With news of the iPad reaching fever pitch, I've been gadget watching, observing commuters and their reading. Today it was paperbacks nil, iPhones 3 (these were games – Poker, Peggle etc – not books), and eReaders 1 (held aloft on the down escalator at London's Liverpool Street).
My journey into work is mercifully brief but nonetheless I am seeing habits in transition. The eBook reader as travelling companion can work, thanks to long battery life, multiple titles and pageturning with one hand.
So as an author, do you need to concern yourself with eBooks and eReaders, what they are and what they do, and how to write the perfect e-seller?
The buzz around Apple's long-awaited unveiling of its tablet computer, the iPad, is that it feels good and is a serious contender. Earlier this month the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 - the tech analyst’s barometer of what’s to come - had an astonishing number of eReaders on display, with even manufacturers best known for other categories of electronics wading into the mix. Samsung conjured up 4 models of eReader.
There’s a lot out there, a lot riding on what’s out there, and yet, so much is frustratingly uncertain. eReaders haven’t followed normal segmentation patterns; they're not your average gadget for guys. Consumers of eReaders are "more likely to be female" and "less tech optimistic", according to Forrester Research.
I find the argument that eReaders convert existing readers persuasive, and agree that the biggest new audience will in all likelihood be increasingly met elsewhere, by the iPad, smartphones and book apps such as Stanza. For the industry there's a new world beyond the physical devices, a world of new revenue models that might challenge Amazon.
As an author you'd do well to keep an eye on developments. An informed author is usually the best at tapping into emerging markets and landing an agent/deal. However there is no simple equation which will lead you to digital success. Do your research but be mindful that times are changing and things might not be quite what they seem.
The New York Times recently reported that Kindle ebook charts ignore price, so what is billed as a ‘bestseller’ might actually have been given away for free as a promotion (see Amazon Bestsellers in Kindle Store). It's just one example of how traditional publishing models (everything from tracking sales to production to copyright) are in a state of flux.
For a moment I'd like you to be a futurologist. My question to you is, how will readers interact with your book/s five years from now: on the iPad, eReaders, smartphones, or via simple old-fashioned print?
Hi Claire, I was trying (unsuccessfully) to be funny (I keep forgetting for something to be humorous then somebody other than me has to laugh as well). I'm sure the new technology will catch on, and I too think that it could potentially shake things up. I guess you've only got to look at what the "download charts" have done to CD sales, if you can regard book and music sales as parallel markets. I will admit I am always sceptical about "must have" technology, because often the hype that makes it sell, ends up making it "must have" as the things it replaces become economically unviable. I am typing this on a laptop, which is handy and the internet facilitates blogging, which would have been impossible previously, so I'll have to concede that. But then again I refuse to use a sat nav as I have spent years driving all over the country and don't need one, but have colleagues who have no idea of the geography of the territories they drive around in, as they just follow the sat nav without question. I suppose you could conject about the fact watching TV hasn't made reading redundant (although it did have a pretty big impact on cinema going), although I do suspect people used to read more before the idiot box became the focus of the living room. Don't know where I'm going with this, or even why really, because it won't be down to us whether the i book becomes the norm, it will be down to whether a marketing dept somewhere decides thats how they are going to make loads of money, and it will package up its technology to make people believe they can't live without it and loads of people will fall for it, and that will be that. I think I need a coffee or some chocolate or something ..... sorry, I just think somethings aren't broken and don't need fixing, but when when they do get "fixed" they tend to stay "fixed" for good. There you go, "Grumpy old so and so politics in action!!!".
Tonyl - I love my books but I also love my iPod Touch. I have space in my heart for old and new technology, and perhaps others do too.
sexloveletters - much has been said about smartphones suiting intimate communications so I think you have a point.
Shankut - good to hear from you and I welcome your enthusiasm. New technology takes us on an exciting path to a digital future we can't yet fully imagine.
I think the key thing is user-friendliness. There´s nothing quite like turning the pages of a book. But perhaps we´ll get used to the new "look and feel". It certainly has advantages of convenience. Presumably, it´ll be possible to embed video images into pages too. That would certainly be interesting for my book.