wrong. As a further digression from the main topic, I wonder if having us students do our research online instead of getting the research journals at the library means that more people will be switching to ebooks in the future—though to be fair, it could work the other way around and push people away from ebooks.
Skip a few years.
Right now, I’m at university, and living in a tiny hovel. It’s half the size of my room at home. I barely have space for myself, much less print fiction. Some of my friends think that our rooms are already fire hazards because of the reams of paper and textbooks, so maybe ebooks really will save my life. How’s that sound, ‘Save the trees, save the planet and save your life!’?
The point is that it all this points to ebooks for me, but only now. Not before.
Which brings me to this: is the perceived convenience of ebooks enough to make people switch? Or do they need a little bit more?
No related posts.
I will not switch until paper books no longer exist. I stare at a computer screen 12 hours a day for work, and my eyes need a break after that. The ereaders and file formats are at the phase where your favorite is going to be obsolete in a year, so with your next hardware upgrade, you’ll lose your entire book collection. Many publishers still aren’t on board with the ebook releases, so often the book I want isn’t available. One publisher I know of charges MORE for an ebook than a paper copy, another the same price, which is ridiculous since their publication costs are virtually nothing. Gadgets tend to get lost/stolen when you take them out in the world—not so with books. I could go on.
Adamantly not switching.
I love my books. I love the way they look on my shelves, and I love holding them in my hands. I know it’s silly of me, but when I finish a book in whih I’ve fallen in love with the story and the characters, it helps a little bit to still have the book to hold in my hands, even though I’ve finished the story.
I love my ink and paper books. I can’t imagine not having them. I’ll have to be forced to switch.
Do wonder if it’ll be a generational thing. My oldest two daughters, at 14 and 16 years of age, are on their laptops all the time. If something happens, I switch on the radio to hear the news, they search online. If we’ve chicken to use up, I’d look in my cookbooks, they’d google ‘chicken recipes’. They run their social life online – listen to music, watch TV – it may well be more natural for them to read books that way as well.
I think Marianne is right, just as I primarily use my cell-phone to actually make calls *gasp* – my generation still likes print books.
As with Kerry, I spend 10-12 hours per day in front of the screen, my wife complains that all she ever sees is the back of my head, spending more of it reading is something I have done but I still prefer paper books.
ebooks have some benefits, I can change the print size to whatever I feel comfortable, but I can’t read them in bed – unless I buy a laptop or ereader, something that seems like a needless expense.
For me the biggest hassle is the DRM, with a book you can just read it, with the ebooks, its all about making your life difficult. I just purchased an ebook that is a protected PDF file, now I have to keep the 12-digit password around because every time I want to open it up I have to type in the password. That will be the last time I purchase that format.
I just don’t understand the fervor over the copy-protection, every single ebook is encumbered by some sort of drm. Is there a vast underground of pirates just waiting for a plain-text book so they can spread it around? Will thousands of people be pirating the book instead of simply buying it? I doubt it. Look at the switch from drm to mp3 for music, for ebooks to really take off, they need to be drm-free and low cost, then maybe they will be attractive enough to be interesting to the majority of readers.
I have to say that Amazon’s new Kindle has me drooling a bit, but I will always prefer the feel of a book in my hands to reading a computer screen, no matter how “realistic” it might be.
Ebooks also open up a whole world of potential copyright infringement, so I’m not sure I’m a big fan…
I’m a bibliophile. I like books. Actual, physical objects. The revolution I’m waiting for is Print on Demand; Any Format You Like, so I can get my “keepers†in hardback and everything else in Trade, all on decent paper with reasonable margins (my world would be a happy happy place if I never had to buy a mass market book again!). But then, I’m so old-school I have a freaken degree in Book Arts (hand-set type, hand binding, etc.), so I’m naturally prejudiced on this topic.
One of my friends just got a Kindle and she’s loving it. I will admit that I’m thinking about getting one for travel. Lugging a dozen books with me onto a long international flight is a real pain (and maybe eFormat is the way to go for my mass market fiction).
::I just don’t understand the fervor over the copy-protection, every single ebook is encumbered by some sort of drm. Is there a vast underground of pirates just waiting for a plain-text book so they can spread it around?::
Actually, this is already a growing problem — there are several sites that “share” files of books for free. How they get those copies, I don’t know — scanned, maybe? I do know, however, that the only books of mine I’ve seen available (and publishers are very much on the case about stopping the piracy, BTW, but it has to be done on a book-by-book basis), have been available as e-books. My guess is those encryptions aren’t all that hard to break.
