Britain gets Electric

The electronic age finally came to the UK on September 4 this year. A well-known brand of e-book reader went on sale at a high street bookstore chain. Is it going to revolutionise the way that we Brits read?

That’s an interesting question.

You can get a very cosy armful of conventional books for the electronic reader’s retail price. Probably enough to keep a romance reader happy for five or six months. Will shoppers still prefer to go for print rather than hardware? Vogue magazine has put the reader on its “must have” list, but will most people see it as just a trendy, expensive toy?

There certainly weren't hordes of people lining up behind me when I was prodding the display model, on its special stand, in the centre of my nearest shop, but apparently sales have been very brisk. It would be fun to know who is buying it. Older readers with more disposable income, or strictly the youthful gadget lovers?

I would guess that a lot of people over here don’t realise yet that you can download new and original e-books from the Internet and don't just have to settle for preloaded stuff, or an electronic copy of a conventional paper volume, bought from a bookshop. I admit I assumed that the preloaded texts that come with the reader would be worthy and obscure offerings selected by some sort of academic committee - in other words, a bit boring. I was wrong, because one of those already on the reader is English Lord, Ordinary Lady, from award-winning, Harlequin Mills and Boon author Fiona Harper, so romance lovers are guaranteed at least one excellent read, before they have to put their toe into downloading more.

I think, if you stopped a hundred people on a British street today, not many would know that there are publishing companies that release their output almost entirely in e-book form, and they wouldn't have any idea of the wonderful wealth of titles out there. That may soon change as e-books get more publicity on radio and TV.

So what about the future? Is the e-book reader destined to be shunted into a gadget sideline? I hope not. Me? Yes, of course I want one. I'm saving my pennies. As soon as I can afford it I shall be there, with my money in my hot little in hand. I hope they won't have sold out before I get there.

To E-book or not to E-book

Librarian in Black posted a link to Epublisher's Weekly's 30 benefits of e-books article a couple of weeks ago. For the most part, I agree with those benefits. (Although #22 really doesn't benefit the authors much! And I think that violates most e-pub copyright notices.)

It seems like readers - at least the ones I've talked to - fall into two camps: The "I love e-books so much I want to marry them!" camp and the "I enjoy the sensation of paper in my hands and will never even think about reading an e-book" camp. Either viewpoint is valid! Reading for pleasure should be just that: pleasurable. So there's no sense in jumping on the e-book bandwagon and hating life while you're staring at a screen.

There's something to be said, though, for giving the format a try if you're sitting on the fence. I tend to be a 50/50 reader, where half of my books are paper and half of my books are electronic. I love my paper books! They feel good, they smell good. They're comforting. You can knock out a mugger with a hardback-filled handbag. But e-books have a few features that are very attractive to a very nearsighted, geeky, writer/library lurker/technophile/sometimes insomniac.

• I can read in the dark. Okay, before you snort, have you ever been the passenger in a car on a long road trip at night with a broken radio? How about a light-sensitive spouse snoozing next to you when you can't fall asleep? I keep my e-books on my Palm handheld and it has a backlit screen so I can read in places that I was previously unable to when I stuck to print books.
• I can make the words bigger. I'm not even thirty yet, and I'm already getting to the point where I'm checking books out from the large print section of the library. Most e-book readers let you adjust the size of the font.
• Some of my favorite authors publish e-book originals. Bonnie Dee, Elizabeth Donald, Mark Orr, Lilith Saintcrow, Keri Arthur, and our own Savanna Kouger all have titles you can't buy in paper format.
• Two words: instant gratification. I can buy books (or check them out since my library has a downloading service) at 2:00 in the morning in my pajamas and start reading immediately without having to use any gasoline or extra time. Which is great for me because I have to drive at least ten miles to get to a non Wal-mart bookstore. Oh. And you don't have to pay for shipping!
• They're accessible to almost everyone with a computer. I usually stick to books available in PDF format. I don't need anything more than the free Adobe software to read them. Granted, there are lots of different e-book formats and readers out there, but I haven't really come across an e-book original that I have really wanted to read that wasn't available as a PDF somewhere.

Some folks fear that e-books might one day make paper books obsolete. It's possible. Technology changes fast! But publishing moves slow. My opinion? I don't think we're in any immediate danger. If and when paper is replaced by bytes, it will only be when readers are ready. If we keep buying paper books, our publishers will keep supplying them.

I'd love to know what you guys think! Do you e-read? If not, do you want to?