Mon 19 Nov 2007
Okay, I’m not one to argue with the likes of Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, but… oh, well, yes I am… So, here we go.
Jeff, buddy, what the hell are you thinking? E-book readers have been tried, and have dropped like flies at a bug-zapper trade show. I’m very sorry but the new Amazon Wireless Reader is doomed to fail… Here are the reasons why:
First: A book is a book… it feels like a book, ‘reads’ like a book, and you can spill your coffee on it, wipe it off and still read it like a book. You an throw it in the bottom of a bag with your car keys, let it get peed on by your cat, highlight it with a pen, write notes in the margin, and still read it like a book. When you invent a reader that you can do all those things with, and will never need batteries, or be subject to screen fade, or be to dim to read in bright sunlight, I might buy it.
Second. There are already quite a few devices out there that you can read a book on, and all of them do much more than just display a book to be read. It is human nature to want more for your money. So even though you might be less satisfied with an e-book reader that is also a phone, computer, pda, wireless hub, and washes your car, because you will want to do all these things instead of read your book, you’re going to buy it anyway… And you will do everything with it except read your book. Also, this more popular item will end up actually costing less than your stand alone e-book reader, because of the number that will sell… doomed…
Third: Cost. It retails for a cool $400.00!! Holy crap! I CAN buy an i-phone for that. So the big draw is that it can hold up to 200 books (but you can still only read one at a time, and my bookshelf holds more) and it’s wireless *checks his bookshelf and all his books for wires* … Ahem… Doomed…
I’m not saying people don’t read on their computers. Hey, I do all the time. Cory Doctorow has had millions of copies of his books downloaded through Creative Commons licensing, which is all good. But the people who really want to ‘read’ a book, will buy a good old paper and ink copy, dog the ears, flip the pages, spill coffee on it, fall asleep and drool on it, and love every word.
Sorry, but nice try Jeff.
If you’re interested, here’s more on the new Amazon Kindle.
Cheers! Read On!
November 26th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Chris, you very well may be right about the Kindle. However, that is just a piece of hardware and will undoubtedly be improved upon. For example, the new One Laptop Per Child unit is an entire computer and sells for just $200. It’s screen is color, but it offers the opportunity to go to a very high black and white resolution. I haven’t tried it yet, but I could see myself curling up with one of those.
Sooner or later, probably sooner, someone is going to come up with a reader that is close enough to being a book and it’s going to catch on. The reason is that product delivery to such a device is astoundingly cheaper than the present system, which is the same business model that began with Gutenberg.
A book may be a book, but the law of supply and demand is inviolable.
November 26th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
I saw those new laptops and they are indeed very cool… running LINUX, too… Smart. Also very durable and shock, water, humidity, heat resistant. I may get one for a boat computer and run nav and comm software on it. I guess one of the advantages of the new Kindle is that the text and screen are very “readable”… Don’t get me wrong, I think some people will buy it, but as far as some device ever truly replacing the book, or even seriously effecting sales of hard print books…
Never gonna happen. IMHO, of course…
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:41 am
OMG, I hate to even start in on this topic, because I could go on and on and on . . . But let me start by saying I agree 100% with Chris, but would like to add this: It’s not the device, you idiots (I’m referring, of course, to all the people that are breathlessly touting this idiotic Kindle deal), it’s the cost of ebooks. If ever there was a person who was receptive to ebooks, it would be me. I love my Palm, I love reading books on my Palm, it holds 100s of books. And, I have no room on the boat to store a bunch of reading material. But, I rarely buy ebooks Why? Have you checked out the cost? Ebooks are usually as much or more than the print versions. Example: Stephen Colbert’s new book, I am America and So Can You at ebooks.palm.com — $26.99. At Amazon? $16.19. What’s wrong with this picture? I’m paying what for a few hundred bytes? I have occasionally bought ebooks, but they have to be under — maybe well under — $10 before I’ll even consider a purchase. Most of the time I just stick to the classics at Gutenberg. I’m reading a bunch of Henry James right now, and it’s great. When we left Florida for DC this past summer, I really wanted to stock up on some ebooks, but realized the 10 or so I wanted to read would’ve cost me $150 or more, so I just bought used versions on Amazon for a few bucks apiece. Another good thing about the paper versions? I can resell them. Thanks to the locked down, DRM versions of ebooks, you can’t transfer them to anybody. I can’t even beam them to my husband’s Palm. Ridiculous. Okay, I’ll stop now.
December 8th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
OMG! I had no idea that e-books were so pricey… WTF are they thinking? These are NO cost copies!!! They should be GIVING them away!!!
This is, in a nutshell, what is wrong with book marketing today. The value of an item should be directly related to the cost it incurs to produce it, not what some nit-wit marketing consultant ‘thinks’ it will sell for.
As for the lock-down, that is so ridiculous! I can loan my dog-eared copy of “insert title here” to anyone and nobody gives a damn. Send an e-copy of a book to someone and it’s piracy. Get real!!!
January 18th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Hi!! I just wandered by your site again today and read this, and it totally made me laugh out loud
I am currently reading Deathmask and enjoying it immensely.
I was one of your very happy return customers at Dragon Con this year! in 2008 I will definitely stop by and say hi!
January 18th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I will be there, Liz, and thanks for dropping by. I may have a new novel by then, but things are slow in the submissions to print area… I will have a new audio book by then, for sure.
Cheers!