Why, may I ask? It's going against current book buying trends. What do you think will change?
- Part of what will change is the demographics. Younger people by and large seem to be more ready to accept technology and even as they become older e-books are just far more convenient.
- I've lent an ereader to two die-hard paperback readers and within a month of use, both wanted their own. It just takes getting used to and simply trying it for a short period might not be enough to reverse what people are used to.
- You can set the typeface and font-size to whatever is comfortable for your eyes, and now even change the hue of the light.
- Reading at night is much easier with a self-illuminated ereader meaning you don't need a separate reading lamp in bed, not to mention being better for anyone else trying to sleep next to you.
- I used to read a lot on commutes and I remember having to haul a book with me being a pain - a book that inevitably got bashed around in my bag as well. Ereaders are compact and you can be assured that they will take the same space regardless of what book you're reading.
- Being able to have hundreds of books in such a small package is great for storage as well. I've seen book collections get wildly out of hand and even here I see people doing big clearances to free up space. Many societies are trending towards smaller living spaces as well, where space is at a premium.
- Paper books are still the most popular, but when you consider that ereaders are still fairly new (not even a human generation old yet) the uptake in their use speaks volumes.
- With a shift to digital learning being used even when kids are in school, children will grow accustomed to reading on devices instead of out of books making them more likely to avoid paper where possible. When they can also read on phones and tablets as well, this compounds the trend.
- In general, ebooks are cheaper and easier to buy, often one click after reading a few reviews you don't get in bookstores. They should really be cheaper considering that there is virtually no distribution costs but that's on sellers.
None of these points relates directly to sci-fi so I'll point out again that in many bookstores, sci-fi has the smallest selection out of any genre. My local Waterstones, for instance, has one shelf for sci-fi, three for fantasy, half a dozen for history, and countless for general fiction. Even the language and travel sections dwarf the singular sci-fi shelf. Even test prep seems to have more books. Having more options available in a digital format will inevitably funnel the sci-fi fans more firmly into the ebook market.
These are long trends that will take decades to fully materialise but the day is coming, for better or worse. Personally, I wouldn't go back to paper for fiction reading. Non-fiction will always be better served by textbooks though, although even those can be closely matched by large screened tablets / the note-taking large-size ereaders.
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