Thanks for the response. I'd like to volley back a little.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
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.
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I think we need a new format for reference material. It should be open source, like epub, but be able to store page links that can be button/touch accessable. I want page 28, I tap it any there's auto-pointer to it. Along the bottom theres a pointer bar. I touch the relevant pointer, and zap, I'm there. Tap it again and I'm back where I started. And the bar allows multiple pointers. Ebook formats were designed for linear reading, not reference work. Same for marking text blocks. double tap/button push and start, slide to end and double tap/button push to mark. Just some ideas.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
I agree... "literature" that only made the bestseller lists is not indicative of public support for "literature."
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.
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You'd be suprised what you can get of current events/ect from the internet, which is usually more current than a travel book.
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
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.
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A good history book can be read many years after it has been written, without loss. After all, the past isn't going to change (no remarks about the Change Winds, please.)
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
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.
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Maybe I should clean up my monograph on digital abundance, and put it on Amazon...
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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
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.
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