Writers First Aid

Reactions to the E-book Revolution

September 1, 2010

kindle The eight comments about Wednesday’s E-book Revolution post were so thought-provoking that I didn’t want the blog readers to miss them. I will post the eight comments below, with my reactions in red.

From Elizabeth:

My son gave me a kindle which I do enjoy, though I prefer REAL books still.
I think that e-books will make for a publishing revolution and make it much easier for niche interest groups.
All best wishes Yes, that is so true. While a publisher may not create a whole section for Amish Vampire fiction, an e-publisher can do so. (And don’t laugh–I didn’t make that up. It’s even got a movie deal coming.)

From Beth Mac

I still love the feel of a real book, and an e-book doesn’t seem real. But I can see how they have their place. I’ll always have shelves of books, myself. No batteries required! That “no energy source needed” is so true. And I see the shelves of books all over my house, and I love them! I love sorting through the favorites and passing them down to my grandkids. I just can’t see passing down an electronic box (which I suppose would be way outdated anyway.)

From rockinlibrarian:

In a way it’s silly to me, because I don’t BUY books unless I want to keep them forever, in which case I want a hard copy. If I just want to read a book and don’t care about keeping it, I get it out of the library. I wouldn’t mind having an e-reader, but I would use it primarily for reading long things I find on the Internet, or manuscripts from critique partners, or other transient sort of things. Yes, I would love one for that too! I understand there are people who actually BUY most of the books they read, who pick up huge piles of paperbacks that they read once and then throw away (or attempt to donate to their library- WE DON’T ACTUALLY WANT THEM, YOU KNOW, WE’LL JUST SELL IT AT OUR BOOK SALE FOR 50 CENTS); but that way of doing things is just so foreign to me.

I do worry about the money aspect of the e-book revolution. Even if readers do become incredibly cheap, people still have to pay for content, and for new batteries after the ones you have don’t hold their charge anymore, and for repairs or entirely new readers if they break I hadn’t really considered those “hidden” costs, but that would add up, and if anything that will just make books and reading even LESS accessible to the lower classes than it already is. I work every day with people who cannot afford a home computer, and have little idea how to use one, who then are stuck trying to figure out how to apply online for a minimum-wage job because the bigwigs in that corporation have naively decided that since everyone has a computer nowadays, applying online will be easy! I see entirely too much “everybody’s as well-off as I am” assumptions happening in most of the e-book revolution talk, and that still bothers me. I just experienced that yesterday. I took my granddaughter to a museum, but we had to leave early because she had homework. Last year she could do it in the car, but this year her math book and homework was on a CD that had to go in their home computer. (They weren’t allowed to bring their books home.) It seems like a big assumption to think all kids in the class will have computers at home.

The other thing that bothers me is the insistence that e-books are “greener” than paper. What, replacing something made from a renewable resource (trees) with something made from non-renewable resources (synthetics, petroleum, metals, whatnot), which takes electricity to run, which becomes hazardous waste (you don’t throw electronic equipment in the regular trash you know!) when it goes bad, is that really all that greener? You have really made me think today! I hadn’t considered that either.

But I’m not against the concept of e-readers. I think they’d be handy for transient and often-updated content. I think there are many situations- textbooks, user manuals, things like that- when an electronic version just makes WAY MORE SENSE than a paper version. Yes, my computer is loaded with manuals that are no longer included with new equipment. I actually like the idea of a more all-purpose type reader, a kind of book-shaped computer, where you can read the Internet and so forth too, a multimedia-type thing, I guess like the iPad. But it’s two different things: reading is reading, content is content- but a book is a physical entity, A Book. In other words, there’s no such thing as an e-book, it’s just content delivered electronically. I like how you think! Thanks for taking the time to contribute so much-I know it takes time away from your own reading and writing!

From Yvette

I don’t know what I think about e-books! I’m such a traditionalist! I don’t know what I would do without multiple bookshelves full of books made from paper. Me either! But, I’d be willing to publish that way, if that’s what people are reading. I’d carve my stuff into tree trunks if I thought people would read it that way! I love your sense of humor-and flexibility! lol! I sure can’t afford to be choosy.

From Ally M

Hello,
From what I’ve heard/read about e-books they seem to have a lot of advantages… but one big draw back, if you don’t have power (dead battery & no way to charge it) you can’t use them. Still… I would love to have an e-reader & would purchase e-books if I had one, great for traveling, Yes, I thought of this the last time I flew. I only took carry-on bags, and to be able to take all the books I wanted, I had to settle for two pair of jeans and two tops for the whole week and hitting a Laundromat but I still love the feel/weight of a good book in my hands when I’m relaxing. For me nothing will replace a real book. I hear you!
My 2 cents… Cheers

From Trudy

Technology is fascinating and can benefit us in so many ways, but sometimes I’m sad about the way technology is taking over the way we read books. I have read a couple of e-books and I can understand how e-books can save on publishing costs, but I still prefer the feel of a “real” book or magazine in my hands. I think you speak for many of us, Trudy. I see the benefits too, and I love the “instant” factor of being able to download and read something right away-especially nonfiction. BUT I like to underline and find things, and I don’t know if I could get used to doing that on an e-book or not.

