Shame on me for not pointing earlier to an excellent eBookWeb article by one J. Knight, author of Risen, a supernatural thriller. In the article excerpt below, you’ll notice his understandable love of simplicity. Others feel the same. That’s why the eTower of Babel and oppressive DRM schemes are costing the industry millions.
I exited the e-Book Experience and went along my way, filling tote bag after tote bag with old-fashioned printed books, getting old-fashioned actual author autographs in real, not digital, ink on tree-slaughtering paper, and wishing that some manufacturer would give us what we want in an eBook reader instead of what they wish we wanted. Like, an eBook reader so simple to use that you don’t need a printed instruction book to teach you how to operate it.
Even now I myself can’t imagine life without e-books. But Knight is oh so right about the complexities of e-bookdom today. Don’t believe me? From one of Risen‘s Amazon.com pages:
Format: Adobe Reader (System Requirements)
File Size: 1845K
Printable: Some publishers do not allow Adobe e-books to be printed. Read more
Macintosh Compatible: Mac OS software version 9.0 or 9.1. Mac OS X is not currently supported.
Windows Compatible: Yes
Handheld Compatible: No. This title is not compatible with Pocket PCs, PDAs, or other handhelds.
Digital: 347 pages
Publisher: iPublish.com; ISBN: B00005KH6W; 1st edition (May 2001)
Other Editions: Paperback | e-book (Microsoft Reader) | All Editions
Average Customer Review: [Four and a half stars] Based on 30 reviews. Write a review.
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 2,910
If readers’ remarks on the Amazon.com page are representative, by the way, one hopes that Knight’s work will soon be available again in e-book format.
