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The pros and cons of e-booksA primer for understanding the latest in publishing trends
(CNN) -- Remember the frenzy that surrounded the release of the most recent Harry Potter book? Bookstores opened at midnight. Thousands of fans waited in line to become the first on their block with the new adventure. Amazon.com and other online booksellers were swamped with orders. All so millions of people could have that most old-fashioned of objects, the paper-and-cardboard book. But if "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" had been released as one of the newest technologies -- the electronic book or e-book -- the craze may never have happened, at least not in the same way. The book would have been available instantly -- obtainable in the time it takes to download -- and in the comfort of the reader's own home. No midnight openings, no lines, no next-day shipping for online booksellers.
Although mainstream acceptance remains a few years down the road, e-books appear to be on their way. The early success of Stephen King's Internet-only work "The Plant" has shown the medium is beginning to catch on, though significant hurdles remain before it gains widespread popularity. Several publishers have established e-book divisions exclusively devoted to the technology, and both Amazon.com and bn.com (Barnes & Noble's online venue) have created spaces on their sites to handle e-books. The new technology has a number of advantages over its paper relation, called the "p-book" by those in the publishing industry, posing the question as to whether they outweigh the seemingly irreplaceable intimacy shared between reader and his tree-born, black-and-white typed companion. What that means for a world of readers perfectly happy with traditional paper books is more than not having to physically go to a bookstore to purchase the latest bestseller. The ultimate challenge, as is usually the case with the transition from old to new, has to do with getting used to the change. It won't be easy for e-book marketers, either: a recent survey conducted by Publishers Weekly and the organizers of BookExpo America, the industry's annual convention, found that only 60 percent of respondents were familiar with the format and that 70 percent of those who were familiar with e-books said they didn't expect to buy one in the next six months. In relative terms, it wasn't so long ago that typewriters replaced longhand as the preferred way of writing. (Mark Twain's 1883 "Life on the Mississippi" was the first typewritten manuscript.) By the late 1980s, a number of writers had abandoned their typewriters for word processors; now that's considered the norm. The new technology eventually found its place, but that didn't mean the old one was abandoned: People still write and read longhand, still use typewriters, but many are now comfortable with the flashing cursor and cut-and-paste convenience of their computers.
E-books or p-books?From a practical viewpoint, the storage capacity of e-books makes it easy on both business and leisure travelers. No more schlepping around volumes of company reports and "PowerPoint for Dummies," or the five romance novels you're going to read on your summer trip to Bali. One disk will hold all the reading material you'll need. Environmentally speaking, that means less cutting down of trees. The most attractive quality of e-books is their versatility. E-books have searchable highlights, making it easier for you to relocate important sections you've marked. You can take notes without running out of margin space. An electronic dictionary allows you to click on a word and get its definition. E-books can also be read in the dark. Finally, as mentioned earlier, you can download an e-book in seconds -- and there are no shipping fees. Of the three ways to read e-books, a computer or laptop is the most conventional. An e-book can also be read with a PDA (personal digital assistant), a handheld device such as a PalmPilot, which are more popularly used as organizers and address books. Wireless PDAs have the ability to download information from the Internet, including e-books, and PDAs without Internet access can still be hooked up to a computer in order to download content. There are also hardware devices specifically dedicated to reading e-books, such as the Rocketbook and Softbook, which mimic the look of a book page and even the idea of "turning" pages. (At least one e-book software company, Glassbook, now offers software designed to turn a laptop into an e-book; you turn the laptop on its side so the screen is longer than it is wide, and manipulate the pages with your keyboard.) Steve Outing, writer for EditorandPublisher.com, estimates that there are now tens of thousands of exclusively e-book devices currently in circulation and says "analysts watching the industry (are) expecting there to be a couple of million devices in circulation within a few years." E-book hardware, referred to as e-book readers, weigh about two or three pounds, have screens the size of a paperback, and have memories up to about 50 