From Emily

I didn’t think I would like the whole ebook thing, but I have to say I’m a huge fan now. I spent several weeks in the hospital earlier this year and got my Nook during that time. It was so convenient to have everything I wanted to read right at my fingertips when I was unable to do much else. Yes, I can see this, when you’re traveling or away from home for any reason, and you can carry so many books that way so LIGHTLY. When I buy new books now, I get the ebook rather than the regular version, unless the book does not come in digital form. People like you must be why Amazon is selling so many ebooks. It’s nice for traveling, too! Of course, I don’t think traditional books are going anywhere…there’s still something lovely about the look, feel, and smell of a regular book. And something in me just doesn’t want to cuddle up with a child and an ebook. I just love both!

I also have your two digital books on my Nook, Kristi…I found them both to be extremely helpful when it comes to writing! Thanks, Emily! That’s funny, but when I put them together, I never envisioned anyone having them on an ebook reader! I figured they would be downloaded to computers, to have right next to a manuscript someone was working on. (That’s how I use the 50 Tension Techniques myself.)

From Andrea

I have absolutely nothing to do with e-books; they just can’t satisfy my reading senses. Narrow minded? Maybe, but there are just some things you can’t get from an e-book that you can from a printed book. I don’t think anyone would disagree with you there-even the biggest e-book fans. I like to place the spine of a book in the palm of my hand and feel the weight, I like to fan through the pages and smell the paper and ink smell, but most of all I love turning the pages one at a time – especially when I am so far caught up in the book that I feel like I am a part of the story itself – I haven’t read an e-book that can do all that for me. I expect that all those reasons are why paper books will always be with us. At least, I fervently hope so!

Thanks for the great comments. And if you didn’t comment Wednesday, feel free to comment below. I’m learning a lot from all of you!

Post tags: ebooks

Posted in: ebooks,Uncategorized | | Comments (17)

17 Comments »

I think writers have to stop looking at what they prefer – books or ebooks – and look at what their readers prefer. At this point it isn’t an either/or, but a both. I think the whole debate is actually kinda silly. I am a primary paper book reader, but I’ve read ebooks (on the computer) and one of these days I plan to get an ereader. What is actually holding me back is the fear that I will buy too many books (way over my book budget) when it is so easy to buy them with an ereader vs. how easy it is not to buy a book and just go to the library in my little town. So, from an authors/royalty standpoint it would be better if I did go out and bought an ereader.

Also, on the greener thing, shoot, I wish I had the link, but I know a study recently came out saying that ebooks are greener than paper books when you factor in not just the trees, but the ink, warehousing, etc. If I can remember where the article is I’ll post it here.

Comment by Angelia Almos — September 1, 2010 @ 5:29 pm
Angelia, thanks for adding to the discussion and also for the link. Everyone’s comments have made me re-think e-books from all kinds of different standpoints. And some authors are making way more on e-books than through royalties, so that may not even be an issue.

Comment by Kristi Holl — September 1, 2010 @ 5:33 pm
Okay, just found the NY Times article that talked about ereaders being greener.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/are-e-readers-greener-than-books/

There are those that don’t believe the science of the report. But it’s interesting either way.

Comment by Angelia Almos — September 1, 2010 @ 5:36 pm
Hi Kristi,

Check out this op-ed, in which the writer makes a point about how e-books can solve some of the major educational problems in the developing world. http://bit.ly/dz7wUn

Personally, I think this debate has so far been very Western world-centric. I love books and can’t imagine giving mine up (or not being able to buy more), but I don’t think it’s an either-or situation. For some situations, such as providing books to school children in parts of Asia and Africa, e-books are probably the only way to go.

Interesting discussion.

Comment by Mridu Khullar — September 2, 2010 @ 12:32 am
Mridu, thank you for adding yet another whole dimension to the discussion! I have to admit that my whole view was Western world-centric, as you put it. I need to think globally, it seems. I had not even considered what a break-through this could be for other countries.

Comment by Kristi Holl — September 2, 2010 @ 7:41 am
Hear hear! (Especially from the librarian.) I agree that the kindle is not really green, but just seems so. It’s certainly not biodegradable, which a book ultimately is, and electronics are so froth with problems and becoming obsolete, who wants their entire book collection to go on the blink? Trust in the old-fashioned book!

