I knew a wealthy man who bought hardcovers by the bushel. His den was stacked floor to ceiling with them. Yet in the decades I knew him, I never saw him read a book. All that paper, all those dead trees, and for what?
By contrast, I read voraciously. Almost daily. Yet my bookshelves are comparatively barren. That’s because I consume ebooks and audiobooks. And they’re all stored in the cloud.
For several months, I worked at a locally-owned bookstore. Bookstore employees love books. But we had a dirty little secret: the majority of my store colleagues, including me, owned Kindles. We preferred ebooks over physical books.
Some people argue that the physical book is superior. They rail against ebooks. They’re like filmmakers who insist on the theatrical experience instead of television despite modern home entertainment systems comparable to many movie theaters. Why? Because that’s the way things have always been. That’s nostalgia bias.
The medium shouldn’t matter, not to an author or a reader. All that matters is the content. No matter what format you purchase - book, ebook, or audiobook - the content will be the same.
Authors want people to read their writing. That’s a secondary concern for publishers. They want to sell products. Purchasing books doesn’t guarantee that the content will be read. But to both publishers and authors, so long as sales are strong the medium shouldn’t matter.
So why don’t people read more ebooks?
I’ve been waiting 20 years for ebooks to become the dominant form of book reading. I haven’t purchased a physical book in over a decade, despite having read a few hundred titles during that period. I’ve also published more than a dozen novels! I consider the ebook experience superior. Here’s why.
Font size. My eyesight has weakened with age. A typical 12 point book font is too tiny for me. My ereader let’s me blow up the size, or even change the font, to whatever suits me.
Bookmarks. You never lose your place in an ebook. It not only remembers where you left off, it can easily find your place on another device.
Size. A Kindle is larger than a typical smartphone, but it can fit into nearly any pocket. I can carry it anywhere, and it’s lightweight.
Convenience. I can carry my entire library with me on one device.
Backlighting. I used to need a book light to read at night. Those were clumsy, especially when turning pages. Not an issue with an ebook reader.
One-handed operation. Try that with hardcovers or paperbacks. Yes, it can be done with some dexterity, but physical books were not designed for one hand.
Ease of purchasing. If you want a new title, you can download it in seconds. No need to leave home or wait for an overnight delivery.
Environmental impact. No trees need to be cut down to create an ebook or an ereader device.
Some people claim they need the tactile sensation of a physical book. If you get immersed in what you’re reading, you shouldn’t notice what you’re holding.
I’ve also heard people complain that you don’t need to electrically charge a real book. That specious complaint was never made about mobile phones. Nobody ever said, “I don’t have to charge my rotary-dial Princess phone.” In the iPhone age, most of us are accustomed to battery-operated devices.
Then there’s the archaic publishing industry secret called remaindering. If a book doesn’t sell after a certain time period, a bookstore employee tears the cover off and the book gets thrown away like two-week-old lettuce. Shipping unsold books back to the publisher increases costs, so instead they’re damaged to prevent resale and dumped in the trash. What a waste. Think of all the trees needlessly cut down for such a dumb business model.
Ebooks eliminate the need for remaindering. Or the need for paper, ink, printing, boxing, and shipping. Ebooks are carbon neutral.
So why does remaindering still exist in the age of ebooks? Because that’s the way publishing has always been done. Nostalgia bias.
We’ve all become so acclimated to digital reading that ebooks should be more commonplace. After all, you’re reading these words electronically. You do the same with email and text and everything else on the Internet. Adopting ebooks over physical books seems like a logical progression. And maybe we can save a whole lotta trees.
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