A Fourth issue for thoughtful debate - what's holding back electronic books?

[jbcohen]

As far as I can see there are several factors that are holding back electronic books taking a larger share of the book publishing market:

1) Prices - a lot of potential customers simply do not want to pay that much.
2) Scared of technology - My own mrs and parents are like this they would preferr not to deal with technology at all. I am a network administrator so this is not really an option for me as my whole livelyhood is made working with thechnology.
3) Publishers do not make their products available in electronic format - For example Golden Eagle, publishers of Executioner, Super Bolan, Stony Man, Outlands, Deathlands and Rogue Angel. If they are available in electronic thats from a reseller not the publisher.
4) Don't know - A lot of my friends do not know what an ereader is and what they do.

[GeoffC]

Geographical Restriction on the books....

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

As far as I can see there are several factors that are holding back electronic books taking a larger share of the book publishing market:

Technology:
The screens still aren't as reflective as paper.
The screens are lower resolution than paper.
The screens are more fragile than paper.
The screens aren't a quick to turn (or flick through) as paper.

Economics:
Ebooks aren't as cheap as they should be.
Ebook readers aren't cheap (although they're getting there.)

Business Practises:
Ebooks are encumbered with DRM.
Ebooks aren't as widely available as they should be.


Mostly though, I suspect it's the usual inertia. Most people see no need to change, or may not have noticed that ebook readers are now a practical proposition (despite the drawbacks listed above).

Practical ebook readers really haven't been around for very long. I ordered my first E-Ink ebook reader, a Bookeen CyBook through NAEB on 1st January 2008, and receive it in late February/Early March 2008.

In other words, even an early adopter, like me, has only had what we'd today recognise as a proper ebook reader (paper-like screen, long battery life) for nearly three years. (And the CyBook cost me just over $400 — about three times the cost of the Kindle 3!)

New technology, increases in volume, and competition, will all work over the next five years to make ebook readers really mainstream and more affordable.

But it's simply the time for people to now become aware of them that I think will make the most difference.

[david_e]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Geographical Restriction on the books....

Please forgive my ignorance on this subject (still rather new to the entire e-book experience and all it entails) but is this because of copyright laws? For example, a US based publisher only owning the rights to publish the book in the US and no other publisher being able to acquire the rights for international sale until a certain length of time has expired?

This is the only idea I could think of at this exceptionally early hour.

[elcreative]

Yes, rights have traditionally been sold on a geographic basis... now an outdated mode but one with a massive overhead of existing contracts...

Originally Posted by david_e

Please forgive my ignorance on this subject (still rather new to the entire e-book experience and all it entails) but is this because of copyright laws? For example, a US based publisher only owning the rights to publish the book in the US and no other publisher being able to acquire the rights for international sale until a certain length of time has expired?

This is the only idea I could think of at this exceptionally early hour.

[Bald Eagle]

The problem is not geographical restrictions on ebooks per se, books had had them for a long time.
The problem is the definition of 'point of sale' for ebooks which is not where the book is sold (and the 'copy' as per copyright is actually created - namely the server it is sent from to you), but the place it is sold to - your home.
So while an e.g. american bookstore can and will happily send geo-restricted paper books to any address outside the US it cannot do that with ebooks.

[Anthem]

Lack of imagination?

A two-pronged complaint: the consumers and the producers are confusing matters.

As of this very moment e-books are print book impersonators. Undercover agents that were found out a long time ago but don't know it. The list of inadequacies when compared directly with what they are impersonating is voluminous but that is to be expected. Many performers think they do a good Arnold Schwarzenegger, but so few really do. That is the situation e-books find themselves in.

E-books, as they are right now, are probably a dead end. They are electronic versions of books that are slightly more convenient to store and retrieve but significantly less convenient to actually consume. Even something basic like turning back a couple pages (you don't quite know how many so you leaf backwards) in order to find out who it is that the author is quoting again represents a significant expenditure of time when compared with the same activity in a printed book. Even a quickly scrolling reader like the Sony can't match the convenience of keeping a finger in the page and flipping back a few or scrolling back up on a web page in your web browser. E-books, as they are maturing, seem to have settled themselves in an awkward middle zone where they fail to embody many of the conveniences of what we have come to think of as electronic media while also failing to embody the traditional comforts and conveniences we associate with their progenitors.

Thankfully nothing is set in stone at this point and we can be mystified and encouraged as things continue to develop. When I got my first Palm M105 back in high school and began reading e-books alongside printed books I was excited by the possibilities even though I was unable to see what those possibilities might be. Today, all these years later, it seems that the shadow is still vague. We are still beating away on the same drum and even though the thrumming appears to be attracting more and more people to our little tribe it isn't apparent that our war cries are anything more than ephemeron.

Running foot/end notes is still cringe inducing (even with touch screens). Flipping while maintaining your position brings a curse to my lips every time (and you never realize how often you do this until you invest more heavily). Storage turns out to be not so clear an activity (I have the virtual equivalent of four bookshelves on my computer, all staged in different places and occasionally I just can't remember where it is at (indicating I may need to start a database that merely keeps track of where each e-book is stored kinda like my book software that keeps track of where each real book is stored in my home)). Even paltry format issues (which should be a forgotten thing of the digital past) and ass-sideways "Digital Rights" management (which is an issue we really should have tackled a long time ago but foresight is rarely an occurrence one sees in relation to modern law and specifically a problem with copyright law) rear their ugly charmed heads in order to taunt us with incessant zeal. Speaking of copyright, the traditional understanding of copyright as an agreement between the content authors and the public is basically completely toast at this point and content authors seem to have the belief that their control of the content always should have and now can (thanks to the digital guard dog software potentialities) be fully enforced and every single one of our viewings of a copyrighted piece of work is now watched and policed.

