Why I have almost stopped reading books in my own language

I love reading books – and when it is time for vacation it becomes a major pleasure. But rarely do I now read books in my own language: Norwegian. The reason is simple: Only a few of them are available for e-readers!

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In analyzing digital media trends, I strongly believe in the following statement: If it can be digitalized, it will.

This is true for all media formats: Films, music, games, news, radio, TV, magazines, books, etc.  The analog formats are loosing, while the digital versions are taking over. In some markets there is a revolution, in other markets we are only seeing a slow evolution – step by step. But the direction is unmistakingly the same: Physical media products, like DVD, newspapers and paper books, will eventually disappear or become irrelevant.

As the smart Danish blogger Thomas Baekdal writes: People want digital, so give them digital.

One piece of recent news exemplified this development in a symbolically strong way: Amazon announced that is is now selling 143 digital books for every 100 hardcover books. No exact numbers were given, and there was no mention of paperbacks. Yet it illustrates a paradigm shift in the book industry, which is now feeling the power of the digital wave.  In the US digital book sales this year (up to May) has quadrupled compared to last year, according to the Association of American Publishers.

Let me get back to my own book reading habits. For me e-reading on a high quality screen has been a revolution. I use a Kindle myself, but imagine I can get most of the same advantages on a number of different e-readers, including iPad. Advantages are plentiful:

• The reading quality is as high, or even higher, than in a paper book. Just the small detail of adjusting the font size is worth a lot.
• My e-reader is light and easy to carry around. Going to the beach? I just throw it in the backback.
• No need anymore to bring a number of heavy books on vacation. I have them all in my e-reader. And e-ink screens work great in the sunshine as well (sorry, iPad, on this particular vacation user situation you cannot compete yet.)
• I can buy new books anywhere, even on the beach. Several times I have impulsively bought books after having read the review in a newspaper.
• E-books are cheap. USD 12 for a novel! Great!
• I can continue reading my books on other devices if I prefer, such as my Android phone, iPad or even on my PC.

These days  I am enjoying my summer vacation on the beautiful west coast of Norway.   I bring my e-reader with me everywhere, loaded with great novels I would love to read.

But the books are all in English! I don’t have a single book in my own language, Norwegian, on my e-reader.

In fact I have almost stopped reading books in Norwegian. I find reading books on a device like Kindle so convenient that I rarely bother about getting paper books anymore. And since hardly any books in the Norwegian language are available in digital formats, I have just stopped reading them.

It is a pity, of course. And not what I really want. But convenience tends to win when it comes to digital media habits. I choose among the books that are available rather than put on an extra effort to search for the other alternatives.

Actually everything is ready for Norwegian book publishers to be have their offering available on e-readers. The major book publishers have cooperated in setting up a technical solution at the Norwegian Book Data Base – and it is all fully developed. But so far the publishers have decided not to push the “start” button. The reasons are mainly political, as I understand it: A number of issues need to be sorted out in a tightly regulated small book market. One of them is the question of value-added tax. In Norway paper books are exempt for this tax, while digital versions are charged the full rate of 25 per cent.  That makes it difficult for book publishers to offer e-books at a significant discount.

The result is that I can not read most of the books in my own language on e-readers. And because of that I choose English language books instead. Not really a victory for Norwegian book publishers, I guess.

I realize of course that I may not be a typical customer. So far, that is. I am used to reading in English and perceive myself as rather internationally oriented in my thinking. Also I belong to the small minority in Norway who has actually purchased an e-reader device.

Yet I think this personal example, as well as the speed e-reading now is growing in the USA,  demonstrate the risk publishers take if they avoid making digital versions of their work. As the whole business is turning digital, customers are not just going to wait for you. They will go somewhere else instead. And people like myself may turn out not to be so marginal after all. There is a growing group of highly educated people in Norway who find it almost as easy to read in English as in Norwegian. Many of us also use English regurlarly in our work. And e-readers and tablets like iPad are gaining ground very quickly.

Convenience wins. If you want to be a winner in providing content, you need to be sure that you offer it in whatever way is considered most convenient by your users, be it on Kindle, iPad, iPhone or whatever other device is being preferred. Otherwise your customers, like myself, will make a quality tradeoff: Ideally I prefer Norwegian. Of course I do. But for the time being I don’t mind reading in English. And boy, am I surprised! There are so many great books available in that language! And they are so cheap! I love it!

The changes are radical also from the perspective of authors:

I am actually writing a book in Norwegian myself – about Cambodia. It will most probably be published as a paper book in Norwegian early next year. For the time being it is OK that way as e-reading is still uncommon in my country. But I am pretty sure that for the next book I might decide to write, everything will be different.

For this book I am thinking the paper version first, then whatever digital versions the publishing house might come up with next.

For the next book chances are that I will be thinking digital publishing first – with the paper book as only one of several versions. The role of my publishing house probably have changed – and my guess is that I, as the author, will be more in control. In fact I may not need a traditional publishing house at all, at least not for the whole value chain.

As a writer I look forward to that. Readers should too. There will be more choices, sophisticated and compelling reading experiences, lower prices and great convenience in where, when and how you read your “books”.

Tagged as: Books, digital future, E-readers, iPad, Kindle