Quote:
Originally Posted by yvanleterrible
I have only one comment about it and I don't want to sound negative. Aren't you guys preaching to an already converted crowd? Selling the ebook concept to people blogging on a computer is way easyer than converting Paperheads!?!
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You'd think so, wouldn't you? But in fact, the vast majority of writers and readers on that forum (and the forum's editor) that have rendered an opinion--and despite the fact that they embrace science fiction, and are therefore open to new ideas--have no love for e-books. They insist that paper is the only way to read (wouldn't you know, I'd light-heartedly coin a phrase--"Give me paper or give me death"--as the response of a closed-minded person... and the editor would throw it back at me in ernest?), disparage the e-book for being "promised for so long and not delivered", and generally downplay it as filled with "low-quality" authors and content.
On the other hand, they encourage self-publishing by Print-On-Demand and vanity press, despite the equally low opinion of the content of those mediums by the public.
I saw this as uninformed and a bit hypocritical, and wanted to raise their consciousness a bit with some frank discussion, supposition-busting and fact-providing... as well as encouraging anyone else who may have experiance or appreciation for e-books to speak up in an otherwise-disinterested area.
The fact that a few voices joined in with me helped the effort, and that seemed to encourage ernest questions from others, including a request to make the thread sticky.
Even in areas where you wouldn't think there'd be resistance to e-books... you might be surprised at how unfamiliar or misunderstanding of the concept most people are. This is what you sometimes have to do to get past ignorance and prejudice, and spread the good word to people who will understand and "get it," once they know the facts.