A momentous, global revolution in the experience of reading and writing is well underway, and shows no sign of retreat. In brief, we are moving out of print culture and into electronic culture.
Consider. How many of you are reading books now, more or less consistently, on a Kindle, Nook, or some other kind of e-reader device (including your laptop)?
How many of you are aware that sales of electronic books are currently crushing sales of conventional books?
Take a look at some recent statistics from the AAP (Association of American Publishers):
All major adult print segments—hardcover, paperback and mass market—showed a decline in sales in May [2011]…. While e-books showed a steep uptick of 146.9% for the month, bringing in $73.4 million in sales, adult hardcovers dropped 38.2%, adult paperbacks dropped 14.3%, and adult mass market fell 39.4%.
And so far for the calendar year 2011: e-books have brought in $389.7 million in sales, a 160.1% climb over the same period in 2010.
Amazon has said that Kindle books started outselling hardcovers back in July 2010, and began outselling paperbacks in January 2011.
It is thus fair to conclude:
The principal medium for conveying the written word is becoming more and more wholly electronic. (A principle that Borders, now bankrupt, was too slow to recognize and act upon.)
At the same time, writers of both fiction and non-fiction are seizing the moment by eschewing the conventional road to publication. Instead of asking agents and publishers and brick-and-mortar bookstores for help in bringing their wares to market, they are making use of the ease of distribution afforded by such venues as Amazon.com. and going straight to the ravenous e-reading market themselves.
Thriller writer John Locke, for example, recently sold his one-millionth ebook on Amazon. And 26 year-old Amanda Hocking recently made news by selling over one million e-copies of her paranormal romance series—before opting for a more conventional arrangement by signing on for 2 million with St. Martin’s Press. Self-published author Barry Eisler, however, turned down a half-million dollar advance in order to remain self-published.
None of these writers are my personal cup of electronic tea, but they at least prove the eagerness of the ebook market, and the ability of writers to take their destiny into their own hands.
So that we can conclude:
The principal means of publishing and distributing the written word is becoming not only more and more electronic, but more and more in the hands of writers’ themselves.
Which brings us to J.K. Rowling and Pottermore. In June Rowling announced her new Pottermore website (to be launched in October), an immersive experience into the world of the Harry Potter books that will include new material from Rowling (e.g. backstories on the characters), interactivity via fan fiction and games, as well as being the only place in the galaxy where one can purchase e-versions of the Harry Potter books. It’s true. Rowling wisely retained the electronic publication rights for all her books, and so now is able to offer e-versions of them exclusively through her new website.
Of course, it takes someone with a global, pop icon platform like Rowling’s to be able to draw readers to one’s electronic works and make pots of galleons without the help even of Amazon and Barnes&Noble. And it’s not really accurate to call Rowling a self-publisher, since she made her reputation selling gazillions of books through Bloomsbury in the UK and Scholastic in the U.S. (Though for an interesting take on this, see David Gaughran's piece on Pottermore.)
But still, it’s hardly a stretch to surmise that Rowling’s Pottermore website will both entrench and make more exciting the experience of reading and writing through exclusively electronic media—especially in the as yet relatively dormant children’s market.
Pottermore will also help underscore the third principle of the current revolution in reading and writing: that for both fiction & non-fiction writers, ownership and control are possible like never before.
But the question for you is:
How do you like this revolution? Do you think it’s inevitable? And even if it is, is the revolution good, bad or indifferent for the human experience of reading and writing—for the transmission of ideas and stories?
This is a tough one for me, Dan, as a gadget geek. I read a great deal on my iPad. There is a great deal of convenience to it - I can carry dozens, even hundreds of books with me. I don't need to worry about whether I have enough to read on my flight (I travel a lot,) because I've got the next book with me, too.
ReplyDeleteStill, I can't help but miss the tactile experience of reading from the printed page; the ability to flip back and forth, to mark your page. The ability to do these things in eBooks is very limited right now. Granted, when I read on paper ("on dead tree") Of course, I also sometimes wish I could tap words and see their definition, as I can on my iPad.
I read a technical article a few weeks ago, advising eBook designers to look at electronic Bibles as a model. The author believed that eBible designers were in the vanguard of finding the best ways to enable natural cross-reference and navigation of books. This somehow seems fitting, given the Gutenberg Bible's role in the vanguard of printed books.
