Kindle-ing

Is the Kindle relevant at all? If so, is it relevant for what other products it will lead to? It’s a great question, one that Rex looks at in detail. Rex’s post leads us down the rabbit-hole to Michael’s great thoughts, originally written in response to a Crovitz article which mentioned – in part – a book by Jeff Gomez, entitled, "Print is Dead." Though all had great insights, the one which rang truest to me was Gomez:

    "It’s not about the page versus the screen in a technological grudge match. It’s about the screen doing a dozen things the page can’t do." Digitized words should count for more. "What’s going to be transformed isn’t just the reading of one book, but the ability to read a passage from practically any book that exists, at any time that you want to, as well as the ability to click on hyperlinks, experience multimedia, and add notes and share passages with others."

Why I love this is because the nay-sayers re: eBooks and digital magazines all seem to think we’re in a zero sum game – a "grudge match," if you will, but we don’t see it that way. In today’s world, you can be all of these things affordably – and let the reader choose which format works for them. If you don’t want to pay the premium price for a hardcover, don’t. If you can’t cuddle up to a pixelated screen, why try? Publish once. Syndicate many times and satisfy everyone.