I just read an interesting article on Wired putting forth five reasons why ebooks aren’t yet better than print books. I find it mildly interesting that Publisher’s Weekly linked the article on Twitter; the more things change, the more that people in traditional publishing seem to plug their ears and pretend like it isn’t happening. However, I disagree with the article’s reasons, and here’s why:
1) “An unfinished e-book isn’t a constant reminder to finish reading it.”
The solution? Writers need to write better books–and because of the pressure that this problem exerts, I believe they will. If print publishing resists the ebook revolution long enough, well-established indie authors might well develop a reputation for better written, more engaging page turners than traditionally published authors.
2) “You can’t keep your books all in one place.”
I’m not plugged into the tech world, but I imagine that this problem will be solved rather quickly once readers start complaining. This is a tech problem, and the tech industry is far better at change and innovation than traditional publishing.
3) “Notes in the margins help you think.”
I don’t mean to put down any of my friends who do this, but…seriously? How many of you write in the margins as you read? It’s probably more of an issue with literary fiction, but with science fiction and fantasy, most of us read for story, and the best books are the ones we finish at a breathless sprint at 4:00 am the next morning. When it comes to the genres I write in, I think this is a non-issue.
4) “E-books are positioned as disposable, but aren’t priced that way.“
This one is my favorite. Sure, traditional publishers are overpricing their ebooks, but that just opens the door for hordes of indie authors (like me) to undercut them and earn more on their own than they would if they took a traditional publishing deal. In addition, all the longtime professional authors I know are doing everything they can to jump ship, which is only going to bring about the crash of the traditional publishing model all the sooner.
In all honesty, I hope that traditional publishers continue to overprice their ebooks as long as they can. The more they tick off readers with bloated prices, the greater an advantage my books will have over theirs. And the more readers buy indie, the more money goes to supporting authors, as opposed to overpaid corporate officers and ridiculously expensive New York rents.
5) “E-books can’t be used for interior design.“
Two responses: 1) how many people do you see these days with CD racks in their living rooms, and 2) why do you think people still buy vinyl?
When the iPod came around, people didn’t let this argument stop them from switching their collections to mp3 and boxing up all their CDs. When a new technology arrives that is demonstrably superior to the old, culture adapts to fit around it.
At the same time, I have no doubt that print books will continue to exist. People still ride the California Zephyr even though we have airlines, and they still buy vinyl even though we have mp3s. It may well be that the half-dozen collectible leather-bound hardcovers you own in the age of ebooks will say more about you than the hundred or so secondhand paperbacks you have on your shelf now.
I’ll cede some of the points you made; overall I don’t think ebooks are as evil as some people think they are (but mostly because of eink technology; reading on an iPad would be evil). However, comparing the loss of interior book design to the transition of music isn’t the best comparison to me.
The new technology for music still captures what would be the “cover art” for the music (it displays on iTunes and on a lot of iPods), and since music is not a visual medium, interior art on the actual CD wasn’t used when you were using the CD because it was in the CD player. Overall, the interior design was for branding and aesthetics.
While a lot of book interior design is about aesthetics, there are many principles that aren’t just about looks. Most typesetting principles are about making it easier to read and not pulling the person’s attention away from the actual words. Getting rid of rivers, wonky spacing between words, word stacks, bad hyphenation, getting the optimum number of characters per line (depending on font size), etc.–all these make it easier for readers to track the line of words and get to the next one without any confusion (and, honestly, forget they’re reading). I’ll admit that my Sony eReader is a bit archaic (I’m sending it in for a firmware upgrade so it can read ePubs), but it definitely doesn’t correct things like that. It especially doesn’t when you start messing with the font size. The rivers and word spaces are horrific. With the iPad you can even change the font style, which I’m sure messes with things even more.
In short, interior design is not just about looks, and it is something I see in ebooks that makes them considerably less inviting than print. That’s probably because I’m a notoriously lazy reader: if your type is bad, or if you’re making grammatical errors, chances are you’ll confuse the heck out of me. It’s not going to stop me from using ebooks, but it’s going to keep me from valuing them. I will always expect the content to be sub-par, because even if it’s the same words, the contents are sub-par unless you’re trained to do the mental gymnastics to overcome typesetting issues. A lot of people are trained pretty well by sloppy internet design, so it’s not as big of an issue as some might make it out to be, but it’s definitely an issue for me.