LOS ANGELES -- Techies may be used to reading text on a computer screen, but for e-book publishers to succeed commercially, the general reading public needs to embrace them.
And readers are not exactly approaching e-books with open arms.
That may be one reason you'll find electronic versions of Stephen King's latest thriller right alongside the business books, and a selection of romance novels to balance out the computer programmers' shelves.
The annual US book love-fest known as BookExpo America draws as many readers as are likely to be found in one place. Booksellers, publishers, agents, and authors from all over the world traveled to the conference last week to buy, sell, and browse the latest books.
There were crowds around the e-publishers' booths, but few people seemed ready to relinquish their paperbacks. Common themes among the naysayers included the difficulty of reading onscreen, the cost of devices like NuvoMedia's US$499 Rocket eBook and, most of all, the loss of the "feel" of reading a book.
"I think you lose a lot of the intimacy of reading a book when you put it on a screen," said Debra Price Jackson, an editor at 1st Person Press. "After 12 hours on the computer at work, I get saturated with digital information. I want the atmosphere, the ritual, of lying in bed reading a book."
On the other hand, she sees a transition already happening. "Just like writers went from using pen and ink to typewriters to computers, I think readers are starting to move from paper to online," Jackson said. "I go online to find information, but when I read, I prefer print," said Stacy Kravetz, author of Girl Boss (Girl Press 1999).
E-book publishers try to cater to that preference, formatting digital books to look like scanned versions of their print counterparts, while retaining the advantages of hypertext, searching, and built-in dictionaries.
Librius, which plans to sell its own e-book reader for less than $200, formats its e-books for PCs, Macs, and Windows CE devices. Its technology supports the use of translation dictionaries as well.
Steve Yang, a literary agent from South Korea, said he won't be buying an e-book anytime soon. Not only are the devices expensive, but "they aren't warranteed," he explained. "If you drop it and it breaks, you have to buy another one. You can drop real books as many times as you want."
Westshore Publishing's Daniel Gogolin agreed. "You have the cost of the reader, plus batteries, maintenance costs. Plus, I like to read outside, and it's very hard to do that [with] a screen." With the books themselves costing about the same as paper books, he sees no way to recoup the cost of the device.
Not all e-book publishing requires the use of a special reader. Peanut Press markets its books to the 3.5 million PalmPilot users. Sales double monthly, and the library of available titles spans genres, from bodice-rippers to high-tech. Jeff Stroble, co-founder, said that business and science fiction titles are the most popular titles, "although we actually get a lot of guys buying romance novels."
Trina Robbins, author of From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women's Comics from Teens to Zines, thinks that the concept of e-books is great. "What a boon for travelers! You can take a whole library with you."
Even e-book publishers recognize that e-books are not going to replace paper books. According to Mike Porcaro of NuvoMedia, the point is "just to make it easier for busy people to read on the go."
