At the height of the Internet boom, e-books were hailed as the shining new tomorrow for publishers and paper books were heading for the scrap heap. | But the bubble has burst and electronic books are still the poor relation to the printed word with consumers preferring to turn the pages themselves when they curl up by the fire with a good book. —Paul Majendie —Bubble bursts for electronic books (SignOnSanDiego)
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Ah… so you’re that Phillip Lenssen! Thanks for the tip.
With my site http://www.authorama.com , I’m preparing for the day when everybody has easy-to-read devices (my bet’s on digital ink) to browse online books. Books on paper are great because they’re best to read, but you just can’t search them easily! I get many hits from Google from people who searched for something, and landed on my book site. Then, I present the files in chapters, and also a complete version for easy print-out. My ebook format is XHTML, and I believe that’s the only format with a future! But I’m not trying to sell the books, as they’re in the public domain to begin with. My only monetary reward could be the Amazon associates links to the book, or related information, but so far I need about 1,000 people more clicking & buying from that than I currently have…
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By the way, Dennis, I wanted to mail you about my QML website, since I read you’re also interested in Interactive Fiction, but somehow the mail bounced back, so here goes: http://questml.com -> choose-your-own-adventure language + editor, open source freeware.
Mike posted an addendum that I worked into his original comment. By the way, these comment fields accept HTML, so you can add your own links here.
My latest e-book (“Gorelets” — also in print — go to gorelets.com for more) just came out, so I’ve been reading a lot about this topic lately. I’ve been seeing contradictory evidence (and contradictory views) batted back and forth about the viability of the ebook market; I think the fact remains that it’s still an emerging market and it will be up to the public to make the shift. I notice that SignOnSanDiego, which is the same source you cite regarding the ebook bubble bursting, at the same time ALSO reports that ebook sales are BOOMING this year, with a 30% rise in 2003 ( the original source they cite is Open Ebook Forum at: http://www.openebook.org/pressroom/inthenews.htm ).
A lot of wishful thinking on BOTH sides of the spectrum. I agree with both, too. It’s really just a different medium altogether, yet everyone wants them to be the same. The sanest author on this topic I’ve read is Jeff Kirvin at: http://www.writingonyourpalm.net/column010813.htm
Oops — I forgot to give the link to SignOnSanDiego’s contradicting article: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20030925-9999_1b25ebooks.html