Ebooks are wonderful things. I love them. I read on my Kindle, and on my Kindle app on the iPhone, and wouldn’t give them up for worlds.
With ebooks, we gain convenience and the ability to change font sizes. We gain on price and on environmental impact. We gain a number of obvious things. But we lose, as well, and some of the losses are less obvious.
We’re losing privacy, and we’re losing control of our books. We’re losing readability (both in terms of text design and in image resolution). And we’re losing barriers to entry, which is a two-edged sword.
Privacy: Some ebook readers already “phone home” and report what you’ve read and how far you’ve gotten in it. It’s not hard to imagine that this information could be used in many ways. Even if you’re reading on a device or an app that doesn’t seem to do this, it’s not hard to imagine hackers or security agencies that could install backdoors in your software that would allow them to monitor your activity. Paper books never do that. And it’s almost impossible to track your purchases at random stores, especially if you use cash.
Control: With a print-on-paper book, it’s very hard to take or damage your copy. With ebooks, someone else can take your copy without any physical contact with it. Amazon has already proven that they can pull your books back off the Kindle. Other ebook providers may or may not have the same capability.
Digital Rights Management techniques (DRM) also cuts into your control. It’s quite difficult to craft DRM that doesn’t prevent you from doing things that are within your rights, as well as those that aren’t. Certain types of copying are allowed, even by the most draconian interpretations of copyright.
Readability: Text design is an art that’s generally under-appreciated. But it doesn’t take long with a badly designed book before you realize that something feels wrong. It’s just harder to read, and often harder to understand. It’s not comfortable on the eyes. Something feels “off.”
But being able to change font sizes within a fixed screen size means that you text design and composition go out the window. Of course, the e-readers could come with a hyphenation and justification program, such as the modules that underpin TeX or InDesign, which would help enormously, but they don’t now, and they probably won’t in any near future. Who wants to wait for the text to be re-flowed when you change the font size? Who wants to pay more for the program or for the cpu size needed to run it?
Screen resolution on the Kindle is roughly twice what the resolution is on a computer screen, but it’s still only 1/2 to 1/4 what a printed book offers. And it’s black on gray only. The color screens of iPhones and laptops offer the lower dots per inch to offset their colors. It’s not as easy on the eyes.
Lower Barriers to Entry: The last loss I listed is the lowering of barriers to entry. This means that we gain ease of publishing. But as readers it means that we have a harder time finding the books we’ll enjoy. And as publishers it means we have a far harder time rising above the roar of the crowd to draw our readers’ attention. And that means that more new readers will experience fewer wonderful books in the short time during which they decide whether they “like books” or not. And that’s the worst loss to our literary community.
As usual, I invite you to tell me what I missed or messed up. The comments section doesn’t require registration, although it is moderated to reduce the flood of spammers.
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Good points all, Marion. I’ve owned a Kindle for 18 months now, but find I use it less and less for anything except short-form reading.
Here are a few other shortcomings of all e-books (regardless of format or device), which I’ve blogged about:
(1) When reading, I tend to flip back (to check something or reread a passage) and forward (to see how far I’ve got to go to the chapter end or to see how long the passage I’m currently reading is). I also might hold my place with my finger while checking the ToC or index to find out if the topic is covered in more detail elsewhere in the book.
(2) I share a Kindle with my wife. If I stop reading a book and then she starts reading the same book…I’ve probably lost my place (unless I remember to set a bookmark, although that is more cumbersome to use than a simple physical bookmark in a “real” book).
(3) I tend to read fast (especially fiction), so the slow page turning bugs me. At first, I liked being able to use the largest font size to read without my reading glasses, but that has lost its appeal since it results in so little text displaying on a page.
We offer all our books in various e-formats and do print-to-ebook conversions for many clients (mostly Kindle conversions lately). We always test our Kindle designs at the mid-size font as well as at the smallest and largest sizes to make sure the design still provides an acceptable reading experience
I own a lot of e-books in various formats. But, given a choice, I will always opt for the print edition.
Walt Shiel
Publisher, Slipdown Mountain Publications LLC
My reading speed is also reasonably fast, so the page turning speed can be annoying. On the other hand, sometimes I hit the button as I’m easing onto the end of the page, and it works well for me.
Given a choice, I prefer the e-version, in general. But that said, I still buy plenty of pbooks.
I find all the tech points against e-reading intriguing. I don’t own an e-reader, but I have followed e-reading developments, including Sony’s e-reader web site. The titles I find there are not interesting, mostly dumb pop titles and that sort of sets the tone for me with e-reading. I especially lke Walt Shiei’s last comment “I will always opt for the print edition”.
But all those tech freaks out there won’t agree since they are naturally either anti-book or don’t have any positive feelings about books and type.
I am a 100% book lover and can’t seem to stop buying them, either new or used varieties. A printed article recently converted me to a low carb diet that has helped me get my blood sugar metrics back into the normal range of 4 to 6 with the overnight fast! So books are good for me!
But I do use online GIs and CIs! So the very best solution for me is combining online and tacky print books!
I love ebooks, but I’m not anti-book in the least.
On the other hand, I think that paperbacks tend not to be such a satisfying object as an object, as hardbacks. And when I want content in the most convenient form, that has become the ebook. For me.
As one who is still learning about all the aspects of e-publishing, I found this to be a very interesting post, Marion. Thanks for taking the time to write it.
Glad you liked it!
Marion
Websites RSS feed doesn’t work in my browser (google chrome) how can I mend it?
RE; ” But readers will have harder time finding the books we’ll enjoy. And as publishers it means we have a far harder time rising above the roar of the crowd to draw our readers’ attention.”
I agree with and thank for your comments, but one contention, ultimately digital systems will prove much more valuable in reaching select needs; it is becoming the tipping point at an exponential rate. We are getting better at finding the books we want, and it should only improve.
Wish what every good dog already sees in you, the Best.
Respectfully,
Victor Brodt w JacktheDog
Maybe. But remember that the amount of competition for that attention is growing, too. My contention is that e-books are becoming as common as websites, or almost so. And that it will be as hard to get your ebook onto the first few pages of search results as it is to get your web pages there.
And that’s competition on an order of magnitude greater than we’re facing now, in the less crowded niches. What it will eventually mean for us, I can’t say, but it will force changes.