E-Reader Epiphany

Price cuts for e-readers. It's war and I'm still in the paper world. However, I thought I'd comment on something I know nothing about.

I'm a late adopter on most technology. Gasp, I still don't own a cell phone and it's almost become a talking point of amusement to not have one. I will someday. I just don't choose to throw my money at some provider who's giving me the privilege of constantly saying, "Huh?", "What?", and "Call me back", or just hear a plain "click,silence". Did my friend fall off the cliff? Oh, it was just the black hole of Luna and I635.

Anyway, back to e-readers. As a writer, this is a huge, huge publishing conundrum. Should I write for the e-market? Or are the key dollars still in hardcore paper publishing? Tough to say and I've read a ton on the subject with no conclusions.

Amongst friends, some love, love, love their Kindle,et al and download everything. Others say, "It's great for a trip, but when home I stick with old fashioned sales from Half-Price Books or free material from the library." I personally do not like to download and read on the computer. I have not tried any of the e-readers, but the concept doesn't thrill me yet. I truly get tired of being on a computer all day at work. My desire to point and click is nil by 5 pm.

Other friends have e-readers and the novelty has worn off. They are back to tangible books. Another had a Nook, was excited to get her Nook, and after two weeks returned it - not so thrilled after the trial shot. And she's a super duper reader.

The jury is still out from what I understand. Pricing for actual e-books is still up in the air. Recording sales, piracy issues, and the whole cutting up the market segment pie is worrisome to publishers. Apple and the iPad lurk - appealing to younger market trendsetters, it can literally upset the cart.

I'm reading every article (on old fashioned news print) and seeing what shakes out. I just wish I'd bought Amazon stock and Apple stock a long, long, long, long time ago.