Are eBooks already over the hill?

[DeadSchool]

Citation:
>>Ingram's Skip Prichard answered the question "Are e-books dead?": "There is no fundamental right to survive,". Given the "speed of innovation," the e-books of today will be gone tomorrow. As a company, forget about focusing broadly and instead refocus on your core, your "unique differentiator"- limit variables for yourself and your consumer, he said.

[Thomas Burchfield]

Interesting you should ask that question, because I've posted an account of my experience with putting up an e-book (at Smashwords) and the thoughts it provoked over at: http://www.redroom.com/articlestory/eph ... publishing

Thanks!

[SXBrase]

I haven't read Thomas' blog post yet, but, in light of the topic, a NY Times article two days ago has new stats that show e-books outnumber games in the iphone app store or whatever. Books outpacing games? Does not sound like they're dead to me.

http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/ ... 36276.html

[kristi]

As this topic makes my eyes cross, I trust Nathan's opinion on this issue. He doesn't seem to think eBooks are going over the hill anytime soon, and several members of my book club just switched to e-readers which has blown my mind.

[Thomas Burchfield]

I wouldn't say they're over the hill, oh no. They're here to stay all right. But while they might be available on the hard drive or server forever, doesn't anymore guarantee they'll be read. What we have--if we don't already--is an overwhelming case of white noise.

The thing about downloading an e-book--at least for me, and I wouldn't be surprised if others felt the same--is that I would have to read it *right away*. Because the longer I wait, the more I'll forget that it's there as other as other files pile up around it. I'm already seeing a little of this in my own readers of my Red Room blog. They like my work, but with so much material pouring from everywhere and no filter . . . .

[Nathan Bransford]

They're here to stay, and they're only going to get better.

[A.M.Kuska]

I serialized my 2006 NaNoWriMo novel online in order to build a readership. I've got well over 1,000 readers now, and the list keeps climbing. Given my hits, my subscription list, my followers on twitter and the comments that pour in as each new chapter comes out, I'm pretty confident in the enjoyability of online reading. My hope is that e-books will continue to grow.