| writing that puts story first

Though I used the music industry as the frequent example in my feature on online publishing, there is another industry that comes to mind – the current generation of video game consoles. This generation saw Nintendo break from the current processor and graphics arms race, and instead put out a console that was fun and casual. The result? They became the hands down winner. They captured an overlooked market – the casual gamer – and as a result, the Wii is still scare years after it was first released.

I am not saying that book publishers need to incorporate motion controls into an eBook reader, rather that they should go after the casual reader through a combination of low pricing and ease of use.

Personal anecdote – I used to drain the battery on my Blackberry on a nightly basis reading things online. I would comb through entire websites, reading every article. Putting away the equivalent of likely 30k to 40k of content a night. Or, in other terms, a book every two to three days.

I found an ebook reader for my Blackberry, one that handled classics with expired copyrights. The kind of books I could read for free. The program didn’t last long. I’m rather tech savvy, however the program (the name of which escapes me), frustrated me. It was slow, it was cumbersome. It didn’t work right.

Though I no longer work in a job where I can read the entire time, I still frequently browser the internet on my Blackberry while out on smoke breaks, when it’s not my week to drive to work, or while waiting for just about anything. I, and I don’t think I’m alone here, would love to pop open a book on my beat up old Blackberry and get to reading.

By going after people who would like to read casually, and setting prices so low that they don’t feel reading casually is a risk – as in less than $3 per book – this could be a very viable market.

Tying that casual market in with a centralized program, one that could easily sync up with virtual bookmarks between a handheld device and a computer, and the eBook becomes even more viable.

The difficult part will be doing it right. Thankfully there are millions and millions of smart phones currently available, all of which would function as an awesome testing group.