Here's an article out of the times regarding the Kindle. I thought it would flop . I was wrong. What do you guys think? What will this do to the publishing industry?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/opinion/
06krugman.html?ref=opinion
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Also known as the Ashby Avenue Writers Collective, we have been meeting to discuss our writing and other crises since 1995. Nearly 60 writers have come through the writing group. Some of us remember the house on Ashby Avenue in Berkeley where we met until it went up in flames. We had our stint at the end of Delaware and our fling in San Francisco. Most of the time we all liked each other. Novels were written. Short stories were published. Marriages began and ended. Houses were bought, sold, burgled, and burned. We have our share of MFAs, Ph.Ds, babies, and day jobs. Some of us still meet in person, the rest are far-flung correspondents. Look, it's called groop for a reason. Welcome to groop.
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2 comments:
I've been following the success of the kindle with some interest. I wrote an article 10 years ago predicting then that the e-book concept would fail until they could they invented something that could be read with comfort. Well, now we've got e-ink and e-books are working. However, if you go to Amazon and really look at the available content, it's still pretty limited. Unless you read mainstream fiction by the truckload (and I know some people do), you probably won't get a return on your investment. So for now, for most people, the kindle is more a luxury item.
Ever seen anybody reading one yet? I haven't.
Personally, I like the idea of having an e-book loaded with reference books ... but isn't that basically what my laptop is? I like the idea of instantly downloading any book I'm interested in ... but how many books can I read? I like the idea of saving paper and space on my bookshelves ... but I'm not willing to shell out $400 for the priviledge.
To answer your question, however, I think that e-books could be good for writers. One of the largest costs of making books is the printing costs. If readers are all invested in e-books, it may be easier to reach them.
Of course, it'll probably be bad for books stores (Nick, want to comment?). And it might be bad for already existing publishing companies invested in a certain type of economy (Ella, have any thoughts in this regard?). But it might allow independent operators to reach a small market of readers of web-enabled readers.
The publishing industry has been waiting for its ipod moment for so long that most have written it off as a possibility. Well folks, that's what they said about television. It really is just a matter of time, and everyone always underestimates the amount of time it will take before we hit the inflection point, then again underestimates just how fast and how large the uptake will be once we reach the true inflection point.
Keep in mind that e-ink technology is still in its early stages and that future versions will be more detailed and incorporate color, possibly making the technology suitable for all screen technology, and eliminating the need for the backlight, which is why most of us complain about reading on a screen.
My suspicion is that people the business world will adopt readers for large pdf documents that they no longer want to print out and carry around with them on trains and planes. Readers may in fact be integrated into the small laptops that have suddenly become so very popular. These laptops may be modified to feel more book-like to accommodate reading rather than data entry. You might also see laptops with two screens that can be modified for different functions--one for browsing or typing on a touch pad, the other for reading--or both for reading, like holding a book open. A colleague heard a rumor that the next "one laptop per child" computer might have two screens.
I read a book on the Kindle and got chills. The screen is too small, e-ink technology needs work, the user design is pretty clunky. It's too expensive, but my friends, my friends...
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