Paper books have been around for centuries, so it’s both exhilarating and frightening to witness the dawn of e-books. It’s difficult to know what changes this will bring to the book-loving community: readers, writers, booksellers, librarians. I don’t pretend to have a crystal ball, but here are some random thoughts and questions that have occurred to me, if anyone wants to discuss:
How affordable will e-readers be? Will this affect book accessibility and literacy rates? Will old paper books be digitized or just archived? Will successive versions of e-readers make earlier e-books obsolete, and if so, will books seem more ephemeral and will rereading be less common? Will censorship or monitoring of electronic materials be easier or more difficult than with print materials? Will used bookstores become obsolete; will electronic materials be available forever, rendering “out of print” meaningless? Will people still gather at bookstores and libraries, or will everyone just download from home? What will picture books and novelty books look like?
Human beings have always been story tellers and probably always will be, even as the ways we transmit our stories change.
Comments
1 cedunkley // Aug 10, 2009 at 10:44 am
Among the many issues I’m looking into regarding possibly buying e-books is the strange pricing that currently exists.
In looking at Sherwood Smith’s e-books for her Inda series the other day I came across this pricing issue:
B&N has the e-book of the hardcover release of King’s Shield for $9.99 and the e-book of the paperback release for $7.99. But isn’t it the same book regardless if it’s an e-book?
The same goes for Amazon’s Kindle. Treason’s Shore is priced at $14.27, King’s Shield is priced at $7.19 and the first two are priced at $6.39. Why would I want to pay double the price for an one e-book over the other e-book? I’d rather just buy the hardcover for $2.40 more.
I woud imagine payment to the author for the sale of an e-book is the same no matter what price Amazon or B&N charge?
Basically, if I’m going to have to wait until the paperback gets published to get a better e-book price, why buy an e-book at all, unless my main consideration is physical storage space in my house?
2 Jennifer Hubbard // Aug 10, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I would guess that pricing models are still being worked out, and will be adjusted as time goes on.
For someone like me, who tends to reread a book many times over a period of many years, a paper book has many advantages. For those who only read a few books a year, it’s also hard to see why they would want to pay a couple hundred dollars for the reader device. But for those who just read a book once, and for those who read many many books, the e-version may be preferable? I put a question mark here because I’m still learning, and speculating!
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