eReaders in the News

There has been a lot of interest lately in eReaders and electronic books and with the expected release Amazon’s new “Kindle v2.” So I thought, as an avid reader and self-confessed bibliophile, that I would offer my opinions to the world on why the current crop of eReaders will not work. The primary problems right now include the price of the reader unit and the lack of a cross-platform format, but the problems don’t stop there. Publishers also need to rethink the way they market books.

eReader Contenders

There are a few different eReader units in the market today, but the top contenders are obviously the Amazon Kindle, the Sony eReader, and to a lesser extent the Hanlin eReader V3 (which was sold under various names depending on what country you were in). A quick look at Wikipedia will also give you the names of other eReader devices—The Digital Reader 1000 and The Iliad by iRex Technology, the Cybook Gen3 by Bookeen, as well as some other lesser-known devices. All of these devices use the same sort of display technology called electronic paper which was designed to mimic the appearance of conventional paper and claims to be less fatiguing for the reader’s eyes.

Design Weaknesses

I believe that the manufacturers of eReading devices need to stop, step back and look at the design of their device before they get too excited about electronic books. For starters, let’s look at how people hold a book—Most readers will hold a book in one hand, generally using their thumb on the spine of the book to hold it open and their fingers to support the book, they’re not going to hold your 7″ by 5″ device in two hands as you see in so many advertisements, it’s just too uncomfortable. So the design of your eReader needs to have two equally-weighted halves to it, possibly even two screens as people (in the Western world) naturally want to read from left to right. A two screen model could also have the advantage of allowing one screen to refresh while the user is reading the other screen, and having the ability of using one screen to perform other functions such as dictionary searches, bookmarking, indexing, etc while the other screen displays the current content the user is reading.

Another advantage to using two smaller screens instead of one large screen is the price of the screen itself. A larger surface area, especially if you’re using touch screen technology is more expensive than say two smaller surfaces. And while we’re talking sizes of screens, let’s talk about the optimal size for an eReader—think paperback novel. Your average paperback novel is around 7 inches high by 4 inches wide, so if we made our eReader approximately 8 inches high by 5 inches wide and less than half an inch thick, we would probably be around the optimal size for most readers. Now think about this, you have two screens 8 inches by 5 inches, turn the reader 90 degrees and what do you get? You get a screen that has a form factor almost the same as a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Now you could use your dual screens to display letter-sized PDF documents at 94% of their actual size. So I’m thinking 2 small screens that when sitting flat lock together to form one larger screen with a thin bezel between the halves.

Alternatively we could keep the single-screen tablet-type model. It would be cheaper than a double-screen, and you would want to keep that golden 5″ by 8″ screen size. But we also need to keep in mind how we want to hold this device. It should be the same thickness throughout, not thicker on one side as the Kindle is. If anything, it should be thinner near the bottom edge and thicker near the top edge so that when it’s sitting flat on a tabletop it angles slightly toward the viewer. Also there should be a bit of a groove down the left and right sides along the back so that when the user is gripping it the fingertips have some place to grab on to.

Also, what is it with the klutzy chicklet keyboard on the Kindle? We have cheap touch screen technology these days, why do we want an ugly push-button keyboard cluttering up our eReader? Let’s take a page out of the book of Apple and get ourselves an on-screen keyboard in this thing. And while I’m on the topic of the Amazon Kindle, let’s lose the proprietary “Whispernet” connectivity that only works in the USA, there’s a whole planet outside the borders of the USA people! This wireless connectivity is just adding a huge unwanted cost to the base units. Nor do these units need to have the ability to play MP3s. Sure, it’s a nice bonus to be able to listen to music while you’re reading but all you’re doing is sucking power from the battery when you could be using a smaller battery and lowering the cost again. We have MP3 players, we don’t need them in our eReaders.

What are you selling anyway? You’re selling an electronic book reading device. You’re not selling a portable web-browsing device, we already have those and they do a much better job of it. If you want to actually get your eReader device to the masses, you need to drop the price way down and lose all of these restrictive and useless “features” that you think you’re adding. This device needs to cost somewhere between $100 and $150. Personally, I would not pay what Amazon is asking for the Kindle—$359 for an eReading device is far too high, even if it did work in Canada, which is does not. The Sony eReader device is a bit cheaper at $250 for the lower end model, $400 for the higher end model. And the iRex iLiad runs as high as $600.

Media and Accessibility

Now let’s talk file types; We need an ebook format that will work across all types of readers and on computer screens. Nevermind your DRM crap, we already know that the DRM model does not work. Why must you keep beating a dead horse? These readers should also support, but not be limited to supporing; Plain text files, rich text files, Excel files, Word files, PDF files, ePub files, HTML, XML, JPEG, (static) GIFs, BMP and PNGs. In short, I should be able to plug an SD card into this device and read any sort of document that I want to. Of course this device will have an SD card port, and a mini USB port so that you can sync up your eReader to your computer. Your computer is the device you should be using to download new media, not your eReader.

