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‘Oprah slow to Kindle—fans left out in the cold’—but could an E-Book Week show make ‘em happy again?
January 22, 2009 | 8:47 am
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By David Rothman
“Oprah fans who bought into the electronic book revolution for Christmas have been disappointed to find that less than half of Winfrey’s recommended books have gone electronic, and the chat show goddess hasn’t even put her own magazine O onto an e-ink screen.” – The Register.
The TeleRead take: And guess what could low publishers’ costs and boost the availability of titles in E? Greater use of ePub, the standard format, which the Kindle can’t read natively. Dropping DRM would also lower costs. Maybe publishers will Get It someday.
The Read an E-Book Week angle: How about Oprah doing an e-book show to educate her audience on the e-book pickings out there on the Net—including free sites like Feedbooks and Manybooks, both of which offer Kindle-readable formats among others? And how about non-Amazon stores like Fictionwise? Read an E-Book Week would be a great peg for such a show. Actualitte.com in France likes our suggestion that President Obama officially recognize the week. Time for e-books to benefit from Obama-esque charisma, the site says. Merci! Between Oprah and Obama, e-books just might become a mass phenomenon before we expected.
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Comments:
Do you really think that Oprah is going to push free services or smaller ebook marketplaces? If you watch her show she clearly only deals in top name brands and big businesses. She promoted Kindle because a. it is pretty cool, but most importantly, b. It is the product of a huge company.
Hi, Tracy. It’s hard to tell. If enough Oprah fans are POed over the costs of Amazon books and want a greater selection, then, yes, she might show some flexibility in regard to “free” and “small.” What’s more, the E-Book Week concept itself could help e-book-related companies of all sizes. Thanks. David