Comments on: Opposite Day: Scribd E-Book Writer's Jump to Mainstream

By: TechKive » Blog Archive » Opposite Day: Scribd E-Book Writer’s Jump to Mainstream [BoomTown]

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:38:56 +0000

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By: Kevin Dent

Kevin Dent — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:43:09 +0000

Here is the thing, when the Kindle came out I was pretty excited, but I did not buy one as I was in the middle of a heavy project and just could not bothered at the time.

Last week was my wife’s birthday so I bought her the latest kindle as she reads a lot -about as much I would like to- she is by no means a technophobe and she can navigate around an iPhone pretty quickly and she loves that device.

However, yesterday she was reading a book -old school- and I asked her why she did not buy it on her kindle and she basically said she found the experience of holding paper and turning pages a lot more enjoyable.

I find myself less convinced today that digital distribution works as well in terms of book publishing.

I am sold on digital distribution for movies, games, app’s etc. I just don’t see books having the same value add for the consumer.

Perhaps it is an acquired taste and with time she will get used to it, but as of now I don’t think she is that into it.

One of the things that struck me also was that we like the bookshelves we have -I know, I know, that sounds stupid- it is not to impress people, but it does make the room feel cozier.

From my own perspective, I have not had time to read a book at the moment, I did play around with the device as a major part of my work is digital distribution so I was intrigued by it.

I did buy a few new york times issues, but again I have to agree with my wife, I enjoy having the news paper in my mitts.

Again, I am not a technophobe; in my home office alone I have:

iPhone 3g and a 3GS
Xbox’s (every version)
Play Station (every version)
Wii
PSP
DSi and DS
52″ tv

So basically I have enough electronics to nuke the nuts off myself.

I really like the concept of digital distribution in terms of book publishing, I am just not convinced it is for the masses.

By: Andrew Dugas

Andrew Dugas — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:44:43 +0000

I learned about Scribd last autumn but didn’t know what to make of it and promptly forgot it. When Kemble Scott published “The Sower” as one of the first ebooks for sale on Scribd, however, a whole new publishing paradigm was born. I felt the publishing ground shake a little bit. His success at moving from cheap ebook to hardcover proves the viablility of the model.

By: Kemble Scott › Interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Kara Swisher on All Things D

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:40:20 +0000

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By: Friends of Dave (friendsofdave) 's status on Tuesday, 29-Sep-09 21:57:57 UTC - Identi.ca

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:58:03 +0000

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By: Mark Sigal

Mark Sigal — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:44:25 +0000

Hey Kara,

Personally, the real opportunity for book release/re-invention is when the Apple Tablet comes out.

My thesis here is that what Apple has done to drive consumers back to a record-like format with iTunes LP will be meaningfully extended to enable book publishers big and small to create rich, colorful, interactive books that take advantage of the inherent physics of the iPhone/iPod Touch platform (SDK, App Store, touch, tilt, internet, computational logic, etc.), something that I blogged about in:

Check it out, if interested.

Rebooting the Book (One Apple iPad Tablet at a Time)
http://bit.ly/zOoEu

After all, it’s the same approach Apple used to snare a huge chunk of the mobile gaming arena (which has captured both biggie and small gaming cos).

Mark