It doesn’t really surprise me that there’s still great resistance to the current trend toward eBooks. While eBooks still represent only a small percentage of total book sales, they are the fastest growing book trend. Still, old habits die hard, and many people – me included – dislike change.
Yet, I’ve been able to recognize the advantages to eBooks over their printed counterparts. Besides some cost savings, which some may consider negligible, there’s the space savings that I’ve written previously about here and here. Another advantage is in the realm of academia: Instead of toting a lot of very heavy texts from school to home and back again, students will be able to store all their class-required books on eReader devices. No more back-breaking packs to lug around – what an advantage!
In spite of these advantages and more, and human nature being what it is, resistors to the eBook phenomenon exist and thrive. What has surprised me is who leads this resistance. I expected publishers and booksellers to be the major holdouts to changes in their industry, but apparently many authors are bucking the eBook movement and clinging to printed versions of their works.
From publishers and booksellers:
Given what analysts say is the increasingly depressing reality of old-world print business models, today’s publishers and booksellers (who’d once adopted a largely adversarial stance) are increasingly approaching this digital development with an “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude. — Publishers and Booksellers Rally to Support eBooks and eReaders by Dena Cassella.
Compare that to what some authors are saying:
Given that people already chide ebooks for being a pale comparison to printed books, having an ebook be so different from the printed text is going to slow down converts to the platform. — Ebooks are a Disaster by Henry Baum.
Well, compared to their print cousins, eBook sales are not slowing at all. Yet, many authors want people to hold out for a vision of multimedia books of the future:
“A problem for me with the e-readers is they basically just replicate the book – I’m perfectly happy with books, thank you very much,” Pullinger said in an interview from her home in London, England.
“Electronic replication of a book is pretty uninteresting for me. The more interesting potential lies in . . . whole new ways of telling a story that use other media. But the new devices aren’t with us yet.” — Authors say ebooks are still in their infancy and should embrace multimedia by Michael Oliveira
For more on this vision of a multimedia version of digital books that offer an “ongoing experience,” I suggest you read: Dumb eBooks Must Die, Smart eBooks Must Live by Mike Cane.
While this futuristic version sounds interesting and exciting, I still say content is king. I’m not certain that I’m willing to pay extra for this “ongoing experience.” And I know I’m not willing to give up on reading and wait for this vision to become reality. As I’ve said before, I won’t be spending any more money on printed books for two reasons: the expense and the space they take up.
You can resist the eBook movement all you want; I choose to embrace it, even in its present understated form. For me, resistance is futile. Only eBooks will be able to feed my reading addiction.
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