Publishers need to push ebook reader adoption

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

The type of consumer who buys whatever is around in the airport or wherever they happen to have some downtime and think about reading, who then give the book away to someone else to make room in their carryon (I witnessed such an event on an airplane last week), will not be an e-book consumer. They would have to purchase an expensive reader and have it with them at all times. Bringing down the price of the reader might help, but it needs to be portable. If they can be wheedled into reading on their PDA or smartphone that they already have with them, and buy e-books easily at the airport or drugstore, or better yet download it over the air, then maybe.

This is exactly the type of reader an ebook reader would be prefect for All you do is make room ONCE for your reader. It takes less room then most books. It's lighter then a hardcover. And once you finish a book, you don't have to run over to the newsstand to buy a magazine or another book before you've just finished what you have. Also, you don't have to worry so much about finishing the book you are currently reading before your flight is over and being stuck with the in flight crappy magazines. The reader is perfect for these types.

[MaggieScratch]

It would, but then they would have to plan ahead to acquire a library of e-books, and keep the reader with them. You can't run into the nearest Walgreens and pick up an e-book reader loaded with books when you know you'll be waiting somewhere.

Maybe I'm thinking more of magazine readers, here. Certainly there is a place for them with e-book readers, but again, they have to buy the device and have it with them.

[MaggieScratch]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Speaking as one of those who happily reads e-books on my PDA, I don't see this as a "maybe." Make the mobile purchase process easy, and I'm sure lots of PDA, smartphone and Blackberry users would be eager to do this.

Maybe it's just me, then...I like the portability of reading on a PDA/smartphone but my eyes can't take it. I am waiting on the Cybook Gen3 and the Kindle to choose an eink reader (might end up with the Sony, who knows?). I can see that becoming my everyday device, though I'll keep books on my Treo as backup.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mdibella

EBook reader manufacturers should take a lesson from Barbie. The reader itself should be sold at cost because once it's in the customer's hands, the book sales will never end. Right now they're trying to have it both ways, profiting from the reader sales and then charging hardcover prices for the ebooks, and the money they save on printing and shipping is pure profit.

Trouble is, though, the companies making the devices are (with the single exception of Sony) not the ones selling the books, so there's no real incentive for that. Even with the Sony Reader, it's not "tied" to Sony's content - you can load books from any source onto it. It's not like, say, games consoles which are, generally speaking, sold at a loss because the manufacturer makes the money from selling the games.

Consumers are not stupid, and unless they are diehard early adopters, they need to see a benefit. At the moment, unless they are avid readers like me, the benefit is not there.

For me, the benefit is space. I live in a very small house. I've got 15,000 eBooks on an external USB hard disk. There's no way that I could store 15,000 paper books, or even 1,000 for that matter.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by jbenny

Regarding the statistic that the average person only reads six books a year (if that is really accurate): That number may be true if you are only counting fiction books, or what is on the Best Seller list. However, I think that a lot of people are missing one important point. Even the average person reads quite a bit of other material in the course of a year--magazines, newspapers, work-related documentation, etc.

An e-reader device that could easily handle all of these "other" e-texts, as well as e-books, would find a much wider market. Of course, it would have to be brain-dead simple to get all of this different content onto the device. It would also have to be inexpensive. The economy of scale that a large market brings will help with price...

...Speaking of MP3 players, devices like the iPod and similar players prove that lots of people are indeed willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a gadget, if they either perceive it as the latest "cool" thing, or they can find some value in it. Think about it--when did everyone decide that being able to listen to music (or audiobooks) any time and any place was something they had to have?

I don't think the reader has to be that cheap... if it proves to be able to provide a valuable service to the user, they'll pay for it, just as people paid premium for iPods over other, cheaper MP3 players because of the features iPods offered. (For readers, I've discussed these in other threads, such as article and image saving and retrieval, etc.)

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

Maybe it's just me, then...I like the portability of reading on a PDA/smartphone but my eyes can't take it. I am waiting on the Cybook Gen3 and the Kindle to choose an eink reader (might end up with the Sony, who knows?). I can see that becoming my everyday device, though I'll keep books on my Treo as backup.