Ultimately, I do think we have to recognize that eBooks are not, properly speaking, books. They are an entirely new medium. We don't "read eBooks." We "consume media" on our devices, just as we listen to music, watch movies, or listen to podcasts. It isn't the same thing as a book.
In "Here Comes Everybody" Clay Shirkey notes that when people ask "why would grandma use email?" they are asking the wrong question. The right question is, "why wouldn't grandma use email?"
Which I think brings us to the essential point: an eBook may not be a book, but it is human. And I think sometimes that gets lost when we discuss new ways of communicating.
How many of you are reading books now, more or less consistently, on a Kindle, Nook, or some other kind of e-reader device (including your laptop)?
ReplyDeleteNot I. Don't own such a thing, don't plan to (other than a laptop, on which I do not read books).
How do you like this revolution?
Not in the least.
P.S.: This is certainly backwards: "Which I think brings us to the essential point: an eBook may not be a book, but it is human. And I think sometimes that gets lost when we discuss new ways of communicating."
ReplyDeleteAn ebook may very well be a book: it communicates the same content as a physical book. But it most certainly is not human, because it is entirely ephemeral and non-corporeal. An ebook does not, it seems, even really exist in the same way a book does: it is not a thing that occupies space. The essence of human activity is the manipulation of things, is it not?
In saying they "may not be books," what I meant to convey, although I may not have been clear, is that I believe eBooks are really a new medium; something differing from other books in ways much more significant than, say, the difference between a hardcover and a paperback.
ReplyDeleteTo your other points: yes, humans manipulate things, but so do animals. It is only humans, though, that communicate ideas to each other through language; that create art.
As to the corporeal nature of books, sound is ephemeral and non-corporeal, yet music and the spoken word are quite profoundly and essentially human. Who would deny it?
In its ability to convey human language and ideas, in a form which in itself embodies the boundless creativity of man, the eBook is quite essentially human.
That was my intended point.
There is of course a distinction between a conventional book and an ebook, but I don't think it's found in the conventional book being "material" or "corporeal" and the ebook being "ephemeral" and "non-corporeal." An ebook is just as material as any conventional book--it's just that its matter is electricity and plastic rather than ink and paper and cloth. At the same time, I don't think it's quite correct to say that the conventional book is "human" and the ebook is "not human." Any artifact--and both sorts of books are artifacts--are products of human intelligence, and therefore deserves to be called human.
ReplyDeleteThe real issue is one that Tim addresses: the ebook presents a new form of human communication. The experience of reading an ebook is different from that of reading a conventional book (and I would like credit for avoiding use of the phrase, "the phenomenology of reading"! :) ) But the question is, how significantly different is the ebook? I was reading P.G. Wodehouse on my Kindle last night to my great enjoyment. Was it as great an enjoyment as that of reading one of my first edition Wodehouses? Well, the comic effect was still the same. I mean, I was laughing just as I do when I read Wodehouse between hardcovers. What I don't have with the Kindle, however, is the experience of the first edition as printed artifact, its size, texture, typeface, history, etc. But this doesn't trouble me too much. Both mediums have their purpose and pleasure and I will keep reading on my Kindle even as I keep collecting first editions. There's a much greater difference, it seems to me, in reading Wodehouse and then watching Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry portray a Wodehouse story on screen, then there is between reading on Kindle and reading a coventional book.
The ebook is a part of a technological revolution. It's part of an economic revolution. But I don't see its revolutionary impact as a negative one. In fact, I think it's a positive development for the reading of both fiction and non-fiction. Reading didn't disappear, as some feared, with the advent of movies and television. Quite the contrary. Television and movies proliferate today like never before, and yet people seem to be reading today like never before. Human beings seek to know things, as Aristotle said. And they will develop and use any number of technological gadgets with which to do it.
Love this conversation! While I'm a gadget geek like our dear cousin, Tim, I avoided using an e-reader for as long as I could. I finally gave in last year when I was reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and was so desperate to get the next book that I downloaded the Kindle app on my iPad late one night so I could keep reading the series!