Comment by Beth Mac — September 2, 2010 @ 8:27 am
Beth Mac, what a horror that would be! I’ve had enough computers go on the blink (and lose email addresses, programs, etc.), but I can’t imagine losing half my library in the blink of a cursor. That’s one thing that keeps me buying paper books though–the good ones that I don’t want to lose. The awful or mediocre ones I read at the library for free.

Comment by Kristi Holl — September 2, 2010 @ 9:45 am
I was as averse to the so-called e-book revolution as anyone. I’m a former journalist and college writing instructor who was dragged kicking and screaming into all the communication innovations of the late 20th and early 21st centuries (first word processors, then email and blogs, now e-books). Each time I resisted until I could no longer hold out, then found to my amazement that I “couldn’t live” without the new thing. As far as we writers are concerned, Yvette hit the nail on the head: Here’s another avenue of readership. If we want readers, we might take a serious look at the virtual equality of access to mass readership that e-books allows through such programs as Kindle and Smashwords.

Comment by Judy — September 2, 2010 @ 11:14 am
Judy, that’s so true. Regardless of how we feel personally about the technology, as writers we’d be nuts not to look at the vast number of readers out there who DO buy ebooks. I wish I had a breakdown of ages and types of books that people mostly buy for their ereaders.

Comment by Kristi Holl — September 2, 2010 @ 12:07 pm
I agree with much of what has been said but at the same time I can’t wait to get the Kindle that my husband ordered for my birthday. Apparently they are sold out until September 17th. But I check Amazon every day to see if they might possibly be ahead of schedule. I love books and that’s the problem. I buy too many, especially nonfiction, and they are spilling out of many bookshelves. And that’s after I weed them once a year for the church rummage sale. In the end I guess I read books for the content so am willing to sacrifice the physical weight of the book. Great discussion.

Bonnie

Comment by Bonnie — September 2, 2010 @ 1:02 pm
Bonnie, that’s true about finding space for all the books. I too have run out of room, and there’s no space left in the house for more book shelves. Even though I culled six months ago, I’m back to stacks of books on every free space in my office! An ereader would help me with that problem.

Comment by Kristi Holl — September 2, 2010 @ 5:50 pm
About cuddling up with a child and an e-book? I don’t think so! My biggest concern is the future of picture books, specifically. I really hope they STAY in standard BOOK format. The art is just NOT the same on a digital format as it is on the printed page. Please, please, please don’t ever let picture books become e-books!!! (Not that you could stop it, Kristi.) Of course, I’m talking to the masses that COULD stop it or make it happen…

Comment by Christie Wild — September 2, 2010 @ 9:20 pm
Christie Wild, I agree about picture books. My eyes wouldn’t be able to see the pictures on an ereader! I can’t imagine reducing a two-page spread down to something screen size. Have you seen any picture books on ereaders?

Comment by Kristi Holl — September 2, 2010 @ 10:51 pm
I think the kindle definitely have a place in the future, if like digital cameras, they become more affordable. I, who did not grew up in the digital area, don’t really see the need, yet.. (I still have a cellphone that can only dial and text) I think it will be great for students, you don’t have to haul all those heavy textbooks around, and how do you make notes on the kindle pages? or can you do it already, I just don’t know how?

When I was first introduced to a computer, I thought, “AGG, don’t need”, same with internet, don’t see the hype” But I’ve started reading digital magazines, and newspapers and book chapters on google books, so I might just get a e-book reader one day, when every one else have one.

Comment by Carina — September 3, 2010 @ 4:05 am
Carina, you and I sound a lot alike. Except I don’t even text. I bought the last phone in the store last year that only worked as a phone! I would truly love to have an ereader to take in the car or on planes or any kind of traveling. But if I’m home or where I can handle a paper book, I can’t see using an ereader. But never say never!

Comment by Kristi Holl — September 3, 2010 @ 3:54 pm
As a writer, my concern is what ereaders and ebooks will do for the writer’s bottom line as in advances, and royalties. That is why I am on the fence about them. Since Dorchester went digital I am confused as to how this will change the landscape of writing and authorship.
Any idea’s Kristi?

Comment by Linda Allison — September 3, 2010 @ 5:23 pm
Linda, I don’t have any predictions to make or anything. I think it’s too soon to tell. So far, on my own royalty statements, I can’t see the e-book sales making much difference at all. But they were released as e-books after the print books were out a while. Maybe if they were released at the same time, e-books sales would be higher. Time will tell!

Comment by Kristi Holl — September 5, 2010 @ 5:23 pm