Comments on: Nobody Wants to Read a Book on a Computer: Why the Kindle Matters After All

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:32:05 +0000

I think the reason that consumers quickly embraced the music-film-television digital revolution is that in order to listen or hear these things, one has always been reliant on technology to do it. You’re asking one technology to replace the other. Going digital, simply made it cheaper, easier, faster, smaller, more productive. By introducing the “e-book,” you’re asking consumers to adopt technology for something that one has never needed technology to do before — making it more difficult, more expensive (in terms of initial costs) and more unknown. Technology for books has always been a behind the scenes evolution in terms of printing innovations — something the average consumer very rarely thinks about. Now you’re asking them to think about it. And in my experience, when you force someone to think about something they’ve never had to think about before, there will be resistance.

By: Will Spruce

Will Spruce — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:47:59 +0000

I can’t see how anything that is, or will be, a “classic” book can be enjoyed any way other than with book in hand. How can you replicate that unique smell that a book has? That is a subconscious pleasure associated with reading a book for enjoyment.
And, of course, books on shelves are a staple of decorating our homes, showing our guests that we are part of a respectable culture.

By: melon

melon — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:20:07 +0000

“Out of Print” will always be a factor with Old Media, digital or otherwise.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:02:31 +0000

Well, I guess I should have said that myself. When it comes to self-distribution, there’s really two major groups: vanity projects, and industry or educational texts.

If some crazy person wants to write a book and offer it for sale, and nobody wants to read it, no harm done. And you never know if it might just be a huge success. But likely, it will amount to not much.

Industry texts and educational texts, on the other hand, must be printed, because even though as few as a dozen people will read it, the demand is imperative. If it’s something like a user manual for a scanning electron microscope, for example, the fact that there’s only need for 100 copies doesn’t mean the demand can be ignored.

And especially with university textbooks, where cost is a factor — isn’t “Out of Print” the last thing you want to see when you’re looking for a textbook? With digital books, you’ll never be out of print again.

By: melon

melon — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:55:40 +0000

I will never read a book on a digital device; at least not willingly. I imagine this being a more important platform for academic literature, since nobody has any real affection for textbooks–not to mention that they can be quite cumbersome. On the other hand, if you’re going to be forced to fork out $125 for an economics textbook and you have a choice between a traditional book or a digital copy, I’d inevitably choose the former. It is the only medium that we know of that has the durability of centuries behind it, unlike digital copies, which go extinct the minute your hard drive inexplicably dies.

There does come a point where the real thing is preferable to the simulacra.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:33:04 +0000

*I hope it’s obvious why self-distributors like the idea of the Kindle: they can get their book published even if a publisher thinks nobody wants to read it, which is the case with most struggling writers. But why would publishers, who make their money printing books, want to switch to digital? Music companies, after all, want you to buy a CD, not download it. Right?

I think it’s because publishing is pretty expensive. The raw commodity costs can be high, but shipping and warehousing is also an issue. 3 tonnes of CDs is a lot more units than 3 tonnes of a big fat book. Also, CDs are relatively cheap to make, only a few cents each, but print a million copies of a book nobody wants to read, and you’re sitting on a big pile of very expensive garbage. Books get cheaper to produce the more you make of them, whereas mass producing CDs or DVDs doesn’t drastically affect the per-unit cost of production.

The benefits of digital distribution have more or less been lost on the music, television and film industry. The book publishing industry, it seems — and perhaps because it’s the only one not forced into it by piracy — is the only one to see the benefits and embrace them.