Why the situation is ripe for e-books

Alexander Turcic · 05-04-2006, 05:45 AM

Michael Mace not only has profound insight in the mobile tech industry, but he is also a talented writer. In his latest editorial Mike systematically analyzes why e-books, although so far they have been a failure in the consumer market, are ready to pick up steam. Some issues he raises:

inefficiency in the traditional publishing industry
lack of (financial) incentives for authors to write more books
high price of e-books
few new e-books are published per year
consolidation among book retailers drains profits from independent bookstores
decline of the short story market
books going out of print
insufficiency of e-book devices (contrast ratio, screen resolution)
book piracy.

My favorite quote:

So most of the value added by publishers is logistical - they manage the complicated production process, get the book placed in stores, handle returns, and so on. If the printing and bookselling process is bypassed, the value-add of most publishers goes away. And so, perhaps, does the publisher.

TadW · 05-06-2006, 10:34 PM

I cannot agree more, in particular on the quote that the need for publishers is so yesterday.

05-04-2006, 05:45 AM	#1
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,163 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	Why the situation is ripe for e-books Michael Mace not only has profound insight in the mobile tech industry, but he is also a talented writer. In his latest editorial Mike systematically analyzes why e-books, although so far they have been a failure in the consumer market, are ready to pick up steam. Some issues he raises: inefficiency in the traditional publishing industry lack of (financial) incentives for authors to write more books high price of e-books few new e-books are published per year consolidation among book retailers drains profits from independent bookstores decline of the short story market books going out of print insufficiency of e-book devices (contrast ratio, screen resolution) book piracy. My favorite quote: So most of the value added by publishers is logistical - they manage the complicated production process, get the book placed in stores, handle returns, and so on. If the printing and bookselling process is bypassed, the value-add of most publishers goes away. And so, perhaps, does the publisher.

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05-06-2006, 10:34 PM	#2
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,583 Karma: 1094606 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	I cannot agree more, in particular on the quote that the need for publishers is so yesterday.

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