eBooks - What's Holding You Back?

blueZ3 asks: "It seems that the readers of Slashdot are the most likely early adopters of electronic books, but from posts I've seen here, it doesn't appear that many on Slashdot are e-book fans. In the hopes of sparking a discussion, I'd like to ask what keeps you personally from reading e-books?" "Here are some of my guesses as to why people haven't taken up e-Books:

1. Form factor: They just prefer the feel and 'interface' of a paper book.

2. Lack of a compelling device (or perhaps lack of convergence): They don't own a reader (other than a PC or notebook) and can't take them with them.

3. Lack of content: Books they are interested in aren't available in electronic format

4. Distribution model: They don't like the DRM scheme their favorite publisher offers, or are otherwise unhappy with current offerings.

Maybe lively discussion from a prospective set of customers might spur the creator of the next generation of electronic book devices. Too bad the name 'iBook' is already taken."

What reason do you have for not taking up e-Books? Are they listed above or are there other reasons that you would like to add?

Comments

Straightforward answer

[AKAImBatman]

I'd like to ask what keeps you personally from reading e-books?

Lack of content and overreaching DRM. The selection of devices doesn't help either.

I'm a big fan of Baen's online books. They're quick to purchase, and simple to download to a Palm Pilot. And should you need to file again, you can easily redownload it from your "personal library" feature on Baen's site. Not to mention that they give away free books to get you hooked on new series.

Downloading to my Sony Clie was the perfect way to read eBooks, too. The backlight was pure white, the fonts were crisp, and the scroll-wheel on the side meant that I could hold the device in a pistol-grip in my palm rather than balancing it between my thumb and finger-tips so that I can thumb the up/down buttons on the front. (Sony screwed this up in later models, BTW. They replace the up/down buttons with a wheel, and eliminate the wheel on the side.)

The Clie wasn't so good for technical books (the layout is screwed), but for fiction it was great! I could stand on the bus and read without the difficulties of trying to turn the page on a paperback with one hand. Plus, the Clie fit in my pocket much easier than a paperback, and wouldn't lose its place when I needed to stash it away quick so that I don't miss my stop.

The only real problem I had was that I ran out of content. Baen has some great books, but they're no Simon & Schuster. I looked into other sites, but it was just too much pain and anguish for me to want to bother with. Most sites had a poor selection (though I have noted that selection has been improving lately), limited you to DRM formats (most of which don't work on a Palm Pilot), overcharged for their titles, and just generally hassled the consumer as if he was a theif who should feel honored to have limited access to stuff he paid for.

Thanks, but no thanks.

More publishers should pay attention to Jim Baen. Not only does he release titles you buy in open formats; not only does he give away free books; but he bundles CDs with many hardcover books that are chock-full of eBooks (such as the entire Honor Harrington series). In addition, the license on the CDs state that you can make copies and give them away to friends and family. No restrictions, as long as you're not making a profit.

Now THAT, is how you grow a business. Not by treating the customers like criminals, but by treating them like valued friends. =)

Re:Straightforward answer

[Daniel_Staal]

Take a look at Fictionwise. They have a very good selection, much of which (though not all) is avalible in multiple DRM-free formats. They also let you redownload files if you lose them for any reason. (Though if you bought a 'secure' file you can't change DRM schemes on a file. Other files you can switch formats with impunity.)

I make a point never to buy anything that's got DRM from them, but I still am able to get loads of books and stories from them.

At the moment they've got the Nebula award nominees for free...

I do most of my reading on my Clie at this point, with books from Fictionwise and Baen. (And some from the Gutenburg project.)

Re:Straightforward answer

[Robotech_Master]

Interestingly enough, more publishers are starting to pay attention to Baen.

Or at least Tor Books is, as they're going to start publishing ebooks through Webscriptions right along with Baen. Including the ebook that I reviewed for Slashdot a couple of years back, A Fire Upon the Deep . There's a great quote from Tor's senior editor, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, about why they came to this decision:

We've tested a lot of e-book waters, including various cockamamie schemes involving overpriced e-books laden with DRM.