megabytes. Depending on the specifications, prices range from $250 to $600. Some manufacturers offer a discount if you sign up for a monthly subscription to their store, which supplies books, magazines, and other reading material. E-books and magazine editions are also available through online retailers, such as Amazon.com, BN.com, and eBookEmpire.com. E-books for current bestsellers cost about the same as their paper counterparts, about $20; some classic books have been bundled together and cost much less than the same version in paper book form. Formatting and the OEB standardE-book publishers and design industries are not so concerned with how you're reading their titles -- whether it's via laptop, PDA, or a Rocketbook -- but which format these mediums use. Currently, at least six formats exist, so publishers have to be able to supply their product in each format in order for customers using any device to be able to read their books. However, members of the industry have been pondering this problem. Their solution is OEB, or "Open eBook," a standard for formatting and packaging electronic books. The OEB defines not only how text should be formatted for electronic publication, but how the different parts of an e-book (cover, table of contents, chapter headings, index, etc.) should be packaged together. David Ornstein, President of the Board of Directors of the Open eBook Forum (OEBF), explains that the OEB standard was necessary. "It builds on the various standards that make the Internet work: HTML and XML, defining a format that anybody who wants to publish an e-book can use," he says. The standard was created last November by almost the entire membership of the 30-plus members of the OEBF, he continues, including such major powers as Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, Simon & Schuster and Hewlett-Packard. You can find more information by visiting the OEBF Web site at www.openebook.com. The future of e-booksOpinions on the future of e-books vary. Authors John Updike and Ray Bradbury are anti-e-book and have both been quoted criticizing e-books. Meanwhile, simply because e-books don't require paper doesn't mean they're completely enviro-friendly: the growing number of computers and electronic devices in the United States has begun to create a disposal problem. These devices use elements such as lead, mercury, and chromium and usually end up in landfills. A recent Salon Magazine article noted that "consumer electronics constitute 40 percent of the lead found in landfills." Then there is the size of the readers -- or, more precisely, the size of the type on the readers. A PDA's screen is only a few inches square; to read a book on a PDA requires lots of squinting and scrolling. E-book readers are much more like paper books in terms of font size, but reading them can be like looking at a computer monitor -- with lesser models, a monochrome computer monitor -- for great lengths of time. Nevertheless, the technology continues improving. In August Microsoft released its MS Reader, whose interface emulates the printed page, hoping to make extended e-book reading more comfortable. Publishing industry leaders are lining up behind e-books. Simon & Schuster President and Chief Operating Officer Jack Romanos has said he "embraces every opportunity to carry the concept [of e-books] quickly to the mainstream." He's not alone; several other publishers have established e-book divisions in the past year. OEBF official David Ornstein predicts, eventually, e-books will become the dominant way to read. "Paper books will become rare," he says. "Over the next few years you can expect to see the readability technology improve so much that there will be (almost) no reason for p-books." As for the future of the technology, once lightweight plastic screens replace glass screens, it is expected e-books will weigh less, making readers cheaper and more portable. E-books will not only be used for reading books, but will allow readers to subscribe to favorite magazines and newspapers. Eventually, all e-book hardware will have wireless connectivity, updating you with the latest breaking news. Paper and pen won't disappear, of course, and despite Ornstein's prediction, neither will p-books. In June, at a forum at BookExpo, the American Booksellers Association convention, the vast majority of participants -- ranging from publishers to authors to Web site entrepreneurs -- said that the familiar bound volume will still be available well into the future. One panelist observed that videotapes didn't kill off movies; the two have co-existed for years and even benefit one another. The same will be true of e-books and p-books, she suggested. Underlying all the talk, the panel agreed, is the desire to experience a good story. In that respect, just as we decide whether to read the book, watch the movie, or listen to the book on tape, e-books will merely be another medium by which to do that. RELATED STORIES: Book industry adapts to digital revolution RELATED SITES: Simon & Schuster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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