E-Book Readers Open Up A Whole Range Of New Possibilities
E-book readers suddenly became all the rage during 2009. The launch of Amazon\’s Kindle 2.0 and Kindle DX readers created a good deal of publicity for these devices. Other manufacturers responded with their own readers – Sony with its Daily Edition and Barnes and Noble with the Nook reader. Other companies – such as Microsoft and Apple – made it known that they had devices of their own in development and scheduled for release in the near future.
E-book readers are essentially consumer electronics devices, so it is very easy, and perfectly understandable, to concentrate on the various technical merits and demerits of the devices themselves. Amazon\’s Kindle has wireless connectivity, Sony\’s Daily Edition lets you lend e-books to your family and friends, the Nook has a color screen, etc.
However, it may be worth considering that e-book readers may very possibly be the biggest thing to happen to reading – and publishing – since the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in 1440. The invention of the printing press allowed books to be mass produced on paper instead of parchment or vellum. It reduced the cost of books and, quite literally, put them in the hands of the common man.
There really haven\’t been any significant changes in the way that books are read since that time. There have certainly been efficiency improvements in printing technology. Word processors and computers have reduced costs further. Even so, the end product has remained remarkably similar to what Gutenberg produced – printed text on paper.
And the consequence of the unchanging end product also restricts publishers. A physical product is produced – at some expense – which also needs to be delivered, either to the point of sale or by direct mail to the customer\’s home.
The difference with e-book readers is that they do not simply offer a way of carrying out the existing process more efficiently. They totally rewrite the rules – both for the publishers and the readers. There is no physical product which means that fewer materials are consumed. No ink, paper, chemicals, bindings etc. are required. There are also serious savings in the cost of delivery.
E-books are not only cheaper to publish and distribute, they are also – even after offsetting the materials that are required for the manufacture of the e-book reader hardware – better for the environment.
It also means that publishers have more options available to them in order to market both books and authors. For example, if a publisher wants to highlight a particular author, then they can offer a selection of their titles at very low prices – or completely free – for a short period of time. Another increasingly common tactic is to offer the first title in a series free in the hope that the reader will buy subsequent titles or possibly other books by the same author. Whilst not completely impossible, this would be a much riskier and more costly undertaking using a traditional print run.
There are a surprisingly large selection of free Kindle books available on Amazon\’s website at the moment. Other Kindle books will have their first chapter available as a free download so that potential buyers can try before they buy. It\’s possible that this might encourage readers to try authors that they may have otherwise passed over.
As understandable as the present excitement with the technical capabilities of e-book readers is, it will be the additional opportunities for publishers and the increased choice coupled with instant access for readers that is going to change the way that we look at books in the future.
Learn more about the Amazon Kindle reader and find out how you can save money by downloading free Kindle ebooks straight from the Amazon website.