And yes, the potential for sharing one file an infinite number of times is very scary, much worse that reselling/sharing used books, which have a limited lifespan.
I agree with most people here. I love the smell of books I love coming home and feeling my books and relishing in the fact that I have them to move around and organize the way I want.
I work in a law office so I stare at a computer screen for 8 hours when I come home I write in the evenings for upwards of 3 hours. I really don’t want to sit in front of a computer to read a book (no matter how good it is) I save the few e-books I have for weekends when my eyes are less strained. I don’t think ebooks will be the only source anytime soon. too many of us enjoy the feel and smell of books to give them up or part ways with print.
Hey Kalen, you might be interested in checking out the Caravan Project–they are a non-profit devoted to helping publishers figure out how to publish in any format a reader wants (POD, large print, e, audio, etc.).
I don’t have a laptop, only a desktop and reading an ebook on my computer is ok, but not ideal. It doesn’t work in the bathtub and I can’t snuggle in bed with it, two of my favorite reading locations. Thus, I have only a few ebooks (books that are only available in e format). And even if I had a laptop, I’d rather turn a page than scroll. (In my 30s, might be a generational thing.)
I’ll probably switch to more ebooks than print books when someone makes a reader that meets my wants (Kindle looks cool but I’m not spending $400 to find out). I’m waiting for Apple to design one–I think they’d get it right.
I agree with almost everything everyone has said!
One thing I’d add is that on the computer, we’ve been trained to read differently. We “surf.” We “browse.” We skim material to find the piece of information we want/need. And we’re distracted by e-mail and other things fighting for our attention.
I’m willing to read short stories onscreen (to an extent, usually only from free e-zines like Strange Horizons) and even with those, I find myself skimming. Checking to see how long it is before I’m done. Having to haul myself back up to catch the bit I’ve missed.
That’s not giving the author the consideration s/he deserves. I always feel bad about that.
Like Susan, I imagine I’ll slowly slip over to the e-book side when a reader exists that does everything I want it to. But I believe that I’ll always prefer the feel and look of an actual book I can hold in my hands, glance through easily, and anticipate the turning of each page.
I just could not give up the physical act of holding a book in my hand as I read. I love how they feel. I am adicted to how they smell: paper and glue and something indefinable. Looking around my apartment right now, I have books scattered everywhere. They are part of my environment. I would not have it any other way.
I think there are a few issues.
First, as shown by the above, a lot of people just prefer the experience of paper books. So long as that’s the case, there are going to be paper books to sell to the people who prefer them.
Second, as you mentioned, a lot of really great writers are still only published on paper. So long as that’s the case — and more specifically, so long as a lot of my favorite writers are only published on paper — I’ll keep buying paper books and so will a lot of other people.
Third, until we have some way of guaranteeing that we’ll still be able to read the e-book we buy today twenty or thirty years from now, there’ll always be a distrust of them. What happens when the file for my favorite e-book is corrupted? What if it’s out of “print?” There’s no used market for e-books, so unless I want to ask around and get a pirated copy from a friend (do I have any friends who have that same title? maybe and maybe not) I’m out of luck.
For that matter, what happens if you have 5,000 titles on your Amazon Kindle, or some other proprietary format reader, and Amazon decides to move on to another format? Or is bought by a bigger company and that company decides it’s not interested in the Kindle and trashes it? Or if Amazon goes bankrupt and the Kindle is lost to the technological scrapyard? Whatever — my point is that something which makes the Kindle (or any given proprietary reader and book format) no longer viable is likely to happen eventually. At that point, your Kindle (or whatever) is a time-bomb and as soon as it breaks down and you can’t get it repaired or replaced, those 5,000 titles all go poof.
If I have a paper book, I can read it. It doesn’t depend on any secondary piece of technology which might break or become obsolete or unavailable. I can buy a book published in 1856 and read it, but I have computer games I bought in 1990 that I can’t play because I don’t have any hardware that will run them. The same will happen with e-books unless someone figures out a work-around. Except the companies selling us proprietary readers and proprietary-format e-books have absolutely no interest in figuring out a work-around because it doesn’t earn them any money.
Until someone can guarantee the integrity of my e-book collection in the long-term, I’ll keep buying paper books. And as my favorite e-books are made available on paper, I’ll get paper copies of those too. I love the idea of e-books, and there are a lot of excellent writers whose work isn’t available any other way, but at this point I don’t trust the current formats to still be with us thirty years from now.
Angie
My take as an author is…I don’t much care what format people buy my books in, as long as they buy them.