It goes on forever.

So, I blame it all on a lack of imagination. We all see the digitization of books as something to be mostly desired and we enjoy consuming them in that fashion. However, we are (again!) mostly unable to comprehend them as anything but an electronic version of something we already have except loaded with its own inherent difficulties (printed books have them as well, they are just different from the ones that e-books have!). As long as that persists they may be held back.

I would love to make a distinction though: being held back in potential and being held back in popularity are wildly different things to claim. E-books as they are right now, without any modifications whatsoever, may become hugely popular without embracing any of the imaginative possibilities that we should expect from our electronic empire.

I guess I'm done for now. As you requested something thoughtful I thought it would be good to restrict my reply to a long and horribly tortuous post rather than a short "Oh, heres what I think...[list of five nearly incomprehensible problems]..." type thing.

I apologize to the world.

[WillAdams]

The most striking electronic ``book'' I've ever seen was the Corbis _Leonardo da Vinci_ multimedia CD-ROM --- a presentation of the Codex Leicester which Bill Gates had purchased at auction and other materials:

http://www.businessweek.com/1996/49/b350428.htm

Things like the Periodic Table of Elements app for the iPad are blurring the distinction between book and app --- it'll be interesting to see other things like to that.

Similarly, the website for the book _Bembo's Zoo_ is much cooler (if you have Flash) than the printed version:

http://www.bemboszoo.com/Bembo.swf

William

[DixieGal]

I think that when school books for young children in all grades become electronic, readers will be part of daily life. With all of the concern over too much homework and too heavy backpacks, I think some version of this is coming soon. Probably as net book-sized computers. But that would signal the 11th hour for print books if a generation grows up reading ebooks.

Every successful business has a business model - I don't believe that book publishers do. They are scared, greedy and won't learn from history. They see what the Internet has done to print advertising and newspapers and fear the same fate - of course they are on the same track - they just don't know it yet.

As an example, Marketing 101 teaches that halving price doubles market yet publishers don't understand that (or don't want to).

Also, they have large infrastructure costs for "dead wood" products - these won't go away unless they learn how to deal with the inevitable consequences of their current track.

Finally, DRM is a disaster - dead wood books don't have DRM - I can lend my dead wood books to anyone I choose, and for as long as I want - can't do that with ebooks.

Until publishers realize that charging the same price for an ebook as a dead wood book, AND putting DRM on the ebook as well, is a losing proposition ebooks will not take off.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Bald Eagle

The problem is not geographical restrictions on ebooks per se, books had had them for a long time.

Not in my experience - If I wanted a book from elsewhere I could buy it and pay all the necessaries and receive it via mail/courier. Not so, increasingly, with ebooks.

Only in the last 18 months/2 years have e-stores been forced to restrict their sales geographically.

[hal2814]

I resisted eReaders for a long time. I still have some issues with them. For starters, there's this whole size issue. The 5"-7" readers are very novel-centric. It's hard to read something like a pdf on them. If you go big like the Kindle DX, you get the size you need to read larger-format books but at the expense of now having a bulky object to carry around. Paper books come in all shapes and sizes to suit the book's needs.

Then there's the cost. I bought my Kindle 2 refurbished for $140. I later bought my wife's K2 for $110 refurbished. That's a lot of cash for someone who previously bought primarily used books at $2-$5 each. What got me over the price hurdle? Two things: 1. I found an electronic copy of an out-of-print book that generally goes for around $100 on eBay or Amazon. 2. The Kindle has basic internet service so I can check my email on it without paying a monthly fee.

Then there are the lesser quirks. I can't just take the Kindle anywhere. I can't leave in the Jeep like I do with a paperback book at any given time. I have to turn it off when I'm on a plane that's taking off or landing. I have to really take care of it because all of my ebooks books are on there.

But I do love my Kindle and these are some big reasons why:
1. All of my ebooks are on there so I don't have to pick and choose before I leave the house.
2. I get a web browser on it.
3. There are some small recreational games available for when I'm in a reading lull.
4. I can easily smoke a cigar without putting down the book.
5. You can order a book and start reading it immediately from wherever I am (in the US). (You can also get a sample to read if you're not sure you'll like the book.)

I think eventually my biggest gripe with eReaders will require me to get two different sizes of reader. Cost is cost. If it ever bothers me that much there are less scrupulous ways to get what I want to read. As far as the lesser quirks, I guess they are just the price of progress. But those were my roadblocks. I'm not saying that anyone else has the same hangups or that my reasoning is typical, but the switch to eReader is currently not a win-win and until it is paper books will continue to co-exist.

[Bald Eagle]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Not in my experience - If I wanted a book from elsewhere I could buy it and pay all the necessaries and receive it via mail/courier. Not so, increasingly, with ebooks.

Only in the last 18 months/2 years have e-stores been forced to restrict their sales geographically.

You can buy paper books from everywhere without problems despite geographical restrictions because the sale takes place at the site of the shop (which obviously is in an allowed region).
This is not true for ebooks where the point of sale is your place, even if the logic of that ruling quite escapes me.

[leebase]

The pricing is a non issue. I've seen no indication that people have stopped buying ebooks because of pricing. They may not buy a particular book, or books from particular publishers -- but they still read ebooks. There are far more and cheaper options for ebooks than paper books.

Lee

[OtterBooks]

ebook market share as per AAP stats:

August 2007: .58%
August 2008: 1.19%
August 2009: 3.31%
August 2010: 9.03%

What's holding back electronic books from taking a larger share of the market?

Nothing?