Now, this article caught my attention for sure… See what happens when I’m in bed sick, I read the emails that send me on a wild goose chase of articles.
In this article, it talks about how the chief executive of Hachette feels that the eBook is stupid. Then I see another article that says Penguin blames likely job losses on the rise of ebooks. Not to mention another article that I found wrote on how eBooks need more attention from their publishers. So which is it? Are eBooks the death of print books or are eBooks stupid?
I love my eBooks… I love that I don’t have to hull around a bulky paperback in my purse anymore. This doesn’t prevent me from buying paperbacks still as I love the feel of a real book in my hand, but I save those for my favorite books now. With all the ARC reading, and just need to lose myself in the world of a book, I use my iPad for reading. Yes, I love to read on Kindle and iBooks but give me a paperback and I’m happy too.
This quote from the article kind of makes me a little mad. How is there no creativity in an eBook?
“It’s the limit of the ebook format. The ebook is a stupid product. It is exactly the same as print, except it’s electronic. There is no creativity, no enhancement, no real digital experience,” said Nourry.
This lack of creativity is partly publishers’ lack of digital know-how, according to Nourry. “We, as publishers, have not done a great job going digital. We’ve tried. We’ve tried enhanced or enriched ebooks – didn’t work. We’ve tried apps, websites with our content – we have one or two successes among a hundred failures. I’m talking about the entire industry. We’ve not done very well,” he told Scroll.in.
Does this mean that us Self-Published authors are winning in the eBook field? I mean, we can add anything to an eBook. Create special headers, designs on the pages, I mean I’ve seen some pretty amazing eBooks over the years. But, do we really need to add extra creativity to them? I mean shouldn’t the words that float up from the electronic page be enough? I’d rather read an amazing book with a simple Chapter One on the header than to have some 3d fancy thing to distract me from the words.
To end his article, he explains how they aren’t against the ebook.
Nourry was clear that Hachette was not “against ebooks”. “People have to pay a price that is about 40% lower than the print price. And it works,” he said. “The ebook market has gone down a little bit, not much, from say 25% to 20% in some countries. There is still a readership for ebooks, but at a price that keeps the ecosystem alive.”
Maybe it’s the difference between self-publishing and being traditional. It’s a mystery to me.
What are your thoughts?
Do you read eBooks only?
Do you still love the feeling of a paperback in your hands?
Share your thoughts with us….
To read the articles mentioned above here are the links.
‘Ebooks are stupid’, says head of one of world’s biggest publishers: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/20/ebooks-are-stupid-hachette-livre-arnaud-nourry
Penguin blames likely job losses on rise of ebooks: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/07/rise-ebooks-blamed-200-job-losses-penguin
Ebooks need more attention from their publishers: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/nov/21/ebooks-publishers-care-attention
Happy reading!
Love,
A.M. Willard
