I have insomnia.

But you notice Kathryn doesn’t have a photo EITHER. For all we know, she’s some Taiwanese guy who wants to sell us Viagra.

You got the marketing component right. Create a need – like Nintendo DS’s and I-Pods and everything else. Why can’t books have the hip factor, too? Once publishers figure out how they can make the same or more money out of ebooks, they will market them like crazy and everyone will be happy.

It’s the pricing piece I sent you from NPR. If publishers and writers can still make a living, and people can get books at the click of a mouse, everyone should be happy. (Except the people who want books for free.)

K

T.

Of course, I was in graphic design and newspaper composition back when we did it all by hand with process cameras and hot wax and exacto knives, and when desktop publishing hit my entire skill-set became obsolete almost overnight. So that rising tide left me kind of high & dry.

But you’re right about books and gadgets being cool to young people. And the books in your hands—Paulo Coelho did a rather riveting thing when he found out his books were being pirated in Russia. He collected all the pirating sites he could find that had his books and created a Pirated Paulo Coelho webpage. So you could just go there and download his books. His sales SPIKED.

So do you think treating digitized books the same way will spike sales in print?

And what about what makes gadgets cool to young people? Isn’t that just marketing by the makers of the gadgets, designed primarily to extract money from folks? And is that okay with those of us who have other priorities besides those of marketers?

My primary goal as a writer is to write a great book. But, my secondary goal is to promote reading, especially in children. If digitizing books makes words seem cooler or allows them to be more accessible, that’s great.

Let’s hook people on reading any way we can. When they find a book they love, they will want to hold a copy of it in their hands, because, let’s face it – Humans are still primitive. We want to tack our trophies on the wall, and display our favorite books on the shelf!!!

K

Ai, that’s a really good point a LOT of people are making: ebooks are only as heavy as the ereader they’re on, and one book weighs as much as full capacity. I’d say paperbacks were invented partly for exactly the same purpose. Yes, they’re cheaper than hardbacks. But they’re also heck of lighter. Magazines are, too. How many readers put up with the omnipresent advertising just to have something to read when they’re out of the house? And Craig Mod’s point is that ebook format is vastly more flexible than print. Penguin recently announced they’ll be moving aggressively into multimedia. What’s your take on that idea?

Chris, you’re great. Actually, I was kind of playing the devil’s advocate there. We’re geeks in this house. In fact, we’re going to reverse the current (hotly challenged) trend in conventional publishing of releasing a book in print with lagtime before releasing the e-version. We’ll be releasing my book in e-version first. So all of you with ereaders will get it before those riddled with literary angst.

What do you guys think about Chris’ comment about the tide? Will it swing back? Will retro engulf the reading world? Or will print books eventually join leather binding as a rather glamorous but ridiculously impractical thing of the past?

Here’s a little tough love, Victoria, and I say this with the utmost respect for your talents and integrity: abandon or contain this angst about the literary technology. With so few options to us writers, your potential clients are going to want an editor who embraces all of the possible avenues to getting published. I want to see my book as just that, an actual book. But I realize that things are changing and I have to be ready to adapt, even if the cost is a bit of pride.

I cannot imagine not hearing the sound of a crisp page turning when I read a book. I can’t imagine giving up the glow of a page illuminated by a GE 70 watt bulb. I hate to think of not feeling the page beneath my fingers or smelling that musty, sweet smell of a time worn book.

But Craig is right. Not all books deserve the physical treatment. Cutting down trees, shipping, the additional square footage required for an in-home library – these are costs beyond the price of the book.
The day is coming when a book is going to have to earn it’s place in the physical world and it’s coming fast..

I want future generations to experience the wonder of turning a page – Wasn’t it incredible to pick up an encyclopedia and just start flipping pages? The inside of a human body, Denmark, all the breeds of horses – who knew what surprise would be on the next page? I’m not ready to lose that, but I don’t mind a bit if trash is deleted instead of sent to the curb.

Kathryn