Some months ago Random House, S&S and other major houses said they were buying dedicated e-readers for certain editors, sales reps and others.
Have the new gizmos worked out? Which brand is most popular? And how are publishing people using them?
Sony Reader most popular among publishers
"In general," reports Publishing Trends in the November issue, "e-reader users are happy with the device they currently own." Typically that’s a Sony because of the quantity discounts the company offers, unlike Amazon.
Also, unfairly, as both PT and I see it, some publishing people are worried about people spying on them. I do think the Kindle has privacy risks, but not in this case—I doubt Amazon is taking time to snoop on manuscripts and book proposals, the main app for publishers.
E-books’ other most popular uses
Other popular uses are purchased e-books (40 percent of respondents compared to more than 80 percentage for manuscripts and proposals), newspaper articles (more than 30 percent), magazine articles (20 percent) and memos and other internal documents (about 10 percent).
The Kindle’s wireless, of course, can be useful for sharing material, and Sony itself will release a wireless model in the near future.
G Phone not well enough integrated with Google Books yet
In a separate PT article, Ariel Aberg-Riger recounts her mixed experiences with a Google Phone and says of Google Book Search: "On the phone, you just float around the page as you would online, only tinier." She’s expecting "more seamless integration between the mobile platform and GBooks as both continue to improve."
Er, isn’t it time for Google to be thinking about a reflowable format like ePub—in line with all the company’s ballyhoo about standards-love? FBReader, which can read ePub even if the app currently lacks CSS capabilities, is already gearing up for the GPhone.
Meanwhile Aberg-Riger, apparently a multi-device gal who prefers all-in-one-convenience and flexibility, observes: "I will never, ever buy a dedicated e-reader a tirade for a different day, but I could imagine myself downloading books straight to my phone. And therein lies the future."
Interesting stat: 70 percent of publishing people surveyed by PT have yet to read an e-book.
Publishing Trends subscription information: Here. Highly recommended—for covering the substance, not just the flash, of the publishing industry!
Considering that Amazon seems to want to dominate the publishing industry in both publishing and in sales, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Amazon snoops or will snoop once it figures out how. Knowing what manuscripts are being reviewed could be very worthwhile to Amazon.
Isn’t this kind of a tautology, though?
I can’t help thinking that if they didn’t like them, then they wouldn’t use them.
Good point, Chris, except that employers bought and introduced the machines. Of course, I think it would be good to find out how many of ’em were refused by the employees. A legit issue.
Thanks,
David