On ebooks and Publishing. I figured one of the gurus of the site would have posted it.

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11504752


hidari

Here are a couple more to add to it.
The first one I believe has been posted before, However I havent seen the second one.

https://blog.oup.com/2008/06/ebooks-2/

http://blog.oup.com/2008/07/kindle_sony/

JJ

OK ... the article says "Though they are an improvement on a computer screen, e-book readers remain crude simulacra of books. A poll released by John Zogby at BEA found that 82% of Americans strongly prefer paper to pixels. None of the handful of e-book manufacturers will divulge sales figures. First-quarter sales of mass-market e-books in America have tripled since the same period in 2005, but they were worth just $10m."

I don't think 82 percent of Americans have even SEEN an ebook reader, much less compared one to a book on paper.

And, why is it ... that is so many Americans prefer regular books ... then any time I have my Kindle out in public, I draw a crowd of people who want to see what is is and how it works?? I'm sure I'd get the same crowd with any ebook reader.

I would like to know just how many people they polled. 100 maybe 200?? And, how would those numbers skew with regard to readers?? I mean, 82 percent of Americans don't read very much ... at all. A fair percentage are barely literate. So, are they in the 18 percent who prefer not being able to read (at all) on an ebook or in the 82 percent that can't read a paper book?

I'm not fond of articles that quote statistics and then fail to back them up or qualify them properly. I'm also not fond of people who do that .... it just smacks of "agenda" .... :)

I love it when they paraphrase the result of a poll without actually telling anyone what the questions were comprised of.

My guess is the question was along the lines of : "If given a choice would your prefer to read from a
A) conventional paper book or
B) an electronic device such as cell phone, PDA, computer monitor or other.

The sensible question would have been more along the lines of
Part 1: Have you seen or used a dedicated reading device?
If yes then:
Part 2: Would you rather
A) read from a paper book
B) read from a dedicated device
C) no preference.

But then that might not give a result wanted.

I love it when they paraphrase the result of a poll without actually telling anyone what the questions were comprised of.

My guess is the question was along the lines of : "If given a choice would your prefer to read from a
A) conventional paper book or
B) an electronic device such as cell phone, PDA, computer monitor or other.

The sensible question would have been more along the lines of
Part 1: Have you seen or used a dedicated reading device?
If yes then:
Part 2: Would you rather
A) read from a paper book
B) read from a dedicated device
C) no preference.

But then that might not give a result wanted.


Yup .... that's exactly why I said it smacks of agenda. They want a particular result, so they devise a poll and give it to a group of people that will give them the results they want. And, then they just quote the statistics without worrying about validity.

On the other hand, I'd summarise my feelings as geatly preferring the compact size of the lisseuse but the print and accessibility of the paper book. Just because size wins doesn't mean I'm happy with the lisseuse.

But gee, a survey by a traditional publisher that comes out strongly in favour of traditional publishing. I am *shocked* I tell you, shocked!

Hi I'm a newbie here. I found this thread is very informative. Thanks for sharing