I also need to make a comment about the media, or the actual eBooks themselves that publishers who want to sell books to the public should know—I will not purchase ephemeral products. In other words, you will not be able to sell me MP3s, downloaded software, or downloaded eBooks. I will not pay $10 for a book that does not exist outside of the ether. When I spend $10, I want a physical object in my hand that I can read, save, put on a shelf or pass on to someone else to read. I am not going to spend my hard-earned money on data that is here today and might be gone somewhere else tomorrow. If you want to sell me an eBook then you need to take that data and put it on to something that I can physically possess. You can’t take a packet of data and put it up on a shelf to save for a future generation, nor does data appreciate in value as time goes on. I am a bibliophile, I have shelves full of books that I can touch and appreciate at any time that I want to, I don’t have to rely on an over-priced electronic device in order to access the words they contain. I can take one of those books off my shelf and pass it on to a friend any time I want to without having to worry about some stupid publisher’s DRM system getting in my face.

Want to Sell More Books?

Here’s what to do; publish your book as a trade paperback, then take the text of that book and put it on an SD card or a mini CD and then include that card or CD in the back of your trade paperback so that people with electronic reading devices can read your book on their eReader. Want to sell your books at the airport? No problem, sell the customer a pre-loaded SD card the same way you sell audio books on CD. Then they can pop that SD card into their eReader and read your book anywhere they are.

Make your book accessible to the devices that people want to use to read them and lose this proprietary data nonsense. Get your books out there to the public by offering free preview chapters in eBook or PDF format and the readers will come. Get your books out there by offering free audio podcasts. You’ll sell a heck of a lot more books if you make your media accessible to the masses in more appetizing forms. Stop telling people how you want them to consume your product and listen to how they want to consume it.

Want to Sell eReaders?

Lose the stuff that doesn’t need to be there. You’re selling an electonic book reader, you’re not selling an iPod Touch. Electronic paper does not have the refresh rate or colour depth to make it an effective wireless media device. It was designed to display static type, use it for that.

I am not going to spend $400 on a device that is “something” like an iPod touch when I already have a much superior device in the market, nor am I going to spend that sort of money on a device that can connect to the Internet when I can buy myself a Netbook for the same price and have 20 times the functionality that the eReader has.

So if you want to sell more eReaders, stop trying to make a device that does everything and just make a simple electronic book that works!

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Is Reading a Lost Art?

The other day I was having a discussion with some people about how reading was becoming a lost art, and how publishers could sell more books to more people. This also led to a discussion about hardcover books vs trade paperbacks vs mass market paperbacks and the amount of resources each format uses, which in turn led me to thinking about things like eBooks and eBook readers. Book publishers are finding it more and more difficult to sell old-fashioned dead-tree books in today’s world.

“But Herne,” you think, “I’m reading right now.”

Well, yes, you are reading, but are you thinking as you read? Chances are you aren’t thinking about a whole lot as you read. Our current level of technology has taken a lot of that cumbersome thinking stuff out of our hands. For the most part, most of us use very little of our brain’s power or imagination in day-to-day life, we certainly use less of our imagination than we used to anyway. With our level of technology and the Internet, we don’t need to imagine what we’re reading about, the Internet provides us with convenient pictures and narratives to tell us what we’re thinking. So is the Internet and technology making us more stupid?

No, the Internet and technology is not making us as humans more stupid, but it is making us more lazy.

Book Formats

But back to the discussion at hand—Publishers want to sell more books, how do they do this? First of all, let’s briefly take a look at the different book formats; Hardcover, Trade Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, Audio Books, eBooks, PDFs, and Podcasts (Podiobooks).

Hardcover books: Pros—Durability, better paper therefore longer life, higher markup for publishers. Cons—Higher costs, more (paper) resources used, larger format means the product is heavier, less portable, and therefore more costly to ship.

Trade Paperbacks: Pros—Durable though not as durable as hardcovers, often better paper used therefore longer life, price markup for publishers decent, lighter than hardcovers so shipping costs are lower. Cons-Still cost more than mass market paperbacks, resource use still fairly high, larger size means less portable than mass market paperbacks.

Mass Market Paperbacks: Pros—Cheaper for consumer, small format means several can be shipped for the cost of one hardcover, fewer resources (less paper) used to create them. Cons—Lower price point means less money for the publisher (and author), less durable, cheaper paper used.

