Scott Adams On eBooks
from the not-going-anywhere dept
Dilbert creator Scott Adams talks (in the NY Times, because he doesn't want you non-registered folks to be able to read his words of wisdom) about his experience publishing an ebook. It didn't do particularly well - though he claims it has done better than any other ebook (I thought Stephen King could probably prove him wrong, but who really cares?). He goes on to say that he never expects ebooks to go beyond 5% of the market for books - until someone figures out how you can read them while not looking at a computer screen (again, I'm pretty sure people have invented, and even sold, such things, but I guess they're not up to Adams' standards). He also takes issue with people who were angry that they couldn't copy his ebook - and particularly complains about people who say he should give it out for free as "advertising". He says that's silly because it was just advertising for the book (which, by the way, isn't a Dilbert book) - and once you've read the e-version you're not going to go out and buy the real copy, which didn't even exits. However, now it is available in a book form (it's called God's Debris, if you're interested). Part of the reason he was able to publish it as a regular book was due to the interest from the ebook sales. So, he lied. It was advertising. It was advertising for himself, so he could get a regular book deal on a non-Dilbert book. So, while some of his points about ebooks are valid and interesting, I found it amusing that he seems to have a lot of the facts wrong...
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(I was interested, and was wholely willing to *purchase* this as an ebook, but not as an encrypted, device locked, paranoic pile of bits).
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