E-books vs Physical

I got a Kindle for Christmas. I can't see me buying many paper books in the future. I do expect to buy plenty of ebooks.

Will paper books die out completely? I doubt it.

If you search, this discussion has been had a lot here.With ebook sales at 20% and starting to level, I doubt paperback will go extinct.

I got a Nook for Christmas. I buy e-books now so it doesn't go to waste. However, if I really like a book I've e-bought, I'll go out and buy the physical book as well.

I think there will be printed books in the future, just no book stores.

The printed codex book isn't going away. It's a completely de-bugged technology, that works the same way everywhere. It's portable. Properly made with care and reasonable use, it can easily last over a thousand years. It requires no external power source, and the UI for the object itself takes minutes to understand.

The e-book revolution is just starting. But even at this very beginning stage e-books are outselling printed books on Amazon. E-readers are getting cheaper and more available from different manufacturers. I think what will happen (sooner than later) is that popular works like novels will go completely e and printed books will be only high-end "coffee table" types, printed by just a few companies.

Someone I read compared the e-book revolution to the paperback revolution of the 60's and 70's, which radically changed the publishing marketplace and killed the pulp magazines. I think that's true.

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

I still buy printed reference books I want to keep and use a lot, but for fiction I buy e-books. I've been a self-publisher of printed books and just started publishing e-books a few months ago, but the e-book versions of all of my titles are outselling the printed versions many times over.

I don't think printed books will become extinct, but I do think e-books will dominate the market in the not too distant future.

I don't think ebook is going to take over the whole industry. It's like PC and Mac. Each person has his/her own references and it's hard to tell.

I like to hold my book when I read it. An e-reader doesn't have the same scent or feel. I think physical books will be fine.

Books are actually a lot of different things and I think how much ebooks affect a particular book depends on what kind of book it is.

Some books will never work really well on an ereader. Anything where you are constantly jumping from page to page. It's just far more efficient to do that on paper. Cookbooks, manuals (that you actually use), things like that. Finding a particular page in an ebook is a PITA whether its on a kindle, computer, or iPad. I don't see how that's going to change.

I also think it will be a very long time until anyone but "readers" has an ereader of any kind, so I think the "blockbuster" mass market segment is pretty safe because those are books that have a significant sell through to irregular "one or two books a year" readers.

Genre books that appeal primarily to readers and are usually read only once: romance, sf, mystery. I think you're going to see these migrate completely from mass market paper to ebook. Trade paper? I'd have to think those are going to ereader, but there might be a paper market.

The initial big hardcover, I have no idea. I am an odd one in that I loathe hardcovers and the only reason I'd ever buy one is because I wanted the book NOW not when it came out in paper. I don't know if the having a nice book on your shelf is enough or not.

In theory, I love "real" books more. I like the smell and feel of paper. I like holding a book when I read. However, I read mostly ebooks on my Kindle. This is mostly for practical reasons. I've been living overseas for a while, so I don't want to buy books I'm going to have to give up when I move again.

Katie Elle said:

Some books will never work really well on an ereader. Anything where you are constantly jumping from page to page. It's just far more efficient to do that on paper. Cookbooks, manuals (that you actually use), things like that. Finding a particular page in an ebook is a PITA whether its on a kindle, computer, or iPad. I don't see how that's going to change.

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That's because the ebooks are mostly poorly designed at preset.

I've made reference books and cookbooks both work beautifully as ebooks--but they need to be made by hand, by skilled production staff.

Most of the ebooks people are reading now, especially on Kindle, are text dumps, or one-step removed from being a text dump.

We have the technology, especially on tablets, to have thoroughly linked, and indexed, books with extra features; a cookbook with video, for instance.

You tell the Tablet "stop" and the video is paused while you complete the complicated food preparation step you've just watched Julia Child do.

I was at the Perth Writers' Festival recently and most of the industry people were talking about the rise of ebooks and talking hitting 80% of the market. They were all adamant that paper was going to stay, but even the indie bookstores were talking books becoming niche.

http://tysonadams.com/2012/03/07/perth-writers-festival-2012-2/

80% seems to be the common prediction for the market and some genres and authors are closing on that quickly. Other genres won't break 10%. The new industry figures seemed to suggest pretty steady ebook growth. Not bad considering that most of the book market is a year or two behind the adoption curve.

