Comments on: ebooks are the future

By: alan

alan — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:24:04 +0000

No, still don’t have an iPad.

By: Tony McFadden

Tony McFadden — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:17:23 +0000

Honestly, not sure what sequence of link clicking got me here (I do know it started at Twitter) but I’m encouraged by your embracing of the eBook format. You probably have an iPad by now, given the absolute perfect tool that it is for consuming digital media.

There’s a new startup in Sydney called The Bookisode that will be (they say) launching soon, selling books in 7500 word chunks (bookisodes) – 12 chunks per book (averages, of course). Any thoughts on that concept?

Now I’m going to go check out smashwords…

By: Ebook revolution well under way – The Word – According To Me | The Word

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:38:49 +0000

[...] a year ago, I wrote about how ebooks are the future. Today I read that the Oxford English Dictionary, the mighty volumes that record our very language [...]

By: Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing « Darcy Moore’s Blog

Miscellaneous Voices: Australian Blog Writing « Darcy Moore’s Blog — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:51:56 +0000

[...] Baxter’s, ebooks are the future matches my perception of our reading world now too and it is interesting to hear that his sales on [...]

By: The new Apple iPad – The Word – According To Me

The new Apple iPad – The Word – According To Me — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:16:07 +0000

[...] only be a good thing. Publishing is going digital. It’s a simple as that. You might remember this post I made back in August. It’s just a matter of how it will happen. Print books will still exist [...]

By: alan

alan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:44:39 +0000

Hi Vicki – no, only once. I was at a convention last weekend and someone asked me what I did at Smashwords, because I was singing their praises so highly! They really are just that good, setting a model for the future of the industry as far as I’m concerned. Glad you’ve got something from them too.

By: Vicki

Vicki — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:41:36 +0000

Thanks for the thumbs up on Smashwords, Alan. Not only can I read to my heart’s content without worrying about geographical restrictions, but I can publish with ease in a variety of formats. I’ve already uploaded one novel. Thanks again.

[Apologies if this has posted three times -- having problems.]

By: alan

alan — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:48:02 +0000

ganymeder – I agree. With my iPhone I can use Stanza Desktop to convert pretty much any format to epub, which I can then read on the iPhone with the Stanza app. Convergence in devices needs to be matched with convergence in formats. It’ll happen, just slowly while the corporations scrap about who’s in control. Eventually they’ll realise, as they always do, that the consumer has the final say on control and things will start to standardise.

By: ganymeder

ganymeder — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:39:53 +0000

>>Of course, I’m pulling these %s out of my arse for the point of argument, but you get the idea.<<

But isn't that painful? J/K!

I personally can't wait for ebooks to become more standardized, which is what I think puts off so many people. I'm lucky that my Tmobile G1 (Android) phone can download multiple ebook readers for different formats, but not everyone has that choice. Also, imo, the other readers like Kindle just seem too damn expensive and then you're limited to only their format. At least with my phone, I also can call people as well as read differently formatted ebooks.

By: alan

alan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:06:49 +0000

Well, yes and no. Fundamentally he is saying that they’re too busy to care. When you have a country of 300 million, it’s easy to focus on yourself and think that’s all that matters. (Look at the baseball “World” Series, for example.)

However, he also highlights another point in that Australia is a backwater in all kinds of publishing, especially the ebook/ereader revolution. Our problem is the opposite.

If 0.1% of Americans get into something, that’s 300,000 people.

If 0.1% of Australians get into something, that’s 22,000 people.

Pretty big difference in demographic. Add to that the uptake of technology meaning that by the time 0.1% of Australians are doing something, 10% of Americans are and you can see why some issues are ignored over here.

Of course, I’m pulling these %s out of my arse for the point of argument, but you get the idea.