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This article unfortunately contains no news, since a look at the NYT ebook bestseller list would have shown what the article says: namely the that the tastes of ebook buyers do not vary significantly from the tastes of the pbook buying general public. Unfortunately, the columnist uses this unoriginal observation to then sneer at the low tastes of the hoi polloi instead of thinking through the implications of this fact.
IMO, the implications are as follows:
1. The tastes of the ebook buying public will not be driving innovation, either literary or technological , in the ebook industry. If anything its the contrary: innovation is occurring in the ebook industry IN SPITE of the literary tastes of the ebook buying public, who simply want the same old same old in digital form (but cheaper).
2. The idea that eboooks would dethrone the publishing industry's focus on the bestseller has been refuted by events. The ebook buying public craves bestsellers just as much as the pbook buying public, with only change being that ebook buyers feel that they are entitled to pay non bestseller prices.
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