The More Important Reason Electronic Books Will Be Great
September, 2010
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!