As a reader…nope, not interested in e-books for pretty much all the reasons already mentioned. Not that I can’t see how convenient e-readers/books would be in the vacation or small apt scenario, but that wouldn’t seem to be enough reason for most people to switch from paper.
And Angie has an excellent point, which I’d never really considered before. Shoot, I still feel safest printing out copies of my as-yet-unsold manuscripts, since old computers don’t reboot forever and disks get corrupted and such. Yeah, if my house burns down, I’m screwed, but that hasn’t happened yet. Corrupted disks, however — those, I know alllll about.
We’ve been waiting for e-books to “take over” the industry for at least a dozen years now. All my Silhouettes are now published in mass market, large print, and e formats. Thus far, my e-book numbers don’t even make up half of one percent of my overall sales. As for the college/high school generation being down with e-books…not from what I gather. Yeah, they’re more plugged in, perhaps, than their elders, but they apparently don’t associate reading for pleasure with a screen, either. Interesting, no?
Personally I find scrolling to be far more a pain in the butt — or fingers/wrist — than flipping through pages. I’m reading a book right now on my laptop, and it’s driving me nuts (the laptop reading thing, not the book). I realize some e-readers work differently — clicking instead of scrolling, for example — but still. It just does not appeal.
And apparently, I’ve got lots of company.
I love print. I love eBooks. But I read on a (relatively) inexpensive device, the eBookwise. I can read it anywhere, and it holds a ton of book, plus they’re stored on the company site as well. I can upload my own content in a variety of formats (not all — and THAT’S what’s holding back an eBook explosion, I think – plus an affordable reader.)
I can read with one hand, pushing an easy to reach button to go forward or backward, dog ear a page, and the device always knows where I left off.
When I find a new author I can catch up on a backlist and don’t have to empty another bookshelf. Or buy another bookcase.
I can’t read on my computer for pleasure, though — I can’t be comfortable sitting at a desk, or on my laptop. And I edit as I read.
I don’t understand why everyone makes a fuss about “switching.” Each has its own pluses and minuses, and there’s room for both.
I am doomed to be an unsuccessful evangelist, I see.
I’m sorry I’m late to the party because I totally forgot that I’m not twelve hours behind any more–it is my first post since I’ve gotten here–so I won’t respond to the individual comments.
I know a lot of people keep telling me that they already stare for too many hours at a screen. Can’t really argue with that, and I’d agree that it is generational.
As to DRM, I believe it is necessary, and DRM isn’t something that applies only to ebooks. Most media (music, movies etc) you buy online is subject to the same constraints. But at the same time, I don’t think that it is that cumbersome–and I read my ebooks on multiple devices–though it certainly could be less so. However, I’ve not bought ebooks in PDF format (it’s the standard for e-ARCs and I hate reading in PDF), but I’ve not heard good things about it. I think one of the Janes wrote about it on DearAuthor.
Robert brings up copyright infringement. All I can say is that ebooks only make it easier, to some extent. There are truly dedicated people out there who scan entire books and stick them online. FYI, I do not believe that information wants to be free.
I get that the issues about platform/format. But the truth is, it’s worth it for me to risk it because I can’t move all the books home at the end of the three years. Maybe I’ll change my mind, but right now, it’s not likely.
Moreover, I’m not interested in a dedicated ebook reader. I like multi-purpose gadgets. Therefore I wouldn’t get books in a format that’s readable only by one device and I think this spreads out the risk a little.
I don’t know that ebooks are a generational thing. I’m a sixties baby and I would love to try ebooks but am unable to find a top notch paper ink style ebook reader supported in New Zealand. I know all my own titles are released in ebook format and I think I’d buy more books if I could get them in ebook format.
Here in New Zealand, depending on our dollar against the greenback and whatever the freight companies decide to charge, we’re paying between NZ$20 and NZ$25 for a standard single title paperback. Trade paperbacks are upwards of $30-$35! If I could buy online and download a book for US$7.99 I would because that would only equate to about NZ$9.99. I tried ordering a Sony digital reader recently online but because my credit card isn’t with a US based finance company I couldn’t complete the transaction. Kindle is even worse, because it’s features are not supported at all outside of North America.
I love reading books. Actually, I love reading, period. While I think I’ll always have paper books, while they’re available, I’d really like the option to try something else with a decent sized reading screen that almost ‘feels’ like a book to read it.
Ooh, that’s one point I should have brought up in my post.