Some people are good with smaller readers and LCD screens... some demand e-ink... and some can read on their PCs all day long. What's important is that they all have something to read on whatever they've got!

[mdibella]

re: 'Trouble is, though, the companies making the devices are (with the single exception of Sony) not the ones selling the books'

True, but take a look at Amazon. They now own MobiPocket, and there are more links to ebooks on their site every day. If they made a deal with Bookeen to market their reader, it would be a match made in heaven...and frankly I believe that's why the Kindle has not been released yet, because Bookeen reads MobiPocket books...so Amazon has no need to develop their own reader.

I have a Sony reader (the new 505) and I love it. It goes everywhere with me, the same way I used to carry around a book or two. Sadly, it doesn't read MobiPocket books (sigh) so we've got to live thru another format war just like we did with video players.

When it settles down, though, I firmly believe we'll be able to order books from Amazon and download them to our devices immediately. This is good news and bad news, really. The ease in publishing ebooks means it's a lot easier to publish a BAD book (meaning, poorly written). The good news is, it's easier to publish GOOD books in less popular genres, and nothing ever goes out of print.

[mdibella]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Some people are good with smaller readers and LCD screens... some demand e-ink... and some can read on their PCs all day long. What's important is that they all have something to read on whatever they've got!

It might be a function of our ages. I became an avid reader long before there was any such thing as a PC (much less a PDA) and I'm most comfortable with something that 'feels' like a printed book to my poor old eyes. The new readers (I just bought a 505) are the first ones I've seen that do that. I never could read on a PDA, my eyes just can't handle that tiny screen. And the idea of booting up my computer to read the latest bestseller... hmmm, that just feels perverse to me for some reason.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

As is being discussed in this thread, I think the publishers may be forced into providing e-books based on public demand, given the right circumstances.

For instance, if an e-book (not released in print) turns out to be incredibly popular, garnering praise and discussion in traditional book circles, reviews publications, Oprah, etc, increased public demand for e-books could force publishers to respond to the market. They could even be pushed from behind by their authors, wanting in on the new market, when it becomes painfully apparent that there is one.

In another example, the afore-mentioned prospective color reader for magazines and/or textbooks could become a very popular item, then drive the demand for more material to be bought for it, putting similar pressure on publishers. I've predicted elsewhere that a good reader, and a single popular magazine optimized for it, could draw many other magazines in, as well as more people buying readers to take advantage of the new form factor (imagine being a teenaged girl able to carry around your entire collection of People magazines! <teenage squeal>Eeeeeee!</teenage squeal>).

Anyway... you see my point: Publishers may be dragged kicking and screaming into the e-book market, given the right e-product, and/or the right reader.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

Maybe it's just me, then...I like the portability of reading on a PDA/smartphone but my eyes can't take it. I am waiting on the Cybook Gen3 and the Kindle to choose an eink reader (might end up with the Sony, who knows?). I can see that becoming my everyday device, though I'll keep books on my Treo as backup.

Pretty much the same for me. I do read on my laptop & occasionally on my Treo, I've used a Palm IIIxe, Toshiba E310 & Palm Tungsten T, but none of the PDA/phone options have ever been really comfortable. They work for me for short periods, but not for extended use. I'm trying to hold out for the Cybook & Kindle to be released before getting a dedicated device before deciding, but it's getting though to wait.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by mdibella

It might be a function of our ages. I became an avid reader long before there was any such thing as a PC (much less a PDA) and I'm most comfortable with something that 'feels' like a printed book to my poor old eyes. The new readers (I just bought a 505) are the first ones I've seen that do that. I never could read on a PDA, my eyes just can't handle that tiny screen. And the idea of booting up my computer to read the latest bestseller... hmmm, that just feels perverse to me for some reason.

I also grew up before PDAs, and I distinctly remember the first PDAs coming out with miniature or touchpad keyboards, and everyone insisting that people would never accept a keyboard that was smaller than a "proper" Royal Typewriter-sized keyboard. But today, people use those smaller keyboards daily, and I've written entire chapters on half-sized keyboards attached to my PDA!

