Ebooks: A Writers Friend or Foe
I started a forum thread about ebooks last night, but I want to discuss my experience with ebooks in more detail.
When I was first offered an ebook reader I said no. I actually had the offer extended to me three times before I decided to try one.
The first ebook reader I tried was from Sony. It was unintuitive, had very limited battery life, the digital rights management system on the reader made me feel like I was committing a crime every time I tried to read something, and the screen was hard on my eyes. Strike 1.
After the Sony I wrote off ebook readers again. At least until I was offered a Toshiba reader three times. I finally took it because I wanted to prove how bad it was. It was bad. Strike 2.
Then I was offered a Kindle. One of my colleagues who hated the Sony and Toshiba readers told me the Kindle was different. So I decided to look at it to see if ebook reader would strike out. I was surprised to discover that the Kindle was actually decent. It was not perfect. The button placement could have been improved by a monkey with an etch-a-sketch. However, the screen was easy on my eyes, materials where transferable between Kindles, the wireless network made it easy to find and buy books, and the battery life was fairly impressive.
The next generation Kindle is here, from what I have seen it solves a lot of the problems the original had for readers. But does it help authors? Will ebooks and epublishing make life better or worse for authors? If anyone can publish how much harder will it be for readers to find the stuff worth reading? Are ebooks a step forward or backward?
Jacob
Stumble it!