Ever since I’ve been writing popular science books, we’ve been told the e-book revolution is coming. People from all sides of the market have said how wonderful it would be. Readers can be eco-friendly, and don’t need stacks of books on the shelf. Publishers slash costs. Some authors, most notably Steven King, see e-books as a way to disintermediate (i.e. get rid of the middleman). Okay, maybe bookstores aren’t too enthusiastic, but doesn’t everyone else love them?
In fact things have been a lot more complicated. Many authors feel ripped off by the way publishers don’t necessarily reflect the reduced production costs in the small percentage of the price of the book that goes to an author. Publishers aren’t to ecstatic about disintermediation, because in this particular transaction they are one of the middle men. And readers haven’t exactly rushed in droves to embrace e-books.
This is partly because the technology just isn’t there to make an e-book attractive as a reading experience. Reading a novel (or a popular science book) on the screen can’t equal the paper experience. Particularly if you want to read in bed or in the bath or on the beach – in fact pretty well anywhere people normally do read. Electronic paper and other exciting technologies do suggest the future for e-books, but they’re still a way off. And to be honest, most of us like that collection of books on the shelf.
The best we have at the moment, or soon on the way are the Sony Reader, Amazon’s Kindle and the iRex iLiad – all look interesting, and they’re certainly better than reading on a PDA, but at around £200-400/$300-700 for the new generation devices they aren’t exactly cheap, and they’re still not the same as the real thing.
There are books where this format works superbly. Reference books. Books you want to just use or print a bit of at a time (like my own collection of murder mystery party games, Organizing a Murder ). But this isn’t necessarily a comfortable format for a cuddle-up book, (which I believe popular science books should be).
So it’s with mixed feelings that I greet Macmillan Science’s e-book range . On the whole it’s a good thing. It broadens the opportunities for access to popular science – and indubitably it has its green side, which no one can complain about (as long as you don’t print the thing). But, as yet, I can only give the enterprise two, rather ragged, cheers.
I don’t know about e-books, but I wonder if audio books might be the next big thing. OK, they’ve been around for decades. But now everyone has an iPod (other brands are available) in their pocket, and less time to sit down and read. Services like audible.com are starting to tap into this market.
Matt – I’m not convinced. Back in the early 90s when I ran the Emerging Technologies group at BA we did a technology summary for the senior executives on tape so they could listen to it in their cars, as they had no time to read things. A little later, when I wrote for PC Week, the editor and I had an attempt to persuade the powers-that-were at VNU to include a similar audio summary for busy executives, but they thought the idea was too low tech.
I know MP3 players are more prevelant than walkmans (walkmen?), and more techie-lovery, but I’m not convinced that audio books will ever be more than a niche market for on the train/in the car/children’s bedtimes. Admittedly there’s still plenty of room to expand that niche, hence Audible’s success, but a niche it remains.
Audio books are a “yes, and…” to printed books – ebooks, if they could be got right, are a replacement.
There is an elephant in the room here – battery life. Think about it.
e-books do have a place – I read an awful lot of fiction on my PDA (currently I have about 60 books loaded)- I also have reference material like the Collins Bird Guides which means that I don’t have to lug a heavy field guide with me.
There are limitations of course (battery life, strong outdoor light) but so have books.
Overall I really enjoy reading of my PDA (but not from a PC screen) & would love to have more popular science books available in an e-format
I’m amazed that people enjoy reading from a PDA screen. Someone I know read an entire novel of mine on his __blackberry. And this wasn’t some squib, it was a 180,000-word epic. You’ll all go blind, I tell you!
Give me a real book with paper any day. No batteries required, easy to read in all kinds of light, it won’t lose all its memory if left uncharged (as my PDA just did), and won’t break if you drop it. And why do you need a device with dozens of books in it? You only read one at a time, and if you want two open at once (to cross-refer) then two books open on a desk are the best. Call me old-fashioned, I don’t care. I know I’m right, so there.
Well, Henry, my friend (he plays darts so must be okay sightwise) read your Sigil entirely on his Treo 650 earlier this year…
The poor chap. I hope he survived the experience… :)
This morning I picked “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” out of the bookshelf to read on the commute and came across a quote that is kind-of relevant to this thread:
“The reason why it was published in the form of a micro sub-meson electronic component is that if it were printed in normal book form, an interstellar hitchhiker would require several inconveniently large buildings to carry it around in.”
For the record:
-I am a big fan of audiobooks and enjoy listening to someone reading to me (especially comforting when I am feeling tired or pale).
-Am unlikely to read an e-book any time soon.
Bean Publishing makes most of the comments here appear all wet.
http://www.baen.com/
They have hundreds of free e-books that are DRM free, sell individual e-books for $6.00 each, you can buy a month for $15.00 and for real popular writers an E-ARC for $15.00.
Personally I prefer reading on my monitor. I get to decide background color and font. (Light gray and, times new roman, bold, 16pt)