I'm in my forties, with glasses, and I can read on my Toshiba PDA all day long... it's all in what you get used to, which is a component of what you're willing to try. And as for the medium, when I'm reading, I never think about it. It's not important what the book is being read on... it's what you're reading that's important.

[MaggieScratch]

After working on a computer all day, doing some web surfing, blogging, writing, etc., then sitting down to read for an hour or two, everything goes swimmy after a bit, my eyes start watering and I literally can't read anymore on a backlit device. I hope to buy some kind of eink device with my Christmas bonus, so I have a little time to decide, but Amazon needs to get its act together.

I agree that the reader can be more expensive *if* the books are affordably priced.* To carry on the iPod comparison that has come up, does there need to be a range of e-reading devices? An ebook Shuffle, a Nano, at reduced prices? Many people have more than one iPod--a large-capacity iPod that acts as a storage device for one's digital music collection, a Shuffle for working out, a Nano for carrying around so the expensive player with the thousands of dollars worth of downloaded music can stay safely at home. As someone has already said in this thread I believe, who wants to take a $300 eink reader to the beach?

*Everybody has their own notion of what is affordable; since I hope to use my ereader as a way to cut down on book storage space requirements, I'm perfectly willing to pay the equivalent of a trade paperback price for a new hardback or trade paperback book and the same price as an MMPB for a book available in that format. HOWEVER--for that price I want portability of files between devices. So I don't think we're quite there yet. That's why I think the Kindle has such great potential; the manufacturer (or at least end retailer) of the device is also a bookseller, and it's in their interest to keep their customers happy and able to read their books as they upgrade their devices.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by HarryT

For me, the benefit is space. I live in a very small house. I've got 15,000 eBooks on an external USB hard disk. There's no way that I could store 15,000 paper books, or even 1,000 for that matter.

Being the dork that I am, I just calculated the approximate cost of the book storage space in my small house. This is not even including interest, taxes, insurance, etc. over the years. This is just the number of square feet multiplied by the cost per square foot of the house. $16,000 to store a bunch of dead trees that make me sneeze. Of course it's not like I'm going to be getting rid of these any time soon. The mere thought gives my dear husband a panic attack. He loves books as objects. But I really do not want to give up any more precious space than I already have. If I could wave a wand and have a good reader and all my books in DRM-free electronic format, I'd do it. Next to $16,000 in space and probably a couple thousand in bookshelves, $300 or so for a reader looks cheap.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Alisa

If I could wave a wand and have a good reader and all my books in DRM-free electronic format, I'd do it.

I'd like one of those wands, myself.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

After working on a computer all day, doing some web surfing, blogging, writing, etc., then sitting down to read for an hour or two, everything goes swimmy after a bit, my eyes start watering and I literally can't read anymore on a backlit device.

Okay, but when my eyes are that tired, I can't read on paper, either!

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

As someone has already said in this thread I believe, who wants to take a $300 eink reader to the beach?

Depends on what's on it. If it's your favorite magazines... saved articles and pictures of your favorite actors/actresses... pics of your buds, to share with other buds... wireless downloads of fresh magazine content... and a few favorite books... sure, I'd bring it!

[Sagacity]

MaggieScratch Wrote:

--- I agree that the reader can be more expensive *if* the books are affordably priced.* ---

Well, I don't think so!
The price of a book is not a parametre to the price of a reader...just try to look at your cellphones or smartphones: Did you consider buying your last phone because of the (low) pricing on MMS, SMS , Paging or even the price per call/minute?
I think not!
You might just needed a device to handle the content and services provided.
And actually you do expect any device to be able to handle this.

I mean: Who's is buying a mobile phone just to make phonecalls?

My conclusion is, that the publishing industri and the manufactorers of the reding devices could learn a lot by looking at the selling processes of the 'mobilephone' industry.
One way they do this, is that the Service and Content Providers sell you a fixed subscrition period and at the same time give you an expensive phone for 1 $.

Reading is not just reading:
It's the expanded features and services provided by the reader device that sells the book.

Ruggero