This is a very significant post with major implications for writers. Read it — think about it.
E-Book Readers, tote-around hardware capable of containing hundreds of digitized books, have yet to fulfill their promise. But they are making progress: slimmer, lighter and capable of hundreds of hours reading on one set of disposable batteries.
At this week’s gigantic trade show, the Consumer Electronics Show [CES], a new Reader has been announced by iRiver, which is famous for its mp3 players that many claim out-perform the iPod. The “book” is bound in leather and opens out into a two-screen configuration, mimicing the real thing. Actual launch date and price are not yet public.
Sony has also recently unveiled a new E-Book Reader, which has been receiving very positive notice in technology magazines and websites. PC Magazine, in fact, voted it one of the top 10 innovative products of 2006.
The Sony Reader can contain as many as 80 average-size, non-illustrated books, and has a flash memory slot to allow even more titles immediately at hand. Sony’s online CONNECT e-Book Store currently offers over 11,000 titles, including current best-sellers at considerable savings, as well as bargain-priced books from the past.
One is not limited to commercially distributed books. Writers should sit up and take notice. The Reader also handles PDF, RTF and TXT files, and invisibly converts Microsoft Word files to RTF for viewing on the Reader. That means we can prepare our own books for viewing on the Reader. The only important step to remember is scaling our PDF files to display directly on the Reader screen.
I have not yet held a Reader in my hands to feel the reading experience if provides. I plan to do so during my visit this Spring to the US — and I’ll report back. US residents can buy a Reader at select Border’s Book Stores and online at Sony Style. It’s not cheap, at $349.00, but it will also play your mp3’s while you read — what more can you ask?
While many critics still contend that E-Book Readers will never succeed, writers should remain alert. Personally, I think such devices will eventually take hold — and we will have another, very important vehicle for our work, completely by-passing traditional publishers.
We will investigate E-Books in more detail over coming months.
[Thanks to www.engadget.com for the CES announcement and photograph.]
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