I live in the UK, and the current USD/GBP exchange rate is something like 1.9USD to the pound. A regular sized paperback costs 6.99 pounds, whereas the same title in ebook format probably costs about 6.99USD. In other words, buying all my books in ebook format effectively doubles my spending power.
Yvonne, I feel for you, because I do sort of know how you feel. I delayed buying an iPod until I knew for certain that I would be moving somewhere where I could buy direct from iTunes.
I work full time on a computer, but my screens are eye friendly. I type rough drafts on my alphasmart, but really don’t watch that screen much as I go, since I prefer to edit on the desktop.
I do almost all of my pleasure reading on my palm Z22. I can change the type and background to suit me, it is backlit for dim light. I love the size and the scroll feature for when I feel really lazy, or want to snuggle under the covers on a cold Wyoming night!
I’m finding more and more mainsteam writers in ebook. Amanda Quick, Julia Quinn. How odd to read a historical on a palm!
I adore it!( and no, I’m not young!) Don’t miss print at all. I love the book mark and note features for research books and my own WIPs.
I’m not convinced it’s generational. My kids all want paper books. I’m one who tends to hit the computer if I want a new recipe, want to check the weather forecast, catch breaking news.
I use my computer for so much. I just don’t want to read books on it.
I’m thrilled there are options. Anything that encourages reading is a big plus in my view. My option is paper.
I agree with you on E-books. Times are-a chaingin’ and the publishing industry is beginning to change with it—they have to. In this age of save the planet, you would think they would be happy to have another venue whereby people can have their cake and eat it too, and not kill a million trees.
The downside is that every writer wants a book to hold and there are many readers who will never go by way of the e-book. They are going to have to learn to embrace this new and exciting concept.
~They are going to have to learn to embrace this new and exciting concept.~
See, this is where I object. As I said I’m delighted there are options. But I don’t HAVE to learn to embrace e-books as a reader. I don’t want to read on a computer. My choice.
I don’t think this should be an either or discussion. Both can happily co-exist. I have ebooks in pdf format because I prefer it but it means I can’t read them on my pda. Still I buy ebooks because I like the immediacy and I like the fact it is not taking up room – which is really important because I’m supposed to be downsizing. When I have my big house I will be back to buying paperback books but i won’t give up buying ebooks.
I completely agree with Nora. The options are great. But eliminating paper entirely will only shrink an already shrinking market, since readers who don’t want to read on a screen will simply go find old paper books to read. We already have a huge problem with illiteracy in this country — somehow, I can’t see telling someone who can barely afford food that s/he needs a computer or dedicated device just to read books.
Perhaps within several generations paper will no longer be an option…but “they” said we’d all be traveling in flying cars by now, too.
I know I came down rather strong on the side of ebooks, because that is very much my preference, but by no means am I arguing that everyone should switch.
What I’m asking is, what would make you switch? It’s why my post discusses why I finally made the switch.
Somebody (Dayle?) made a comment about reading differently on screen. I’m not sure that it’s much different from reading the Economist or newspapers, because how many of us read every single sentence instead of just skimming? I read research papers online (my university library no longer provides them in print), and I’d like to think I actually read them, not just skim.
Rae, what OS is your PDA? Adobe has readers for Palm, Symbian and maybe Linux handhelds.
Well, I for one love my eBookwise reader but I do think a dedicated reader is the way to go for a couple of reasons.
One, it mimics a book. Yes, there is nothing like holding a paperback in one’s hands, but a well-designed reader isn’t really all that different once one gets used to it. And it some ways it’s better, like in the eye-strain department.
Two, it takes away that “stuck at the computer” aspect. Because even if you’re still reading the books on a PDA or similar device, aren’t you still “stuck at the computer” in a sense? And there’s just nothing like having your reading interrupted by ringing from inside it, is there? Hehehe.
Of course, I just posted on my blog today (that’s finally moved) that I get real cranky when one of my children takes the reader hostage, so that’s a major disadvantage.
There’s a place for both ebooks and paper books in my life. While it would be nice to actually hold a paper book with my name on the front cover, I’m happy that I’m ebook published.
For my own convenience, I find ebooks on my Dell Axim PDA are really great. I travel a lot and for long journeys where I would get through a couple of paper books from Point A to Point B – anything from 7 to 10 hours – the PDA is far easier to cart around. Instant download and cost are also factors – 6.99 GB pounds as opposed to 6.99 US dollars – no contest.
I’m also not convinced it’s generational. I’m almost 50 and love ebooks. I read them on a Dell Axim PDA too, and it’s so wonderful for traveling, especially when I’m going to be gone for a while.
