They Just Don't Get It!

jasonkchapman · 09-18-2007, 02:30 PM

I don't know if this belongs in the News section or not. If not, please feel free to move it.

This article from Adweek (Will E-Books Get Lost in Translation?) demonstrates just how far out in left field the industry is when it comes to e-books.

Clearly, the HarperCollins iPhone experiment has nothing to do with e-books. It's all about using the iPhone as another marketing tool. They don't care about the actual reading experience. They're just hoping to sell more p-books.

Read the whole thing and pay close attention to the comments from publishing company representatives. They just don't get it. Why does it seem like authors and readers live in one universe, and publishers in another?

NatCh · 09-18-2007, 02:33 PM

News section is perfect, Jason.

Nate the great · 09-18-2007, 02:41 PM

To be honest, Baen Books got into ebooks not for the ebook market, but as a way of promoting the pbooks.

The e-anthology series Grantville Gazette was not entirely expected.

Adam B. · 09-18-2007, 03:55 PM

The article author apparently has no idea what the Kindle is...

Quote:

First, Amazon.com is scheduled to release the Kindle in October, which will allow users to wirelessly download books from the e-book store on the company's Web site to a mobile phone without having to use a computer.

I won't disagree that reading on a phone, or even a PDA isn't the best experience. But then again, that's why e-ink was invtented.

RWood · 09-18-2007, 04:04 PM

Many of us started that way when e-ink was just marketing hype and just around the corner.

jasonkchapman · 09-18-2007, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

To be honest, Baen Books got into ebooks not for the ebook market, but as a way of promoting the pbooks.

The e-anthology series Grantville Gazette was not entirely expected.

Yes, I should have been more clear.

What Baen did was to put out e-book X in order to sell p-book Y. The HC person doesn't appear to care about putting out e-book X, though. The intention seems to be to put out sample X in order to sell p-book X. Maybe, just maybe, if enough people beg them, they'll think about putting out an e-book edition.

Nate the great · 09-18-2007, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

Yes, I should have been more clear.

What Baen did was to put out e-book X in order to sell p-book Y. The HC person doesn't appear to care about putting out e-book X, though. The intention seems to be to put out sample X in order to sell p-book X. Maybe, just maybe, if enough people beg them, they'll think about putting out an e-book edition.

I hadn't thought of it that way, but you are correct.

Baen didn't know what would happen when they got into the ebook market back in 2001(2002?).

But that was 5 plus years ago. Now, Baen is making a profit on its ebook sales, as is Fictionwise, Mobipocket, and a bunch of others. It is now an established fact that there is a potential market for HC ebooks. There is no need to test it by offering fragments of ebooks. Offer the real thing; see what happens. What HC is doing is probably stupid and certainly pointless.

JSWolf · 09-18-2007, 10:47 PM

The thing is, HC is daft. Who in their right mind wants to download a sample that is incomplete? An example of how to do a sample correctly. There is a new Star Trek sort story anthology coming out based on TNG. They have a sample up on their website. (I'll have to dig out the URL) and they give out one complete story.

VillageReader · 09-19-2007, 06:14 AM

It would be curious if the high level decision makers working at a publishing company reads any more than the general public. If not, and they read the 'typical' 2-3 books a year (compared to the average of, what, 1-2 a week on this forum) then it isn't much of a surprise they don't get it.

mores · 09-19-2007, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RWood

Many of us started that way when e-ink was just marketing hype and just around the corner.

right. us "pda-readers" were the ebooks' early adopters

one might think that most people have never heard of a phone that has PDA capabilities. iPhone this ... iPhone that ... oooh, look, internet on a PHONE !

i will forever be a die-hard smartphone-ebook-reader, since for me, portability is the key. i could immagine a pda/phone with an e-ink screen. but i will not carry one of those huge readers around with me.

btt: another problem i see with the iPhone is that currently, all "ebooks" available for the iPhone seem to be PDF files.
and that most probably means non-reflowing text. so while it'll be cool to pinch, swipe and swoosh, it'll be a bitch to read. left-right-scrolling is horrible when you want to read something.
i've said it before and i'll say it again: we need mobipocket reader for mac/iPhone. whoops, wrong forum

igorsk · 09-19-2007, 06:48 AM

I tried reading on iPhone. Without hardware buttons to scroll it's extremely awkward. Swiping the screen to scroll looks very cool until you have to do it for an hour or more. So, I don't see iPhone as a reading platform unless they add some buttons. (I guess a third-party reading software could try to intercept volume buttons... that might work.)

yvanleterrible · 09-19-2007, 09:06 AM

This article's basis is mainly 'reading on a phone'. The shame of it is thinking that ebooks are only meant for 'reading on a phone'. This is a poor limited view and frankly just as poor journalism. They mention the reader but only so. It is clear this writer's never tried one of the different devices available.

NatCh · 09-19-2007, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Baen didn't know what would happen when they got into the ebook market back in 2001(2002?).

At the risk of sounding like I'm suggesting his beatification, I sometimes wonder if Jim Baen didn't privately suspect what might come of it.

nekokami · 09-19-2007, 04:05 PM

I don't know... I didn't think the article was that bad. I mean, it starts with noting that the Japanese are reading a lot of books on their phones, and goes from there. The criticism of the Sony Reader is primarily that Sony hasn't done any serious marketing of it. Is there anyone here who would disagree with that?

