Rethinking e-books vs. p-books
“Will eBooks replace print? Well, when’s the last time you unfurled a freshly scribed scroll?” asks Ruth Beal. “All libraries will one day simply be websites for virtual visitation,” says David W. Boles. Even Bill Gates predicts the death of the p-book: “[P]aper is only the latest in a long line of reading ‘technologies’ that were made obsolete each time an improved solution emerged.”
But p-books and e-books are not complete equivalents. They each have different optimal functions that are suited to different kinds of reading. It’s time for a truce in the battle of p-book vs. e-book in favor of specialized coexistance.
Needs of the pleasure reader
E-books provide pleasure readers with many new ways to interact with the text, be it public annotation, embedded forums, or “behind the scenes” from the author. But what if a person just wants to read the text? If you consider the “community” features irrelevant, an e-book is just another “format” option on the same playing field as hardback or paperback. P-books have no initial hardware cost, they look nice on your shelves, they’re disposable, resellable, and there’s just something nice about flipping through physical pages and taking a break from computer screens.
For general pleasure reading, the choice between p-book and e-book is one of personal taste. Some people like the solid feel of a hardback. Some people prefer the price and weight of a paperback. For travellers who want to maximize their reading while minimizing their luggage, an e-book reader could be ideal. But all three “formats” are essentially interchangeable.
Marketing to e-books’ strengths
Instead of marketing e-books as a general book replacement, it would be more effective to target an audience that is looking for more from their book. However, the reader may not know they want more until *after* they’ve read the book– more likely than not in p-book form. E-book supporters would do better by teaming up with p-books, including a page at the end giving instructions on where a reader can get the e-book if he enjoyed the text and wants the additional interactivity.
Book series with large fan bases (for instance, Harry Potter) would be a natural market for e-books– as long as e-book marketers don’t turn fans off by telling them they don’t need the treasured p-book version. Ideally, the p-book and e-book would be sold together as a package, allowing the fan to curl up with the former, then immediately relive the story, complete with annotations, using the latter.
Needs of the scholar
The searching capabilities of e-books are a quantum leap forward for people who regularly do research in a specific field. What used to take days can now be accomplished in seconds. While not quite as revolutionary, public annotation significantly simplifies the process of sharing different interpretations of the subject matter. E-books are undeniably the best means of doing research.
But as I’ve said before, scholars like their p-books. P-books becomes treasures and heirlooms as they are passed down from professor to student; uploading files from one e-book reader to another could never be the same. Furthermore, many scholarly books can also double as pleasure reading, and the same “format” preferences come into play.
While universities are among the institutions that could benefit most from e-books, the general policy on new technology seems to be, “We want to be innovative… as long as someone else does it first.” Between this attitude and scholars’ feelings about their p-books, proposing e-books as a p-book replacement would get nowhere. Nor would an e-book-only model benefit scholars: there’s no reason why they should be forced to choose between the ability to search of an e-book and the reading/display pleasure of a p-book.
Getting e-books into scholars’ hands
Explaining to scholars what an e-book is and how it can help them isn’t enough. You have to provide them with easy-to-use software, and ideally, a base of “core” reference material so they can experience e-books in action. To help get scholars hooked on e-books, publishers would be wise to initially offer e-book versions free with purchase of the p-book. As awareness grows, p-book and e-book could be sold separately. A scholar could choose whether the book is just a reference, or whether it’s worth a full read-through and valuable shelf space. Journals or conference organizers publishing “working papers” could cut down on printing costs by offering e-book versions and printing fewer p-books.
Best of both worlds
When you’re trying to sell something, it’s crucial to keep in mind the needs and preferences of your customer. Telling people that their preference between two equally legitimate choices is wrong will get you nowhere– and it hasn’t served the cause of e-books, however well-intentioned. I urge e-book supporters to rethink their marketing plan. Stop disparaging p-books: different kinds of reading call for different kinds of books. Let e-books and p-books work together to give users the best of both worlds. The choice doesn’t have to be one or the other– it can also be both.
Photo posted on Flickr by Reinos under a Creative Commons license.
Quinn Anya Carey is a PhD student in Slavic Linguistics at the University of Chicago, and the daughter of OSoft president Mark Carey.
September 16th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Quinn, the biggest advantage of the e-book over the p-book will (eventually) be price, and low priced e-books will kill p-books. Bill Gates got this right:
“The e-book will also revolutionise the economics of the industry. The cost of publishing books will fall dramatically, the result of savings on materials, labour, manufacturing and distribution. In the process, a lot of trees will also be saved and even the most obscure author will be able to self-publish, which means more choice for readers. The retail price of books will fall; sales will explode.”
P-books are a luxury item. Most people can’t afford to pay $30 for a hardback book. That’s why public libraries are thriving. But e-books don’t require a retailer (about 40% of the cost of a p-book) and they don’t need to be printed or shipped either. They can be effectively marketed worldwide to an increasingly English-reading world. Authors and publishers can make more money on high-volume, low cost e-books than they now make on low-volume, high cost p-books. Of course it will take a while for this to happen, but it will happen.
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Quinn, I would switch over entirely to e-books if I could get my hands on a relatively inexpensive and high-quality e-book reader. Ultimately, I find myself simply printing them out onto paper. That is, perhaps, the biggest drawback to e-books at present.
However, I think there is something to your argument–e-book readers could learn something from how people use “p-books.” In particular, I would like to see e-book readers with multi-touch interface, so that I can flip or flick pages across the screen. Moreover, a screen without glare would be nice!
The closer the e-book reading experience becomes to that of p-books, the more people will make the switch. However, until that comes along, I’ll continue to try and find free printing venues to print those e-books out onto paper. It sure beats paying $100+ for a textbook.