Oddly enough, a lot of those "books" didn't even sell enough copies to pay for their file-conversion costs. Meanwhile, it hasn't escaped our notice that Jim Baen has been doing something that works, that people like, and that makes money. I'm delighted to be doing this pilot program; I think Jim has been clueful on this issue for a long time, while almost everyone else in publishing has been staggering around on stage hitting one another over the head with inflated pig bladders.

Funny thing, I was looking back over that review I wrote, right before I discovered this article. (Too bad I didn't notice this article earlier so I could have gotten this post listed earlier without having to piggy-back on a high-ranked one, but oh well. :) In that review, referring to eReader/Palm Digital Media's DRM'd version, I wrote (emphasis added for this quotation):

It would have been nice to have A Fire Upon the Deep in open HTML like Baen's e-books, but it is understandable that Dr. Vinge (or his publisher) might have preferred for the book to be digitally protected. Since that is unlikely to change anytime soon, there is little point to letting the perfect be the enemy of the good; as digitally-protected e-book formats go, the PDM format is actually quite decent.

And two years later, here it is changing, and A Fire Upon the Deep is going to be one of the Tor titles coming out in Webscriptions. Guess I'll be buying a third e-copy of the book after all--but that one should be the last one I ever need to purchase.

It's quite exciting that Tor, who publishes 300 new titles yearly as opposed to Bean's 50 or so, and across a broader spectrum of SF than Baen's military/political focus, is taking this step. Maybe more will follow suit. We can only hope.

What's holding me back?

[gEvil (beta)]

Let's see. First is the ridiculously high upfront cost for a device that even allows me to read an ebook (yes, I know about cheap PalmOS devices and Project Gutenberg--I'm talking about commercially available ebooks). Second is that DRM-laden ebooks typically cost the same or more than an equivalent dead-tree version. Third, I like being able to walk up to my bookshelf and grab a book to loan to a friend. Don't get me wrong, there are some things that I think ebooks are perfect for (namely, a reference library). But when points 1, 2, and 3 are taken into account, I'll continue purchasing the dead-tree variety.

e-books redux... still not going to happen.

[yagu]

e-books, what's holding me back?

• price (seems only fair the prices should be competitive à la less expensive than the same back in hardback (they're NOT!)).
• compatibility - until and unless I know I can move my book around to different readers/computers to read without being fingered a criminal and with minimal fuss, I'm not interested.
• convenience - related to previous comment - If I have to jump through a bunch of DRM hoops to stay clean, I don't have the energy to do so (though if this does take off I cringe at the number of hours I'm going to spend "supporting" my non-technical friends and family).
• quality - I still haven't seen a device or reader that approaches the quality of print (even the e-ink doesn't), nor have I found something that comes close the the ambience and ergonomics of a book.... heck none of the e-readers even come close to smelling like a book.
• portability - I don't know the state-of-the-art for things like printing portions of an e-book, but I want it to be easy, and again, I want it to be unencumbered.
• selection - I don't want to make my decision on e-book reading based on what's available and what I have to do to get it.
• price - did I mention price?

I think there's a general misconception by the idiots making decision in their conference rooms about rolling out these products. They clearly have misidentified their priorities as technology first, customer experience second (if that). Invariably the emphasis is wrapped around protecting content to the detriment of any pleasure and easy-to-use experience for customers. As long as the e-book industry continues down this path (and all other future e-media) the long term impact is negative for the content providers. It only takes one or two disasters (reader stops working, customer can't get the "rights" transferred to new reader, etc.) for customers to pretty much wash their hands of the experience.

Other than that, it's all good.

I know this list closely matches the article's prediction... but it bears repeating... (I actually wrote up my list before going to the "read more", unaware the read more had the list.)

Why I like books

[StithJim]

I, personally, like real books to ebooks. The portability of the paper book is a lot better than my laptop. There a few pound difference between them. Also, books require no batteries or AC power.
My favorite part about books, it that you can put them on your bookshelf. That way people think that you're deep and intuitive because you read pretty, leather-bound books. It also creates an ambience that ebooks just can't.

Not as satisfying

[scoser]

Burning e-books with offensive material isn't as satisfying as burning paper books that offend me!

Rocket eBook

[DavidLeblond]

I use to have the Rocket eBook many moons ago. It was actually excellent to read at night or in dim lighting... no need for a booklight!

