First in an E-Book Survival Guide Series
The e-Book market has finally blossomed over the past year. Amazon's Kindle broke sales records this past holiday season, out pacing the iphone as well as smashing print book records for any holiday season on record. Target stores have been stocking the Sony E-Reader for months now. So if you are an avid reader you may consider taking the plunge. But buyer beware, DRM is in front of you. Beyond DRM is the whole murky issue of file formats. Then you must consider portability.
There are common philosophies in approaching the purchase of E-books; 1.) “Throw Away Society” and 2.) “The Book Enthusiast”.
The “Throw Away Society” is based on the paperback approach. If you finish reading a paperback on a plane, do you leave it on the plane or at a terminal for someone else to pick up and enjoy it? Do you accept the fact that the five dollars you paid is a relatively low cost for entertainment and you got your money's worth? Do you accept DRM at face value? The customer accepts the fact that this book has a short shelf life (no pun intended). At some point the hardware will fail and the book is lost to the digital ages. I bought it, I read it, I am now happy and moving on. The price I am paying is two-fold, 1.) I am paying for the convenience of an e-book and 2.) it is a price I accept and believe is my disposal income. Publishers even go to the point of positioning the e-book as a rental and not a purchase of a product.
Have you ever gone back and read a book a second time? Or once every two years? If so this approach is not for you. The biggest drawback to the Throw Away Approach is the price point. Up until recently e-books have been priced as the same as a Hard cover edition. Amazon recently has lowered costs for some of the e-books to $10.00. Priced still higher than a paperback but lower than a hard cover edition.
There is arguably some of the Book Enthusiast is all of us. This approach to e-books can be measured by the degree of obsession. On the lower end of the scale, you have the “I paid for it, I should get to keep it” or “I want to protect my investment” individuals. On the higher end of the compulsive/obsessive scale you have the “I MUST have every book I own in an e-book format” (guilty as charged with a library of 340 e-books) and there is always the anti-establishment sandal-wearing geeks with the “screw the system” wiring in their neural circuits.
The first step in consideration of e-books is to be cognizant of the issues. If you are not aware or choose not to be aware you have committed yourself to the “Throw Away Society” and you must accept the investment you are making as a disposal cost.
The premise of this series is not to persuade you into one path or the other. I will not offer legal advance. The goal is to provide you with information and an understanding of the technology and what options are available.
Next, we will discuss the fundamentals of words in this world of bits;
“ASCII, HTML, XML and e-pub.”
