Quote:
Originally Posted by watcha
What does seem to be forgotten here is that paper is friction-free as far as powering it goes... Price is the only way to start a reading revolution. In fact, I reckon the experience will have to be virtually free - just like some of the newspapers now distributed in our UK cities.
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Yes, paper books don't need a power source, and yes, a workable pricing model will help. But there still need to be legitimate reasons to switch to e-books, and e-books' strengths need to be presented positively to the public (even if it's just a typical Madison Avenue-style "Buy it, you'll look cool and get laid" commercial) in order to get them on-board.
Although we haven't discussed it much in this particular thread, others have discussed the possibility of getting the public into e-books by first introducing them to e-newspapers and e-magazines. Periodicals have a set and regular customer base, and if an already-popular periodical offered some incentive or value-added extra (to ease that friction), subscribers and other regular readers might get on-board readily and enjoy the daily/weekly/monthly content. If the content, combined with the extras, is compelling enough, people will endure some friction to get into the new system, and over time, much of the friction will be duly worn away.
Then, once they are regular e-readers, they could add e-books to their periodical reading in due course.