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What is driving the eBooks boom?
Via Yves Smith, here is one hypothesis:
What's popular on Fictionwise? Well, once again it seems like porn is blazing a path to a new media format. Of the top 10 bestsellers under the "Multiformat" category, nine are tagged "erotica" amd the last is "dark fantasy"...People who read erotic romance and 'bodice rippers' love ebooks because of the privacy they offer, both during purchase and when reading.
By the way, Andrew Sullivan asks how one is to post 250 times a week and read Ulysses. The answer is simple: one page at a time.
One advantage of Kindle is that it provides a new tool for mental accounting. Call me irrational but formerly I could not read more than seven or eight books at a time without abandoning some of them midway. Kindle (like Netflix, I might add) gives me a new queue and allows me to have more "hanging," partially unread books at any point in time, yet without disrupting my mental equilibrium. I'm rereading Moby Dick, one chapter at a time, on plane trips, and next in line are Middlemarch and...Ulysses.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 8, 2009 at 07:04 AM in Books, Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
allows me to have more "hanging," partially unread books at any point in time, yet without disrupting my mental equilibrium.
Probably because you can't see the piles of books with bookmarks sticking out of them.
I tried a daily paper on the Kindle but only liked it when on the road (by train) so I actually read it each day. However, seeing the unread editions on the Kindle and deleting them was less satisfying than recycling an unread physical paper at the end of each day to reduce the clutter and the sense of overhang.
It was more difficult to scan the entire newspaper quickly on the Kindle because the screen is much smaller than the unfolded paper.
Posted by: fish on a bicycle at Mar 8, 2009 9:22:51 AM
This reminds me of the early fad for palm pilots. Yeah true, eventually lots of people ended up doing their scheduling using some sort of electroic handheld, but not until long after the excitement wore off.
Posted by: Jed at Mar 8, 2009 9:33:00 AM
the kindle is going to kill off the last of the neighborhood book stores...
Posted by: babar at Mar 8, 2009 10:06:59 AM
"I'm rereading Moby Dick, one chapter at a time, on plane trips, and next in line are Middlemarch and...Ulysses."
I had not thought of this significant convenience factor. That's exactly my travel problem. I want to take too many books, many of which I am already part way through, but the best ones are very heavy. This is enough of an advantage that I must buy one now.
Posted by: Russell L. Carter at Mar 8, 2009 12:13:32 PM
The Kindle is so huge compared to my iPhone, and the iPhone screen is color. So I'm sticking with Stanza. 16 gig carries plenty of books, and of course iPhone has wifi. Plus the iPhone reader Stanza is 100% free, and there are tons of great 100% free books for it, esp. classics. I'm just not getting the Kindle concept.
Posted by: StreetWalker at Mar 8, 2009 1:16:55 PM
SW...have you looked at an eink screen? Kills all others for reading text.
Posted by: shawn at Mar 8, 2009 1:41:28 PM
"Kindle (like Netflix, I might add) gives me a new queue and allows me to have more "hanging," partially unread books at any point in time, yet without disrupting my mental equilibrium."
My laptop has done this for me also; I am not sure I count it as an advantage...
Posted by: Kat at Mar 8, 2009 2:31:45 PM
Shawn, he hasn't.
The post reeks of a made up mind before they try it.
The Kindle (or in my case, the Sony Reader) carries enough books for me to read in over a month's setting. While the iPhone Stanzi may be 100% free, how much was your Iphone? Granted you could ... argue that you bought the Iphone for it's phone capabilities and Stanza came after, thus being a sunk cost.
Classics are all available for the e-book readers for free, thanks to Project Gutenberg.
You're right though. The Kindle isn't designed for trendy users. Cough, Iphone.
Posted by: jeff at Mar 8, 2009 3:24:56 PM
what happens when they run out of copies of the letters? move on to cyrillic, or something?
Posted by: babar at Mar 8, 2009 8:19:03 PM
I'm rereading Moby Dick, one chapter at a time, on plane trips, and next in line are Middlemarch and...Ulysses.
Tyler, doesn't that work mostly because you've already read all of those works? I'm also reading Moby Dick on Kindle and find that because I have so many other options for books to read, I'm making slower progress with Moby Dick than I otherwise would be, because whenever a particular passage isn't enthralling me, I quickly switch to another book.
