Ebooks Article: Things We Know and Things We Don't

MacAllister

'Twas but a dream of thee
Staff member
Boss Mare
Administrator
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
22,010
Reaction score
10,705
Location
Out on a limb
Website
macallisterstone.com
This is a smart piece that poses some pertinent questions regarding the future of e-books:
We know that most people will adjust pretty readily to reading straight text narrative books on a screen rather than paper.

We know that parents will hand their iPad, iPhone, or Nook Color device to a kid so that they can enjoy children’s books on the device.

We don’t know whether adult illustrated book content will be equally well accepted by book consumers on devices, even though there are more and more devices capable of displaying pretty much what publishers deliver on a printed page.

We don’t know what parents will pay for a brief illustrated children’s book delivered for a device, but it appears it might be much less than they’re willing to pay for paper.

We know that consumers will pay paperback prices and more for plain vanilla ebooks, or “verbatim” ebooks.

We don’t know whether consumers will accept paying higher prices for video, audio, or software enhancements to the verbatim ebooks.
 

tim290280

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 19, 2011
Messages
245
Reaction score
6
Location
Western Australia
Website
thetysonadams.blogspot.com
We don’t know whether adult illustrated book content will be equally well accepted by book consumers on devices, even though there are more and more devices capable of displaying pretty much what publishers deliver on a printed page.
Um, yes we do. Graphic Novels anyone?

If you want to talk 167dpi B&W ereader screens then sure, but you want to talk HD 10" tablets then people are jumping on board of these. In fact comics and graphic novels have been surging into ebook comic formats with greater uptake than other books.

When the new Kindle was announced the other night, several of the graphic authors I follow commented that a 7" screen was not what they'd been hoping for. They wanted the Kindle colour to be the tablet that boosted their sales (their margins are rubbish, even worse in ebook form).
 

Max Vaehling

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
1,133
Reaction score
75
Location
Bremen, Germany
Website
www.dreadfulgate.de
Agree on comics, not sure about graphic novels. The difference being, the graphic novel people try so hard to cater to the traditional book lovers that the effort may be lost on ebook lovers. Part of the selling point of a GN is, after all, its... bookness.

Comics lovers, on the other hand, have no problem with getting their fix from yet another market, especially since a lot of ebooks are cheaper than the print versions. Both comics and ebooks lovers won't have a problem with graphic novel ebooks either, but I'm not sure the 'pure' graphic novel crowd is on board with this. (No, I don't have any numbers to back this up.)