Audiobooks: Pros—Often more palatable to the consumer because they don’t actually have to read the book themselves, more portable. Cons—Production requires the use of voice artists or readers, which increases production costs, not to mention the costs of getting the audio files to an audio medium so that the consumer can purchase it.

eBooks, PDFs, and Podcasts: Pros—Very few resources used to produce the content, self-publishing is a breeze. Cons-Harder to control the distribution and copyright, also requires some sort of technical device (eReader, computer, MP3 Player) to consume the content.

The Secret to Selling Books

So you want to know how to sell more books? Well, let me give you my opinion, one simple bibliophile’s opinion on how to sell more books. I purchase and read a LOT of books per year, and you know what entices me to buy more books? Content and pricing.

“Well duh!” You say, “Of course content and pricing is going to influence how many books people buy!”

Well here’s the thing… You want to sell more books and I want to buy those books, but I am not going to purchase a “fluff” fiction book for the same amount of money that I would spend on something like a technical computer book or a high quality photography or art book. So here’s the secret to selling more books: Give the consumer what they want for the price they want to pay! Duh!

I am more than willing to spend $30, $40, $50 for technical books on computers, or guides for software, or for instructional books on photography, but I am not willing to spend that sort of money on the next “New York Times Bestseller” or some other kind of frivolity that is here today and forgotten tomorrow. I’m also smart enough to know that publishers spend a fair amount of money to get their products on these lists, so I’m not falling for that old gag. So how about we sell books at prices that people want to pay? Whoa! Simple concept! Publishers don’t seem to grasp it, though.

Publishers historically release new titles to the market in hardcover at the highest price point and hope that they’ve generated enough interest in (or spent enough money on) their product that people will be willing to shell out around $35 (on average) to purchase this product. Yes, books will sell at this price because there are always people who are willing to purchase first run hardcover books; libraries, institutions, people who follow “best seller” lists without thinking, etc. So publishers will spend a bunch of advertising revenue to get their new books on the “best seller” lists and sell 20 or 25-thousand copies of the book at this price and about 6 months later they’ll often come out with the trade paperback version of the title. Many of the people who wanted the book when they first saw it come out in hardcover will now look at the trade paperback, now at around $20 (on average) and think maybe they should buy it now. So the publishers will sell another 25 thousand copies or so of the trade paperback. Then, finally, after about a year after the book first appeared on the shelf as a hardcover the publisher will produce the mass market paperback edition of the book, now priced around $10 (on average) hoping to persuade the hold out readers to purchase their product. This would traditionally also be the time to introduce the next hardcover book in the series, assuming that the first edition did well enough to warrant a second edition.

This “traditional” schedule of publishing worked well in the past, but consumers have come a long way in the last 10 or 15 years. Now we have the Internet and electronic devices and we want instant gratification for everything! If you’re waiting a year to get your book into the hands of Joe-average consumer, then you are losing sales hand-over-fist. Publishers need to wake up now, take a hard look at what’s happening on the Internet and in the “new media” environment that is so commonplace today if they want to keep selling books in the future.

As I said, I am a bibliophile—a book fanatic—and I’m not going to wait a year to purchase your book. If I’ve seen your hardcover book and it seems interesting to me I might make note of it to look it up later or purchase it secondhand but I am not going to shell out $35 for your average fiction book, and chances are I’m not even going to remember your publication when you’ve decided to publish it as a mass market paperback a year later.

If you want to sell more books then you need to produce more titles in more formats so that people who wish to purchase them can do so more easily. Sure, you can certainly continue to produce books in hardcover format because there will still be those people willing to pay more for this perception of a “better” product, but most people like myself who consume a lot of content are smart enough to realize that “premium” does not always mean “better.”

You need to start offering your products simultaneously rather than consecutively. I would much rather see the hardcover and trade paperback editions released simultaneously followed shortly, say within three months, by the release of the mass market paperback edition. I think you would sell a lot more books if you gave the consumer what they want to consume rather than making them wait for it.

Premium Content vs. Premium Pricing

When I think of “premium content,” I think of more content or something special that’s not included with the regular, lower-priced model.

So how about we add a little carrot to those hardcover sticks we want to sell? How about we start including an eBook version of the book with every hardcover book we sell? Think of how little that might cost versus the large gains you would get back. Most publishers are using a page layout program such as InDesign or QuarkXPress, so it costs them nothing to export a second copy of the postscript file off into a PDF creation program. You take that PDF and you burn it on to a mini CD, and you include that CD with every book! Now we’re talking! Now I might be willing to spend that extra bit of money to purchase your book so that I have the option of reading it on my eBook reader of choice, but I’ll leave that for another blog post.

In that blog post I want to talk about why eBook readers like the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Digital Reader could be amazing products, but are not making the impact on the market that they could because of the huge price points, the lack of a standard eBook format, and the paranoia called “rights management.”

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