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Waterstones founder: e-book revolution will soon go into decline

Comments

  • I'm not sure ebooks will go into decline, but it wouldn't surprise me if their popularity soon stopped rising.
  • Like any new techie toy, people got onto the bandwagon fast at the start; it will dwindle as time goes by. That's why Kindles do more than let you read books now - trying to keep the customer satisfied with what they get for their money.
    There has been an awful lot of dross published for ebooks which will put people off, and the pleasure of browsing in a bookshop is denied them. There is room for both.
  • My experience with Pets in a Pickle was that nothing really happened in the first two moths after publication. Promotion being by traditional means - some Amazon reviews, local features in papers, a few radio interviews. In frustration I asked my publisher to reduce the Kindle price from around £4.00 to 99p. Within three weeks the ebook had reached number two on the Kindle bestseller list and whoosh, the paperback took off as well plus requests for interviews, some features and an inquiry for Italian rights. And it was an excuse to push the book on social media. So currently I feel there's more to be said for the ebook than the paperback though personally I still prefer a book in hand and certainly when it comes to giving talks then such copies are essential; but that aspect could be covered by POD rather than through having to have a print run. whether that's via a printer you pay for or via a traditional publishing house.
  • A book in the hand feels better than a book on the
    Kindle?
  • I don't have a Kindle except for it on my computer, and only got that because one USA author who asked me to review her children's book, had only published as an e-form. I also think it will reach a plateau, and the 'real' book will make a comeback. However, I think there's room for both, but I agree a helluva a lot of rubbish is available to download.
  • It seems a shame that the main benefit of making one's book available on Kindle (and other formats) seems to be that it provides the opportunity to pretty much give it away. As MW says, and I've heard elsewhere, often this is a useful marketing trick that gives a boost to paperback sales but from what I can establish the effect is usually short-lived.

    It would be very interesting to know how many of these promotional copies sit unread on people's Kindles (although I'm sure Amazon won't be releasing those figures anytime soon). I know my Kindle account is full of unread books. Whenever I've done a giveaway promo for my book of short stories, although the number downloaded usually gets comfortably into double figures I think my efforts have generated a grand total of two reviews.

    In fairness, my bookshelves are also full of unread books, and I don't review everything I read, but at least the author and the shop will have had the benefit of receiving some of my cash.

    My prediction for the future is fairly gloomy - e-readers (and equivalent apps on phones and tablets) will continue to gain popularity, boosted by the decline of high street booksellers. The vast majority of people who just buy one or two books a year to take on holiday will instead download them onto their tablets. With more emphasis on online sales, it will be harder for casual readers to discover new authors, leading to a situation where a tiny number of superstar writers account for the majority of sales and a legion of talented authors lacking the marketing clout to get noticed amid the dross scrabble for the few remaining crumbs.

    With luck, I'll be wrong!
  • The OH and I bought Kindles a few years ago because of our lifestyle - it simply wasn't feasible to keep lugging paperbacks back and forth between Fiji and France. Since we stopped splitting our year into those two major chunks the Kindles have been sitting untouched: we just prefer books over screens - always have and probably always will. (Also agree wholeheartedly about the self-published rubbish available in e-books - and feel sure that contributed to my disappointment in the Kindle experience!)
  • An odd statement from a man who only 12 months ago announced the Read Petite project to do something similar to Alfie Dog Fiction but on monthly subscription. It has all gone very quiet on that front!
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