Quote:
Originally Posted by MaggieScratch
Cory doesn't appear to see his ebooks as replacements for his pbooks. That's why he gives them away. He sees them as sales drivers for his pbooks.
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I think Cory, like most publishers, hasn't quite come to terms yet with the idea that the content... the actual literature... can be wholly divorced from its packaging, and still have a significant worth. Or maybe he just believes that no one else will accept that idea anytime soon. After so many years of publishers' charging premium costs for hardbacks, then adjusting prices according to the type of packaging, as opposed to the actual content, it's easy to understand why publishers (and consumers) have a hard time thinking otherwise... this site has ample examples of that thinking ("If it's not on paper, it ought to be free!").
Cory is also already inside the print publishing "castle." His opinion supports his intention, which is to make money off of printed books. That also is easy to understand.
But I think that as people run out of space, cannot deal with the increasingly cost of paper production and resultant waste and pollution, and express a desire for more information and entertainment, the logic and value of an immediately-available electronic library will be clear to all, and e-books won't be seen as mere "advertisements" for paper books.
Will that result in hardware readers? If a converged device is not developed that can handle the display, manipulation and storage of an electronic library, I think we will get specialized hardware readers, iPods for books. But if those features are effectively combined in a device such as a PDA, laptop, UMPC, tablet PC, etc, no one will need hardware readers. We'll just see who gets there first.