The More Important Reason Electronic Books Will Be Great

Call me an optimist, but I think we're about to see a change in how books are written and consumed.

There's a ton of data exhaust coming out of electronic book readers describing, most importantly, how much of each book actually gets read.

Imagine looking at a book on Amazon and seeing "We predict that you personally will read 5 pages of this book."  Or, on the flip side, "You will read 98% of this book."

Holy shit!  So much better than average star ratings.

But wait!  It gets better!

Publishers are finally going to be incentivized to make books as short as optimal.  I don't know much about the publishing industry, but from what Dharmesh told me nonfiction books are too long today because people actually buy on length.  That might finally change!

Comments

[Aaron]

It would be so awesome if publishers were finally incentivized to make books shorter.

Related: http://www.amazon.com/review/R6J4ERKKP2AF2

[creativecommons.net/ichthyos]

Interesting point. To me what's even more exciting though is that in the future, reading books on Internet-connected devices will enable interactions between author and reader, and also between readers, much like we see today on blogs, reddit, etc.

[Adam Smith]

Also great points ichthyos!