sony-ebook-reader-thumb1I’ve been an avid ebook reader for two years and count­ing. Pre­vi­ously, I was read­ing ebooks on my Pocket PC using uBook before I decided to get a ded­i­cated device. Here’s more info about me: I’m an impul­sive buyer and own over 700 ebooks. About 400 of those ebooks were bought at Fic­tion­wise which is my pre­ferred etailer because I like to buy all my ebooks in one place. Over­all, I’ve enjoyed read­ing ebooks but there are times when I won­der why I con­tinue to bother with them at all.

The Advan­tages vs. the Dis­ad­van­tages of Ebooks

There are def­i­nite advan­tages to read­ing ebook and here is my list:

  • Instant grat­i­fi­ca­tion. Self-explanatory.
  • Porta­bil­ity. I love car­ry­ing around 700 ebooks when I travel.
  • Plat­forms that allow user to tweak the look of their ebooks (font size, text color, back­ground image)
  • Pro­mo­tions where pub­lish­ers and author(s) give away free ebooks =major WIN
  • Pri­vacy. No book­cov­ers to stare at when I’m read­ing save my ereader bookcover
  • Saves gas so no run­ning to and from brick and mor­tar stores

Here’s the crummy part, the lit­tle annoy­ances I’ve had to endure to enjoy a for­mat that I prefer:

  • Price. Sen­si­tive issue and annoy­ing because some pub­lish­ers believe incor­rectly that charg­ing read­ers a higher price for the ebook copy over the paper copy is smart and will engen­der sales. Guess what, you’re wrong, it’s not and it doesn’t.
  • Cherry pick­ing titles to be in dig­i­tal for­mat while other titles remain unavailable=lost sale
  • DRM sup­pos­edly stands for Data Rights Man­age­ment. Hotly con­tested issue right now and I’ve ran into my share of DRM resis­tance and have barely won. DRM restricts legit­i­mate buy­ers from read­ing their ebooks on mul­ti­ple plat­forms. So far, DRM doesn’t seem to deter piracy but it does annoy the hell out of consumers.
  • The rep­u­ta­tion and/or per­cep­tion that ebooks are some kind of sub-standard for­mat that doesn’t belong with paper and audio formats.
  • Releas­ing ebooks a week to two weeks or more after the print release. Makes zero sense to me as a reader/consumer but oth­ers have stated that ebooks are inhib­i­tive of print sales and this is sig­nif­i­cant if you want to land on the NYT best­seller list (even more impor­tant than mak­ing money I suppose).
  • Some authors books are not even dig­i­tal­ized and makes me won­der if it’s the author or the pub­lisher that is hold­ing out (look­ing at St. Martin’s Press). SMP seems to cherry pick titles for dig­i­tal release.
  • Con­vert­ing pur­chased ebooks to a for­mat that is ren­dered on your pre­ferred read­ing device.
  • Ebooks are non-returnable and non-refundable and you can’t even exchange for­mats. If you enjoy trad­ing in your books for new books, this for­mat is not for you.
  • For­mat wars — I have ebooks in sev­eral dif­fer­ent for­mats but I read them all on one device.
  • Ded­i­cated ereader devices thus far are not cheap

Con­clu­sion

Some­times, with so many mis­steps made by pub­lish­ers from their lack of vision or insight, it’s a won­der that I still pre­fer to read ebooks at all. I mean I can’t return them (as listed above) and some­times I will pay steep prices if I really, really want to read the ebook ver­sion but despite the many dis­ad­van­tages as listed above, I love read­ing ebooks. No more paper for me (unless I’m forced to buy them). Ebooks are the future. I hope this year will mark some sig­nif­i­cant changes for the future of ebooks. Apple anyone?