ReplyDeleteSo, why did I avoid this for so long? Because I like the tactile sensation of books. I like the smell, the rustle of the paper, the weight of a book in my hand. That being said, I enjoyed the e-reader experience more than I expected to. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it. But, after reading several books on my iPad, I noticed downsides as well.
What I Like:
- the ability to look up words easily. If I don't know the precise definition of a word, I really love looking it up. But, keeping a dictionary nearby is a pain and can interrupt the flow of reading. It's awesome to click a word in a book I'm reading and have quick access to the definition and meaning.
- as Tim mentioned, the ability to have access to many, many books without physically hauling them around.
- it's also fun that no one knows *what* you are reading. Especially if you're enjoying a trashy/guilty pleasure sort of book! Not that I do that or anything.
- Because I had the Kindle app on both my iPad and iPhone, I could pick up my phone and it would drop me where I had left off reading on my iPad. As a working mom with not a lot of "spare" time for reading, this allowed me to take advantage of random little blocks of time (waiting rooms, etc.) where I had my phone with me.
What I Don't Like:
- spending more time staring at a glowing screen. I've returned to paper books for evening reading because I'm convinced that laying in bed with a glowing device was affecting my sleep.
- it creates a gray area with regard to work and leisure. Because I'm what they call a "knowledge worker" I have to define the edges of my own work and my own workday. Technology makes it physically possible for me to work anywhere, at any time and the nature of my work is like a treadmill: it's never really "done." The only thing that prevents me from working 24/7 is my physiological need for sleep and whatever discipline I cultivate about how much I want to work. One of the disciplines that my husband and I have put into place (because he does similiar work) is that there are no electronics in the bedroom: no TV, computers or phones. Having Kindle on the iPad (or even having the newer version of the Kindle with apps on it) means we have a gray area where the iPad isn't really a computer, it's a book. Except that it's not. And it's a little too easy to drift over to email or Twitter or any number of other apps. You don't have that problem with a physical book!
What I Wish For:
- I really wish e-readers had a "report typo" feature. What a great way to crowdsource making updates to the inevitable errors that appear in every book! Publishers could verify the report, correct it, and push out an updated version to every device.
Daniel, I also love this point:
ReplyDelete"The ebook is a part of a technological revolution. It's part of an economic revolution. But I don't see its revolutionary impact as a negative one. In fact, I think it's a positive development for the reading of both fiction and non-fiction. Reading didn't disappear, as some feared, with the advent of movies and television. Quite the contrary. Television and movies proliferate today like never before, and yet people seem to be reading today like never before. Human beings seek to know things, as Aristotle said. And they will develop and use any number of technological gadgets with which to do it."
With new technology, something is gained and something is lost. This point was made beautifully in Frontline's piece, Digital Nation. Highly recommend watching it. Also, Clay Shirky's talk on "Information Overload" is excellent.
Digital Nation: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/
Clay Shirky talk: https://blip.tv/web2expo/web-2-0-expo-ny-clay-shirky-shirky-com-it-s-not-information-overload-it-s-filter-failure-1283699
Thanks for those links, Meghan, and for your comments. I really resonate with your list of "Don't Like" about e-books. I was thinking just the other evening as I contemplated reading from my Kindle: "I've been staring at a screen all day, and now I am contemplating relaxing by staring at another screen. This is starting to make me bonkers!" Every new gadget challenges our compulsive tendency to stay wired-in 24/7, which no matter how positively one thinks about the new digital technologies, is not a good thing for the soul. I like your suggestion about sticking to printed books for end-of-the-day reading. The Kindle does tempt us to blur that healthy distinction between work and play.
ReplyDeleteLike Meghan, I was resistant to eBooks at first. My breakdown occurred when I was on a trip and had forgotten to bring a book for the plane. Kindle and eBooks on my iPad gave me the ability to keep many books at hand at all times, and to get new ones (almost) whenever I need to.
ReplyDeleteAs Dan suggests, there is something about the paper book that is different, something which lies outside the experience of reading itself. For me, browsing through my bookshelves is a very different experience than scrolling through the titles in an app. It is also a great deal easier to share paper books with others.
I will listen to the Shirky talk - I've enjoyed his books, "Here Comes Everybody" and "Cognitive Surplus" (both read on paper!)