Does anyone actually read e-books?

[Wonky]

Does anyone actually read e-books? I've never read any. I know there are agents who work with e-book publishers, but is there really any market there? And are the e-book publishers legit, or are they all vanity presses?

[Joe Zeff]

Yes, I've read several. Baen Books is certainly a legitimate publisher and is making a number of its books available in ebook format for free.

[Wonky]

How do you read them? On your computer screen? Print them out? What format are they?

[d. Leroy]

Hey Wonky... I don't have the issue in front of me, but the last issue of Publishers Weekly had a story about this very thing. If I remember right, the publishing houses had nearly a 30% increase in revenues from the e-book market (not sure on that number, but it was significant) and many have launched marketing campaigns focused on this market.

Yep, there's a market or they wouldn't be doing it.

[Jeanne Gassman]

Wonky,

Sony has an e-book reader. I've seen the machine in Costco. It's not my thing, but...And other people download e-books to their computer to either read on the screen or print out.

I don't read them, but I know several authors who are making a decent living publishing them. Elora's Cave has been quite successful in this market.

I suspect that most of the e-book readership is a younger generation, one that is accustomed to working online for everything.

Jeanne

[Mark Phillips]

Leroy, I read that same article in PW. I've only read one e-book type thing, and that was a short story by Stephen King, Riding the Bullet. I think the e-book market is growing. In my opinion that's the wave of the future for books. I think there will always be paper copies of books, but e-books will become more wide-read. I read somewhere else that the next version of the I-phone that Apple makes will allow you to download and read books from the phone. To me, this sounds incredibly painful (I couldn't stand staring at screen for that long) but I think the younger generation is in love with their technology and I think more young people will read books like this.
I also have a theory. I believe that the novella will become much more popular. Since e-books will be more popular and no one wants to stare at that screen for so long, coupled with the short attention span and go-go lifestyle of much of our nation's youth, books will have to be shorter.
Just my little theory.

Mark

[Wonky]

What kinds of e-books are popular? Novels or just non-fiction?

I must be getting old. I haven't even bought an IPOD (or an equivalent) yet. If that had come out when I was in college, I'd have been all over it!

[Jeanne Gassman]

Wonky,

Well, erotic romance seems to be doing well:

<http://www.ellorascave.com/>

Jeanne

[gulliver h]

Hold on. Ellora's Cave is an erotic romance? Now that's some darn funny stuff. And subtle.

I don't know. I can't imagine reading on screen. I can barely read what I write on screen, or friends' work. I have to print. But maybe I'm a dinosaur. I didn't believe in audio books either....

[nom de plume]

Wonky, that's an excellent question. For a number of years now I read all my news online and haven't bought a newspaper in years (i'm also reading magazines online more and more). It allows me to read for free newspapers from many countries without getting my fingers dirty and without trees having to come down.

The change in method of reading, not just by me, has a profound impact on the newspaper business. Now, the publishing industry needs to follow suit as well.

I just looked at the Sony e-reader offered by Amazon. Close to $300 and it's a standalone device. I have never seen the e-reader but what i would like is being able to load a MS on it, read and EDIT on the beach or a mountaintop and load everything back to desk/laptop. If i can't do those things, an e-reader is worthless to me.

Is there anything that would facilitate reading on my laptop???