I do hear it’s mostly the delivery medium that is the turnoff, not the content. They don’t like reading on the computer (I don’t like it either) and some have trouble reading on Palms, eBookmans, and other readers. (I use an eBookman.)

Things are changing in the world and I like new things.

I have oh, I’d say 50 boxes of books sitting in my room and 10 bookshelves lined with my favorite titles. Frankly, I’m drowning in books. That’s why I’m trying to find some of my favorites in ebook format. I’m not saying I’ll get rid of my print copies, but at least then I could move them to the storage building and still be able to read them whenever I wanted to in ebook form. I could store all these books on a few burned DVDs. Takes up a lot less room that way.

That said, I want to buy Catching Caroline *so* much (it’s a steal for $3.00!) but AQ doesn’t take PayPal. Unfortunately I don’t use credit or debit cards, just PayPal linked to my checkbook.

~Mandy

I have a read a few ebooks — mainly stuff by authors I know or had heard a lot about, but in general, no, that’s not what I buy. It doesn’t conform to my reading habits (i.e. something I can stil in my bag and read on the subway, the plane, while waiting at the dentist’s office); it’s difficult to browse (I might be in a bookstore picking up a magazine or a book and buy half a dozen novels to read, but I’m not as likely to just be “browsing” the epublishers’ website (though on the few occasions when I have gone to one of those sites to pick up something in particular I’ve usually bought a few more); and I’m not into the idea of buying a gadget to be able to read the book when I can read a print book without any extra technology. However, this is a minor concern compared to the others, becuase, indeed, you can read them on your computer. But combined with the fact that I do most of my pleasure reading *away* from my computer, and I don’t tend to come across ebooks anyway, that’s just the way it happens.

I have nothing against ebooks as a form, nor against someone whose work, say, came out solely in audio which is extremely uncommon but I read an article about one recently). It’s just not the medium I do most of my reading in.

Regarding industry opinions, I’ve seen it both ways. I’ve seen editors who say it depends on the epublisher, those who differentiate between the same publisher’s print and e-book list, and print pubbed writers for primarily ebook publishers who say that it doesn’t matter how many books they have on the shelf, the NY publishers look at the publisher of their books and dismiss them as “previously unpublished”. It’s a mad mad mad mad mad mad world.

But as for my reading preferences, that’s why it’s print. It’s not the content, it’s the medium I find difficult to deal with. (I read print newspapers, too…)