Nov 27 2008
Ebooks and consumer resistance
The other problem with e-publishing is one of acceptance. There are still many people who don’t like reading large documents on-screen (I even know people who print off their emails before reading them, for Pete’s sake!). And printed off on your home laser-printer, an ebook can look uncomfortably amateurish. Who wants to cuddle up in bed with a sheaf of paper held together by a bulldog clip? It would remind me too much of work! But there are some genres where e-books do seem to be making inroads.
Science fiction/fantasy is one such area. Women’s erotica - especially a site called Ellora’s Cave - also seems to do well. Perhaps sci fi fans are more technically inclined. As for women’s erotica, the reason is obvious - women who would be too shy to take such a book to the checkout in a bookstore can download Ellora’s Cave books in complete privacy.
Products like Amazon’s Kindle may make the e-book more user-friendly. At the moment, you can’t read most e-books on the Kindle without paying Amazon to convert the .pdf file - and if you’re not in the States, you can’t buy one. So the revolution may be some way off yet!
