eReaders: Are They Redefining the Future of Reading?

March 24th, 2010 by Dana Wollman  

The Future of Content

eReaders aren’t the only products that are evolving before our eyes. As our devices change, so will the content we read on them. The question is, how?

NYU’s Mandel says that because people are used to multitasking on their smart phones and PCs, flitting from e-mail to web surfing to gaming in a heartbeat, eReaders will be best for the kinds of content one can easily put down, only to pick up again later. And that doesn’t always include novels. “There are things like a mystery novel or a Jane Austen novel where you sit down and go from the first sentence to the last,” she said. “For every purpose other than, ‘I just want linear reading from beginning to end,’ electronic reading has worked better.”

That’s good news for Peter Balis, director of digital content sales for Wiley, a publisher that produces everything from cookbooks to scientific journals; everything, in fact, but fiction. The company’s electronic textbooks incorporate flashcards, video, and the ability to communicate with the teacher and other students. Ditto for Wiley’s other divisions: its digital cookbooks and line of For Dummies books include instructional videos as well. “They’re an enhanced product,” he said. “They’re not even an eBook anymore.”

So where does that leave novels? It seems, at least, that if a generation of web-addicted grazers hasn’t killed them, neither will the advent of eReaders. According to NPD’s Rubin, research suggests that eReader owners are consuming fiction and non-fiction equally.

Wiley’s Balis offers that the best way to keep novels from losing in a Darwinian battle of genres is for the industry to settle on a common format: ePUB. “The solution is for file formats to be interoperable among different devices and different screen sizes,” he said. After all, he added, small screen devices (such as the iPhone) were meant for browsing, but perhaps long-form fiction has the same fighting chance with larger screen devices that textbooks do.

Turning the Page

The term eReader is about to get more complicated. The category has already splintered into single-purpose and multitasking devices, making the reading-focused Kindle the eReader equivalent of the iPod classic. But the point isn’t just that a year from now you’ll be loading your eBooks onto a plethora of other devices. Those eBooks will look and feel different than their paper predecessors, defying the name “book” and perhaps redefining what it means to read.


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4 Responses to “eReaders: Are They Redefining the Future of Reading?”

  1. Andrea Says:
    March 25th, 2010 at 8:33 am

    “The Franklin EB-500 Rocket eBook, … weighed a hefty 1.4 pounds”

    ….isn’t this true of the upcoming iPad as well? I thought it weighed about a pound and a half?

  2. Ben Kesner Says:
    May 14th, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    I think ereaders are very cool. Much less weight then a stack of books. I do have to criticize one of the devices reviewed in this article. The Entourage Edge is heavy, less then a text book but more so then most netbooks. It is also quite fragile, mine broke very soon after delivery and the warranty is not very comprehensive. Go for a kindle as the technology is much more mature and the device less fragile, or if you need a dual featured, look at the iPad. Personally, I’m very excited about the Notion Ink Adam.

  3. Dennis Shiver Says:
    May 18th, 2010 at 8:45 am

    I read a lot – 4 to 10 novels weekly. I love the idea of the e-readers, but the publishers and book sellers are missing some key points. First, I only buy paperbacks, never hardbacks. Paperbacks can cost up to $10 each. So where is any savings if Amazon or the others are selling an eBook for $10? None. Don’t bother comparing the cost of an eBook at $10 to the price of a hardcover book, since I don’t buy hardcover. Second, since I read so much, I buy 80% of my books from used book stores, for half the cover price. If the books were available at competitive prices, I would happily buy eBooks instead. But when I can get 4 books for $15, paying $10 for an eBook doesn’t seem like any kind of bargain at all. And the publishers get not one cent of the money that I do spend on used books. Rather than lower the price enough to make them attractive to people that read heavily, they go for a higher profit margin and so miss out altogether from people like me. Suggestion – go ahead and charge the high price for eBooks when a book is initially published, for people that can’t wait. Then when the paperback is released, lower the eBook price to the point that purchasing an eBook is an attractive alternative to purchasing the paperback. Get the price low enough and I would purchase the eBooks instead of purchasing used paperbacks, and then the publishers would get at least some of the considerable amount that I spend on used paperback books.

  4. Carolyn Anderson Says:
    December 21st, 2011 at 8:53 pm

    I find Kindle a great place to “buy” free books for reading when I need a light read. Occasionally, I find a good book amongst the freebies. I think it’s great for light reading, but I want a paper book for books of substance. Many times I order a sample on Kindle to see if I want the book in paper or on my Kindle.

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