Posted by: washerdreyer at Mar 9, 2009 12:35:25 AM
Unconvinced by the privacy argument. Sure, that's probably nice. But I'd bet what's driving the popularity of romance ebooks is the general popularity of romances: I've seen estimates ranging from 35 to 55 percent of the paperbacks sold. The wonderful thing about ebooks for romance readers is more likely to be convenience, the ability to get and read books rapidly without needing to physically store/get rid of them afterward. I'd buy your queue argument as relevant to this market, too.
Posted by: Jade at Mar 9, 2009 12:58:47 AM
Raivo Pommer
raimo1@hot.ee
Obama Strategie
Viele Investmentexperten machen jedoch die ersten sechs Amtswochen der Regierung Obama für die Eintrübung ihres Aktienmarktausblicks verantwortlich. „Die Latte der Erwartungen lag zu hoch“, meint der unabhängige Marktstratege Doug Peta. Zu viele Menschen hätten gehofft, dass die neue Regierung „einen Zaubertrank zur Lösung unserer Probleme zur Hand haben würde“, sagt er. „Das war unrealistisch.“
Vorschläge für ein Gesetzespaket zur Ankurbelung der Wirtschaft lösten ein Kursfeuerwerk bei Infrastrukturaktien aus. So schoss etwa die Aktie des Baumaschinenherstellers Caterpillar von den Markttiefs im November 2008 bis Anfang Januar 2009 um 39 Prozent nach oben, stürzte seitdem aber wieder um 43 Prozent abwärts.
Viele Investoren hatten gehofft, dass Obama die Lösung des größten Problems der Wirtschaft und des Aktienmarktes angehen werde: die Kreditkrise. „Dies erwies sich als falsche Hoffnung“, sagt Brian Reynolds, leitender Marktstratege bei der WJB Capital Group. Nach seiner Meinung „kann die Regierung die Krise nicht aufhalten“.
Posted by: doug beta story at Mar 9, 2009 8:55:05 AM
Raivo Pommer
raimo1@hot.ee
Die letzte Bank
Die letzte bislang unabhängig gebliebene große Bank ist verstaatlicht. Trotz einer starken Kapitalaustattung und der Unterstützung durch die Gläubiger sei die Liquidität der Straumur Burdaras nicht mehr ausreichend, teilte das Institut am Montag mit.
Die isländische Finanzaufsicht IFSA habe daher den Verwaltungsrat der Bank entmachtet und das Institut unter staatliche Kontrolle gestellt. "Im Ergebnis ist Straumur geschlossen", erklärte die Bank.
Die internationale Finanzkrise hatte Island besonders hart getroffen. Die Regierung übernahm im Oktober die Kontrolle über die drei größten Finanzinstitute des Landes - Kaupthing, Landsbanki und Glitnir. Damit verhinderte sie zwar den Zusammenbruch des Finanzsystems, der Staat ging jedoch fast pleite und konnte nur durch milliardenschwere Notkredite gerettet werden.
Posted by: burdaras story at Mar 9, 2009 4:04:50 PM
My Kindle was a "laugh-in-the-face-of-Recession" toy that I am thoroughly enjoying. Instead of going out and buying the Sunday papers, I downloaded them (NY Times, Washington Post, Times of London" and read through them without getting out of bed. The ultimate in laziness. The screen is smaller than an unfolded paper, but using the Sections view easily allowed me to decide which stories I wanted to read in full. As a bonus, I note that the Kindle versions cost considerably less than the physical versions of the Sunday papers, even if you have to give up graphics and crossword puzzles.
Books: I had no problem getting absorbed into Dicken's Pickwick papers, and after reading the NY Times, even went back and downloaded samples of a couple of recently reviewed works that I may want to download later.
Lastly, I downloaded a couple of morning papers and read them on the train during my morning commute. And I didn't have to be reminded not to leave discarded newspapers on the train seats.
By the way, I suspect that there are a number of porn titles downloaded mainly because many of them are cheaper than mainstream fiction. Porn (and low cost classics) are an easy way to try out Kindle features. I also suspect that the Kindle also provides an easy way for people who love genre fiction (romance, mystery, fantasy, etc.) to load up on favorite authors and sequels.