However, I don’t buy all my books in ebook format because:
-I like to read in the backyard in the sun during the summer.
-For some reason, I find I don’t like to reread books on the PDA, so if I know I’m going to be rereading it (a favorite author), I buy it in print copy.
-Biggie: I share books with my sister! Obviously, I can’t do that with ebooks. (I’m hoping someday they give you the ability to give up a license for a while and then get it back.)
Perhaps I was a little fast on the fingers and didn’t say what I meant to.
Back in the day, I was actually fearful that E-books might take the place of a “real†book and went to great lengths to express that opinion when all types of E-readers began to flood the Amazon market.
Knowing how hard it is to get published with traditional publishers (and it is hard not matter how good your work is and you don’t want to get me started with that), E-books were a new and novel way for a writer’s to see their work in some kind of print other than on their PC.
I sit before a PC all day myself, and would much rather hold a novel in hand (or Audio), but I can tell you that I have read some truly above average E-books that really deserve to have their place on a shelf but might never get there.
When I said that they will have to embrace the concept, I really was talking about traditional publishers.
It’s about the money and as I have said many times, I can remember when traditional publishers wouldn’t DREAM of taking a query, synopsis etc via E-mail, now almost every one of them does. I was merely talking about change. No one, especially anyone in Ms. Nora’s category should HAVE to EMBRACE anything they don’t want to.
If I look back at all the things that seemed like scifi to me years ago–texting, video-conferencing, even the Internet… I am of the firm belief that the day will come when ebooks will be very mainstream. Just don’t know how far down the road.
Already the students at the college where I work are no longer using textbooks (but they get their material on a “private” electronic bulletin board when they enroll in a class). This is a generation that will have learned how to read, do research, and many other things electronically.
I think it is generational, but I’m not sure which generation–perhaps a few down the road.
Oh, meant to add that I’m a very poor example of the right way to read an ebook–I actually turn paper over that’s in the recycle bin at work, put crappy toner in my printer, and print on the old paper.
Becca! You’re a godsend! I’m a bit of a technophile and had no idea I could use my Z22 as an ebook reader! Have downloaded the software that was on my installation disk (that I’ve had for over a year!) and am figuring out how to do everything…now here’s hoping I don’t go blind reading the teeny tiny screen! Which is primarily why I wanted to get the Sony (and apparently their ebook store isn’t supported outside of the US either, grrr! Although you can download books from other e-book vendors to a Sony, right?)
d’uh, I meant technophobe… maybe it was just wishful thinking that I be a phile and not a phobe
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Fun to see the fifty year olds chiming in! I’m 51.
Yvonne, I added mobipocket to my palm and prefer it. For one thing, I can buy a pdf from even the smallest epublisher, and convert it easily to mobipocket on my desk top. Many free, classic books are easy to find in online libraries in PDF. I reread a batch of old Murray Leinster sci fi recently.
There is also a free program that will convert your LIT files to mobi so you can read former purchases on the palm( most of my purchases before the palm were LIT). Mnay of my former purchases languished in a file unread until I got the Palm.
And don’t forget–pop it into a ziplock and you can read in the bathtub by candlelight!
Mine holds between twenty and thirty books, and it autosaves your stopping place, very handy.
If you write, you can convert your current wip to mobi and read through –it also has a note function in the reader.
PS. If you have ebooks that are not stored at the online bookseller on your digital shelf, then back them up. Gmail has a document function–I backup all mine there.
I don’t find ebooks all that convenient yet. I’m sure when I get a hand-held reader that will allow me to load any format I want to, it’ll change, but right now the ebooks on my computer waiting for me to read them are just sitting there and not likely to be opened anytime soon.
Becca, thanks for the advice. Others have recommended Mobipocket to me also, but I wasn’t certain I could use it on the Z22 (mind you, there’s a wealth of functions on the thing that I had no idea of by the looks of things!)
Yes, you can definetly use mobipocket on the Palm z22!
I love the feel and smell of books. The library is one of my favorite places.
But I love ebooks just as much. I mostly read ebooks. This has many reasons. Books are expensive in Finland (heavy taxes), so getting an ebook is much cheaper. Another of the reasons is because finding my favorite authors in bookstores can be really difficult, even if I read in three languages. Go online and find a ebook, and it’s alot easier, and you get to read it in the original language.
Finding ebooks has opened a whole new world for me, there are just so much more books to choose from. Even if reading ebooks can be tiring for the eyes (I mostly use my laptop) I wouldn’t part from my ebooks at any cost.