Ebooks and fantasy fiction

aniwagi · 10-08-2021, 08:26 AM

Hi everyone! I am a student on the MA Publishing course at London College of Communication, and I'm gathering thoughts and opinions on the potential of enhanced ebooks in fantasy fiction. With so many book lovers on this subreddit, I felt this could be a great place to gather more data.

The survey is anonymous and your answers will only be used as part of academic research for a dissertation. There are 24 questions divided into three sections and it should hopefully take ten interesting minutes to complete. If you are 16 and over, please feel free to participate through this link - https://www.surveylegend.com/s/3l21

Project details, consent info and contact details are on the first page of the survey. Once you've finished, you're welcome to share your thoughts here. A big thank you to everyone who completes the survey and helps my research!

meeera · 10-08-2021, 09:24 AM

Whose idea was that weird age range choice, given that ebook preferrers skew older? I've put approximate percentage of the Australian population in parentheses

Under 20 (24%)
20-25 (7%)
25-34 (15%)
35-44 (13.5%)
45-54 (12.5%)
55 and over (28%).

davidfor · 10-08-2021, 09:52 PM

Personally, I thought that the choices for "When reading fantasy, have you ever felt dissatisfied with any of the following?" I can't believe that anyone didn't select all of the options except "None of the above". But, someone did. They either are reading a lot better books than I am, or they have a lot lower standards than I have.

DNSB · 10-09-2021, 02:27 AM

I found it odd that in question 10, it specified that illustrations were not considered an enhanced feature and 3 of the 8 option choices for enhanced features were for illustrations.

As for the when reading fantasy choices, I tend to agree with @davidfor that there are very few ebooks I've read that did not require some tweaking. Perhaps I find it hard to be happy with many of the ebook authors/publishers lack of knowledge of the basics of typography.

maddz · 10-09-2021, 04:45 AM

My opinion is that I wouldn't touch enhanced anything with a barge pole. To me it sounds like a walled garden - you need a specific device or app to access it, which reminds me of the multimedia CD-ROMs that were around when CD drives first came in - most of which are now only useable as coasters because they are now unplayable because of format drift or outdated playback software. (Ours mostly went to landfill although I should have kept them as cat and bird scarers...)

No, give me the vanilla text, with or without illustrations, that I keep in Calibre, and I don't need to worry about whether I can read it on a new device because it is freely convertible.

Quoth · 10-09-2021, 06:23 AM

Quote:

You may have "content blockers" on your browser. In this case, please reload the page without content blockers.

Otherwise, your internet connection may be too slow right now.

No, I have not. But the page is full of google spyware/trackers and uses privacy-unfriendly google APIs. I block malware and trackers.
Someone knows nothing about creating privacy-friendly anonymous surveys.

Mnementh · 10-09-2021, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

No, I have not. But the page is full of google spyware/trackers and uses privacy-unfriendly google APIs. I block malware and trackers.
Someone knows nothing about creating privacy-friendly anonymous surveys.

To be honest the fact that the OP thinks this is a subreddit is also a large red flag...

MGlitch · 10-09-2021, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mnementh

To be honest the fact that the OP thinks this is a subreddit is also a large red flag...

I’m guessing it’s just a lazy copy paste.

Fairly useless questions which seem to demonstrate only a basic level of understanding of the target audience. And which almost seem to invite a misleading result.

meeera · 10-09-2021, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mnementh

To be honest the fact that the OP thinks this is a subreddit is also a large red flag...

Yeah I'm guessing that's a copy-paste... and they don't seem to have been back to respond to anything. Yeah, they've also posted in r/rpg, r/ebooks, r/books, r/youngadultbooks, r/YAlit, r/Fantasy, r/SampleSize.

crich70 · 10-10-2021, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aniwagi

Hi everyone! I am a student on the MA Publishing course at London College of Communication, and I'm gathering thoughts and opinions on the potential of enhanced ebooks in fantasy fiction. With so many book lovers on this subreddit, I felt this could be a great place to gather more data.

The survey is anonymous and your answers will only be used as part of academic research for a dissertation. There are 24 questions divided into three sections and it should hopefully take ten interesting minutes to complete. If you are 16 and over, please feel free to participate through this link - https://www.surveylegend.com/s/3l21

Project details, consent info and contact details are on the first page of the survey. Once you've finished, you're welcome to share your thoughts here. A big thank you to everyone who completes the survey and helps my research!

Done!

crich70 · 10-10-2021, 01:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

I found it odd that in question 10, it specified that illustrations were not considered an enhanced feature and 3 of the 8 option choices for enhanced features were for illustrations.

As for the when reading fantasy choices, I tend to agree with @davidfor that there are very few ebooks I've read that did not require some tweaking. Perhaps I find it hard to be happy with many of the ebook authors/publishers lack of knowledge of the basics of typography.

I imagine that since illustrations have appeared in books for a long time that they figured they are old hat in comparison.

10-08-2021, 08:26 AM	#1
aniwagi Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2021 Device: Kobo Clara HD	Ebooks and fantasy fiction Hi everyone! I am a student on the MA Publishing course at London College of Communication, and I'm gathering thoughts and opinions on the potential of enhanced ebooks in fantasy fiction. With so many book lovers on this subreddit, I felt this could be a great place to gather more data. The survey is anonymous and your answers will only be used as part of academic research for a dissertation. There are 24 questions divided into three sections and it should hopefully take ten interesting minutes to complete. If you are 16 and over, please feel free to participate through this link - https://www.surveylegend.com/s/3l21 Project details, consent info and contact details are on the first page of the survey. Once you've finished, you're welcome to share your thoughts here. A big thank you to everyone who completes the survey and helps my research!

10-08-2021, 09:24 AM	#2
meeera Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,659 Karma: 66420972 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Libra 2, iPadMini4, iPad4, MBP; support other Kobo/Kindles	Whose idea was that weird age range choice, given that ebook preferrers skew older? I've put approximate percentage of the Australian population in parentheses Under 20 (24%) 20-25 (7%) 25-34 (15%) 35-44 (13.5%) 45-54 (12.5%) 55 and over (28%). Last edited by meeera; 10-08-2021 at 09:29 AM.

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10-08-2021, 09:52 PM	#3
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,906 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Personally, I thought that the choices for "When reading fantasy, have you ever felt dissatisfied with any of the following?" I can't believe that anyone didn't select all of the options except "None of the above". But, someone did. They either are reading a lot better books than I am, or they have a lot lower standards than I have.

10-09-2021, 02:27 AM	#4
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 35,743 Karma: 145624992 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Forma, Clara HD, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	I found it odd that in question 10, it specified that illustrations were not considered an enhanced feature and 3 of the 8 option choices for enhanced features were for illustrations. As for the when reading fantasy choices, I tend to agree with @davidfor that there are very few ebooks I've read that did not require some tweaking. Perhaps I find it hard to be happy with many of the ebook authors/publishers lack of knowledge of the basics of typography.

10-09-2021, 04:45 AM	#5
maddz Wizard Posts: 1,279 Karma: 29121666 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: UK Device: Kobo Forma, Icarus, iPad Mini 2, Kobo Touch, Google Nexus 7	My opinion is that I wouldn't touch enhanced anything with a barge pole. To me it sounds like a walled garden - you need a specific device or app to access it, which reminds me of the multimedia CD-ROMs that were around when CD drives first came in - most of which are now only useable as coasters because they are now unplayable because of format drift or outdated playback software. (Ours mostly went to landfill although I should have kept them as cat and bird scarers...) No, give me the vanilla text, with or without illustrations, that I keep in Calibre, and I don't need to worry about whether I can read it on a new device because it is freely convertible.

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