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Page: the mass market threat

07.03.08

In a World Book Day article for the Guardian, Faber c.e.o. Stephan Page says that that it is not ebooks that should be on our minds, but the rising dominance of the mass market. "Writing on World Book Day a year ago I found myself anxious about our narrowing cultural choices. Over the last year my concern has risen further."

"Market forces are of course at the heart of this shift, so is it pointless to complain? Well, no. It does not have to be this way. Alongside a belief in the wilfulness of readers and writers, my hope for the richness of our future reading culture lies in a cocktail of new technology and strength of range-holding booksellers.

"So publishers must harness the great power of online networks through enriching reader experience."

Guardian

Stephen Page Faber World Book Day

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By Bob LiVolsi

At BooksOnBoard, we agree with Stephen Page. We are heavily invested in the eBook industry and believe that it's ultimate benefit will be felt if eBooks go "local" and encourage individual creativity and cross-cultural communication while allowing cultures and sub-cultures to thrive, leveraged by the tools of the internet. Thus far, most of the readers in the market remain affixed to the traditional publishers and their mass market selections. BooksOnBoard hopes to help enable a shift to a broader diversity of quality content in the years ahead. That means becoming much more than a digital bookstore.

08 Mar 08 00:55

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By Jacob

Bob LiVolsi - to do that you'll have to make sure that you have the appropriate customer support in place. Here is my experience in purchasing a Bookeen Cybook from your company "BooksonBoard". Turns out the if you don't return it within 7 days UNOPENED then you can't get a refund. So guess what - I opened it after a month and it was Dead On Arrival (not sure how I am expected to find out it was DOA without opening it - but I am sure your team will get back to me on that). After a bunch of try this, do that with your support team they finally asked me to submit it for repair - they didn't offer to replace it and weren't willing to refund my money as I requested! So now I have to submit a device I never managed to use for repair! Given that level of customer service - do you really think that ebooks will take off?

23 Apr 08 21:40

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