MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Will eBooks create an elite reading class?

nomesque · 02-24-2010, 07:31 PM

"so expensive that only a select few can afford it" ?????

*boggle*

OK, maybe my viewpoint is thoroughly skewed because I'm not in the USA... over here a paperback often costs $17-20. A paperback classic (out of copyright) is often around $10. So a device which costs the same as 20 new books doesn't strike me as being particularly elitist, ya know? Especially when I wander around my low-income city streets and see all the ipods...

I'd go so far as to venture that the exact opposite will happen - that ebook readers will go mainstream and we'll find MORE people reading, not less. Partly because the shorter ebooks - ones which would never be published as DTBs because they're too low on wordage - will perfectly suit those with short attention spans and slow reading speeds.

Edited to add: I acknowledge that I'm writing from a very Western-world kind of viewpoint, where every house has a TV and the vast majority of houses have at least one computer... but surely one of the beauties of digital publishing is the possibility of printing it onto standard printer paper if needed?

02-24-2010, 07:31 PM	#8
nomesque Snooty Bestselling Author Posts: 1,485 Karma: 1000000 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Ipswich, QLD, Australia Device: PRS-650	"so expensive that only a select few can afford it" ????? boggle OK, maybe my viewpoint is thoroughly skewed because I'm not in the USA... over here a paperback often costs $17-20. A paperback classic (out of copyright) is often around $10. So a device which costs the same as 20 new books doesn't strike me as being particularly elitist, ya know? Especially when I wander around my low-income city streets and see all the ipods... I'd go so far as to venture that the exact opposite will happen - that ebook readers will go mainstream and we'll find MORE people reading, not less. Partly because the shorter ebooks - ones which would never be published as DTBs because they're too low on wordage - will perfectly suit those with short attention spans and slow reading speeds. Edited to add: I acknowledge that I'm writing from a very Western-world kind of viewpoint, where every house has a TV and the vast majority of houses have at least one computer... but surely one of the beauties of digital publishing is the possibility of printing it onto standard printer paper if needed? Last edited by nomesque; 02-24-2010 at 07:36 PM.