I'll grant that the article assumes that the Kindle will somehow connect to a phone, which makes no sense based on what we know... but on the other hand, the Kindle is rumored to be using EVDO, so one can see how someone might have picked up the wrong idea there.

As far as HarperCollins and their limited view of what customers would like to download, I think what the article is trying to say is that HC is using a service they already have, namely online browsing or "Browse Inside," to offer content first, to see if it would be worth their while to offer full content.

I personally can't imagine reading on a phone (or a PDA). It seems far from ideal to me. But lots of other people read on phones and PDAs, and the Applie iPhone is a pretty hot item right now as far as the media is concerned, so I can see why this story got written the way it did.

Egghead · 09-19-2007, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by igorsk

I tried reading on iPhone. Without hardware buttons to scroll it's extremely awkward. Swiping the screen to scroll looks very cool until you have to do it for an hour or more. So, I don't see iPhone as a reading platform unless they add some buttons. (I guess a third-party reading software could try to intercept volume buttons... that might work.)

My p-books don't have any buttons. And I read tomes, not scrolls.

Scrolling is the wrong design paradigm to use. One shouldn't swipe the screen to scroll down the page. One should swipe the screen to turn the page.

Were you using Safari to read? How does Books.app work?

09-18-2007, 02:30 PM	#1
jasonkchapman Guru Posts: 767 Karma: 2347 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: NYC Device: Sony Reader, nook, Droid, nookColor, nookTablet	They Just Don't Get It! I don't know if this belongs in the News section or not. If not, please feel free to move it. This article from Adweek (Will E-Books Get Lost in Translation?) demonstrates just how far out in left field the industry is when it comes to e-books. Clearly, the HarperCollins iPhone experiment has nothing to do with e-books. It's all about using the iPhone as another marketing tool. They don't care about the actual reading experience. They're just hoping to sell more p-books. Read the whole thing and pay close attention to the comments from publishing company representatives. They just don't get it. Why does it seem like authors and readers live in one universe, and publishers in another?

09-18-2007, 02:41 PM	#3
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	Baen didn't get it either To be honest, Baen Books got into ebooks not for the ebook market, but as a way of promoting the pbooks. The e-anthology series Grantville Gazette was not entirely expected.

09-18-2007, 02:33 PM	#2
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	News section is perfect, Jason.

09-18-2007, 04:04 PM	#5
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	Many of us started that way when e-ink was just marketing hype and just around the corner.

09-18-2007, 10:47 PM	#8
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,970 Karma: 128903378 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	The thing is, HC is daft. Who in their right mind wants to download a sample that is incomplete? An example of how to do a sample correctly. There is a new Star Trek sort story anthology coming out based on TNG. They have a sample up on their website. (I'll have to dig out the URL) and they give out one complete story.

09-19-2007, 06:14 AM	#9
VillageReader Evangelist Posts: 430 Karma: 2718 Join Date: May 2006 Device: Iliad	It would be curious if the high level decision makers working at a publishing company reads any more than the general public. If not, and they read the 'typical' 2-3 books a year (compared to the average of, what, 1-2 a week on this forum) then it isn't much of a surprise they don't get it.

09-19-2007, 06:48 AM	#11
igorsk Wizard Posts: 3,442 Karma: 300001 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Belgium Device: PRS-500/505/700, Kindle, Cybook Gen3, Words Gear	I tried reading on iPhone. Without hardware buttons to scroll it's extremely awkward. Swiping the screen to scroll looks very cool until you have to do it for an hour or more. So, I don't see iPhone as a reading platform unless they add some buttons. (I guess a third-party reading software could try to intercept volume buttons... that might work.)

09-19-2007, 09:06 AM	#12
yvanleterrible Reborn Paper User Posts: 8,616 Karma: 15446734 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Que Nada Device: iPhone8, iPad Air	This article's basis is mainly 'reading on a phone'. The shame of it is thinking that ebooks are only meant for 'reading on a phone'. This is a poor limited view and frankly just as poor journalism. They mention the reader but only so. It is clear this writer's never tried one of the different devices available.

09-19-2007, 04:05 PM	#14
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	I don't know... I didn't think the article was that bad. I mean, it starts with noting that the Japanese are reading a lot of books on their phones, and goes from there. The criticism of the Sony Reader is primarily that Sony hasn't done any serious marketing of it. Is there anyone here who would disagree with that? I'll grant that the article assumes that the Kindle will somehow connect to a phone, which makes no sense based on what we know... but on the other hand, the Kindle is rumored to be using EVDO, so one can see how someone might have picked up the wrong idea there. As far as HarperCollins and their limited view of what customers would like to download, I think what the article is trying to say is that HC is using a service they already have, namely online browsing or "Browse Inside," to offer content first, to see if it would be worth their while to offer full content. I personally can't imagine reading on a phone (or a PDA). It seems far from ideal to me. But lots of other people read on phones and PDAs, and the Applie iPhone is a pretty hot item right now as far as the media is concerned, so I can see why this story got written the way it did.

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