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Sunday, May 01, 2011

Why I Am Not a Big Fan of e-Books

A journalist from New York Times mailed me for a quote on e-books, whether I am for it or against it and the following is the quote I gave her. See if you agree. Was I right, or wrong? Do I see a future for e-books? I frankly think it will be the end of books as we know it if e-books succeed to dislodge traditional book publishers. Tell me, could we use e-book readers in the class room? How many students could afford it? What are the channels for distribution other than Amazon? Many issues remain unanswered. 

The quote:

I consider e-books as secondary to legitimate bound-book publishing. If my novel isn't published by a big established publisher, then I will look at the option of an e-book. The reason is the failure of google books and that good books and novels aren't available yet in e-book format. Traditional publishers have their own distribution outlets and skills in marketing a book. An e-book reader such as Kindle costs a lot of money. It's money upfront. For that money I can buy a hundred books. So why should I go for e-book publishing? 

Besides there is something about walking into a bookstore, holding a book, leafing through it pages that gives a thrill. An e-book doesn't give that thrill. It's made of plastic not textured paper. I am writing a novel and if traditional publishing fails I will go for an e-books edition. I have a day job so it doesn't matter if I make money or not.

Unquote

1 comment:

JatinSapra said...

I disagree. eBook readers have big cost upfront but if you use dem over a long period(book-worms), they will eventually be cheaper as total cost. Also, you can virtually keep millions of books in few grams.
Most eBook readers support Bookmarking, notes etc which makes experience better.

For me eBooks are great & future lies in eBooks, remember they save on paper too :)