- However, you couldn't read outside because of the glare.
- You couldn't read in the bath or on the beach because... well, the thing was friggin $300.
- You couldn't get "used" books on it for cheaper.
- Books cost about as much for it as they did hardback, which is expensive.
- I dropped it once and had to pay $75 to get the screen replaced. I drop a book and its fine.
- Not all books were available for it (when they actually made books for it that is)

I don't see eBooks replacing books any time soon.

Books have a history

[acvh]

I got this copy of The Hobbit when I was 16. I bought this copy of Dune at Haslams in St. Pete. I stole Thomas Covenant from my roommate in college. That history does mean something to me. Provides a continuity.

Easier, much, on the eyes, also.

Wrong question

[Roadkills-R-Us]

To misquote the dead professor in _I, Robot_ (the movie):

``That, detective, is the wrong question.''

Why *should* I take up ebooks? What is the compelling case? Until there is a compelling case *for* switching, the reasons against aren't crucial, IMO.

I don't see the compelling case. There are environmental issues, but the biggest ones there have more to do with our book economy, which encourages inrcedible amounts of waste. If we only printed books that were worth having, instead of mass marketing thousands of worthless titles a month and having to dispose of the rest, there would be *far* less waste. (Yes, I realize we can have a huge debate about how to determine what books should be printed, and that ebooks would solve this; my point is simply that there are other ways to solve it as well.)

For me, personally? I like having some things online. But sometimes I want those things in paper as well as online, so offer me paper, digital, or both.

When ebooks have the convenience and price of paper books, ask me again.

Having said that, I will now answer the wrong question. 8^) Not exhaustively, but just some major issues for me off the top of my head.

I can read a book in the bathtub. Are any of the ebook readers waterproof? None I've heard of. (Then again, I don't pay that much attention. That compelling case thing.)

I can drop a book almost anywhere but into a fire or vat of acid and it'll survive. But the ebook isn't as hardy. (At least anything I can afford.)

I can loan, give or resell *any* book easily. With the legal nigtmares today over DRM, copyrights and everything else, I have no ieda what I can do with ebooks, and the rules change from title to title.

I don't get eyestrain from spending hours with books, as a rule. I might get a headache or cramps form sitting in one position, but that's easily solved. That's not the case with any sort of digital display I have used.

In many cases, I can spend more money and buy a book that should outlast several generaltions of my family and appeals to several of my senses, or I can buy a cheap paperback that will fall apart after a couple of readings and has less sensory appeal, or I can buy something inbetween. I like that flexibility.

I like the smell of a new book. Build that into your reader, OK?

A book is stone simple for serial reading, and not that hard (if less handy) for jumping around in. Any ebook UI will have to be as easy to use for the base case (serial reading, saving your spot, etc), and better for the other case (reread earlier section, find random stuff). Both are fairly easy to do, but being able to do both well and easily isn't as easy.

I can grab a book to use as a writing surface. I do this a lot, as it turns out.

I can take a book almost anywhere. I can read almost anywhere. While there might be places an ebook works better (rainproof it and you will have started on that compelling case), there are still plenty a book wins for me. Remember that bathtub thing? And a book won't normally slow you down getting through airport security, whereas electronic devices sometimes do (I have experience with this!)

In short, while there are a couple of advantages to ebooks, they don't even begin to make a compelling case for me. Perhaps the above will help you understand why.

not much holding me back

[Lumpy]

But the general user cant do it my way.

REader : Nokia 770 Absolutely AWESOME display, and right size for reading.
Content: I read non drm files. Legally and illegally. If I find a book I want that is not availabel in a non drm version I either torrent for a cracked copy or get it in audiobook version from audible and crack that DRM myself. (Yes it is easy to crack audible drm.)

Why do I do it this way? If I have to pay $300+ for a reader then I might as well get a reader that can do other things. my Nokia 770 does all that. Books? DRM is what I can not stand. I was burned big time with DRM on the franklin ebook reader as the content is locked to the reader and if you send your unit in for repair and they give you a refurb ALL your content has to be bought again.

So I made the decision to simply break the law. it works great.