Reply to Lisa Jardin on Ebooks - “A Page-turning Passion”
My reply:
So, “real readers” don’t use e-readers then? Ms Jardine may have her Point of View on this subject, and there’s no evidence that e-readers will completely replace books made from trees in the near future.
However, there is a growing army of consumers who are delighting in the practicalities of slipping a slim volume into their bag for the commute to work, or packing the same slim volume into hand luggage for a weekend away or a fortnight’s holiday. Same slim volume, huge choice of books to read.
There are issues to be addressed, for sure. The key one, as far as I can see, is that of book price. How publishers can justify charging less for a weighty piece of dead tree covered in ink, than the electronic file from which it was derived, is beyond me. They are in danger of following the head-in-the-sand attitudes of the music publishers of a few years ago. The secret is to understand the psychology of online purchasing, rather than attempt to bolster artificially high prices with legal threats against piracy.
On the other hand, high prices for ‘name’ authors encourages e-reader enthusiasts to seek out new authors whose works attract a somewhat more realistic price tag. Nine of Amazon’s top 10 Kindle book purchases were at the princely sum of $0.00. Free. What does that tell you about the acceptable price point for the e-reading public?
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