[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Stonetools, I have to ask the question - why aren't those catagories selling well as e-books?

In the case of nonfiction, it's partially because most ebook readers suck for reference & research use. They're great for linear text; they're less-great for jumping around by chapter topic; they're atrocious for comparing individual pages' content to individual pages in other books.

There is no easy "flip through the cookbook and look for a picture that catches the eye." There is no easy "flip back and forth between page 24 with the engine diagram and page 187 with the wiring diagram." There is no "bookmark some pages with yellow for quotes to use in the dissertation, and other pages with blue for comparison with the other major source of info."

Nonfic that works as linear reading--celebrity memoirs, "how to improve your resume skills"--work fine, and are selling. (At least, from the reports I see.) Nonfic that's meant to be a permanent reference has problems.

I suspect that they don't sell well as print books. I also suspect that in the old model used the "Genre" titles that did sell well to susbidize those type of books you find important (and you find lack abundance in). I only have ancedontal evidence to support this, but it is something to consider.

I agree... "literature" that only made the bestseller lists is not indicative of public support for "literature."

Frankly, most of those catagories I have no great need for. Travel books? I can read a 50 year old travel book and get a feel for the land (as opposed to the people). The land isn't going to change. People, roads, things to do/see? I can get that better on the internet, with a swath of different people's opinions, as well, for free. (and more current).

Current travel books are useful--ones that list current restrictions on travel, businesses (what districts near the airport are good for a business lunch?), notable recent legal changes, major construction (I don't mean buildings; I mean "they're leveling a section of that mountain to put in a highway"), and so on. The problem is that travel books are mostly awful on ebook readers: the pictures are either low-res or B&W; the navigation is troublesome; and often, you want more battery than the device has. All of these can be mitigated, but the combination is why travel books haven't taken off as ebooks.

I like history, but most history today consists of making the past fit the "politically correct" mores of the current times. (I know, that has always been the case. So why is today's attitudes more relevant to historical events than the opinions of 50 or 100 years ago?)

Good history books have a market... but it is, and always has been, a small market. Pop culture books that babble about history have a bigger market, but not as much as celebrity tell-alls, which don't seem to be having any problems at all in the ebook marketplace.

What is happening is that all writing is going to have to stand on it own (sic) two legs. If a large number of people value it, there'll be a lot of it. If not too many people like, there won't be much. Selah.

I mostly agree, but I think there's a lot to be said for considering the medium. The "kindle shorts" are taking off because there *is* a demand for 20,000-word nonfiction, which prior to ebooks, had no market: too short for a whole book, too long to include in a journal.

Some types of nonfic will go well into ebooks; other types will need other media. Finding out that genre fiction is exploding in ebooks is hardly surprising; it was *always* looking for the cheapest medium and widest reach. Some of us are entirely unsurprised that the books that were literally sold by the bagful at rummage sales have a widespread appeal, and that many people actually want to read dozens (or hundreds!) of them a year.

It's only the traditional publishers who thought that they had reached the entire market with paperbacks and the 50% return rate showed a lack of interest rather than poor business planning.