AGragon said:

What are your thoughts on the future of printed, physical books? Many people I know is telling me that the paper book is slowly dying and in a few years they won't exist anymore.

What are your thoughts on this? Are e-books going to take over?

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I remember when my admin got her Palm Pilot back in 2001 and was downloading books on it. I shook my head and told her, confidently, "it'll never catch on."

Today, I'm retired, she owns her own very, very successful web-publishing business--of which part of what they do is convert written to digital for e-book formatting--and hardly a week, or month at the longest goes by that I don't get a friendly reminder of just how wrong I was.

And gladly so.

I don't see reference books ever going away in print--things like shop manuals for automotive repair, woodworking, cookbooks, "how to" books reliant upon lots of illustrations and graphics.

However, the internet and discussion forums are giving them a run for their money, but again, I just don't see them going away.

I also don't see paper & ink books ever going completely away.

But where e-readers (and subsequently e-books) are really taking hold are with my generation, the Baby Boomers, because of our (ever) failing eyesight. Being able to adjust the font and size of font is HUGE to us. I've had prescription reading glasses now for almost ten years. My Kindle e-reader and iPad makes it easy to read without the glasses, which even though they're prescription, can still give me a headache from time to time.

Quite honestly? I think there's plenty of room for both and the market itself will bear out when/where/how things settle out.

Medievalist said:

The printed codex book isn't going away. It's a completely de-bugged technology, that works the same way everywhere. It's portable. Properly made with care and reasonable use, it can easily last over a thousand years. It requires no external power source, and the UI for the object itself takes minutes to understand.

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Yep, I've yet to have the need to download the User's Guide for any of my paper books or plug them in to re-charge so I could read them.

AGragon said:

I still have my Kindle which I haven't touched yet.

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And why haven't you touched it yet?

JDKinman said:

I don't see reference books ever going away in print--things like shop manuals for automotive repair, woodworking, cookbooks, "how to" books reliant upon lots of illustrations and graphics.

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They're perfect for something like the iPad.

A cookbook with recipes that re-calculate the ingredients based on the number of servings desired.
A cookbook with step-by-step videos that respond to voice commands, to you can follow along in the kitchen.
A cookbook that generates a shopping list for you and asks where you want to send it.

Reference books like this one with all the cross-references hyperlinked, and words pronounced. The American Heritage Dictionary is a fabulous example of a refernce work done right as an ebook.

The Toyota Prius manuals for repair, and a number of air plane manuals are already on the iPad, with the ability to tap a diagram and zoom in for a closer look, and videos of repair procedures.

Medievalist said:

and a number of air plane manuals are already on the iPad, with the ability to tap a diagram and zoom in for a closer look, and videos of repair procedures.

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Yep. We just added another (Garmin) GPS to our Cessna and it has a "quick start" guide that is printed, but everything else you need to know is online.

The iPad has great appeal for lots of pilots because you can purchase apps and software that allow you to download XM satellite weather (very helpful when you're flying in the clouds/no-visibility weather) that is almost real time.

A friend's wife once got on the Garmin website via their iPad while they were overflying a large metro area in order to look up a function/feature.

I can get (FAA approved) charts, runway diagrams, airport diagrams, etc on an iPhone or iPad and then enlarge the type so that I don't have to switch to my reading glasses. The FAA mandates on my airman's medical that I have to have "corrective lenses" while pilot-in-command, but they don't say that I have to use their printed materials when the same approved materials are available via e-book/e-publication.

The link you provided is fascinating! THAT is exactly the kind of stuff that publishers can offer via the "e-book revolution" that the majority of self-publishers cannot and that DOES add tremendous value.

And even with all of that, I do not think printed books/publications will ever be extinct. They might become a little harder to find, but I remember when some consultants urged us to go "paperless" at our ad agency. What a farce. With what everyone was printing from the e-mails and pdfs, our paper consumption almost tripled.

I'm usually very slow to embrace a lot of new technology--most notable exception being the (Apple) Macintosh computer. Got one in 1985 and have not been without one since, and have never had less than two in the house since the mid-90's.

E-books took me a little longer, but now that I have even the most basic, entry-level Kindle there is, I'm hooked.

BUT. . . for some of my favorite author collections, I'll continue to buy their hardback releases and/or paperback releases just for my library of physical/printed books.