The Kindle is not a necessity. I wish it were a little larger, maybe had touch screen, and color graphics. But it works for me.
Posted by: Brachiator at Mar 9, 2009 5:54:09 PM
Read ebooks on various Palm devices for years now, only bought an iPod Touch AFTER eReader was available on it. And it cost $300, but also does a lot more than a Kindle and fits nicely in my pocket.
Posted by: C. A. Bridges at Mar 9, 2009 5:58:58 PM
The HUGE difference between my iPhone (which I love) and the Kindle I just got as a gift, is readability. There is no comparison. I can read the Kindle for hours on end without any more eyestrain than a book would give. Try that with a computer or iPhone, the reading experience is completely different. I LOVE epaper.
Posted by: Trey at Mar 9, 2009 6:06:40 PM
iPhone for trendy users? Sure, I guess, if by trendy you mean "wants a device that does more than one thing." Not buying a Kindle is not indicative of having made up my mind that it's technically inferior to an iPhone - as a dedicated device, a Kindle had better run rings around an iPhone. But I don't want to carry yet another device, nor do I want to lock myself into a proprietary format (and before anyone asks, no I don't use iTunes content with DRM). Stanza and the classics are enough to fill in the occasional free hour when I'm on travel, otherwise my rare forays into adult literacy are supported by the local library. Which, like my iPhone, is a sunk cost.
Posted by: Colin at Mar 9, 2009 6:09:37 PM
Re: iPhone/ipod touch --- Amazon has released a free iPhone "Kindle reader" for reading Kindle eBooks. If you have a Kindle, the two cooperate in keeping track of where you are in each book, but I gather one doesn't need to own a Kindle to take advantage of the software.
Books are loaded onto your iPhone or iPod Touch through your PC, though I'm not sure how that works.
I imagine the larger eInk display of the Kindle remains preferable, but it would be nice to have one fewer thing to pack.
Posted by: dm at Mar 9, 2009 6:28:41 PM
"The kindle is going to kill off the last neighborhood bookstores..." ...just like the horseless carriage killed off the last neighborhood stables! This has got to stop!
Posted by: Coyote at Mar 9, 2009 7:40:10 PM
If you are interested in mobile ebook, you should check out Wattpad as well. Wattpad.com is the most popular mobile ebook sharing community. It supports iPhone, BlackBerries and all Java phones.
Posted by: Allen at Mar 9, 2009 9:54:53 PM
"the kindle is going to kill off the last of the neighborhood book stores..."
Neighborhood book stores. Mine is basically a boutique, with just a few books in it for decorative purposes. If I know what I want, it won't be in stock. I can ask for a book, and they'll order it for me. How? On-line, of course. Then when it arrives they call me on the phone. I have to go down then and pick it up. For that, they get a mark-up, natch. On the other hand, if I order it on-line myself, I pay less and the book gets delivered to my door. Why then would I go to the neighborhood book store? I wouldn't. The neighborhood book store already has no reason to exist. Kindle is basically competing with UPS. And I don't feel the least bit sentimental about UPS.
Posted by: Maz4w5 at Mar 10, 2009 3:16:53 AM
I have no doubt that like netflix, the kindle will drastically change the printing industry as well as the small stores across the country. "The kindle is going to kill off the last of the neighborhood book stores..." I believe that the kindle will just become another common change in society. Leaving paperback books and articls for libraries and downloadable versions for the rest of the market.
I personally love having a paperback book or paper because I can write notes, highlight important areas, and store them for memories. But the advantages are unarguable, products like the kindle are great substitutes in its small size, environmental friendliness, and availability. I have no doubt that the increasing demand for more downloadable books will soon lead to a larger competition between sellers. The increased market will then offer more choices for consumers, thus making the kindle more and more popular.
As a current student I believe a kindle would be a great investment. The majority of my classes require reading from books or articles online. (I don't know if you can or not) But if the PDF format works on the kindle, I would consider buying one this very second. The kindle would allow me to take readings with me without printing them off or using a laptop, that way I could study during breaks wherever I am at.
Posted by: Jarrett Frazier at Mar 11, 2009 2:52:49 AM
