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Judging a Book

Guest post by: Jim Stovall

Article Overview: You've heard it said that you can't judge a book by its cover. This has never been more true as the next book you buy may not even have a cover. Several months ago, retail publishers reported that there were more electronic books sold in a month than printed books. This is staggering to consider. One of the publishing experts I really respect, Dan Poynter, put it in perspective, saying, "It took cars 40 years to replace the horse, the CD took just 15 years to replace the vinyl record, but it's taken just four years for the Kindle to overtake printed books on Amazon."

Judging a Book

You've heard it said that you can't judge a book by its cover. This has never been more true as the next book you buy may not even have a cover.

Several months ago, retail publishers reported that there were more electronic books sold in a month than printed books. This is staggering to consider. One of the publishing experts I really respect, Dan Poynter, put it in perspective, saying, "It took cars 40 years to replace the horse, the CD took just 15 years to replace the vinyl record, but it's taken just four years for the Kindle to overtake printed books on Amazon."

As the author of 15 books myself, with millions of books sold and several titles in the pipeline due to come out shortly, I will admit to a bit of discomfort when first confronting the digital book world; however, like most new developments, once you get past the uncomfortable feeling which comes from dealing with things that are not familiar and customary, I began to see many benefits.

There are millions of people with information to convey and messages to deliver who have never been able to have a book published. In the old ink-and-print publishing model, there had to be a reasonable expectation that a title would sell several thousand copies before it would be deemed to be viable. This eliminated a lot of potential authors who deal with important subjects that may not be of universal interest.

Next, there is the hurdle of dealing with distribution, involving shipping books around the world, and making them available in countless formats and languages. The e-book eliminates many of these problems.

Finally, with the exploding amount of rapidly-changing information in our world, it's hard to write a book that is not obsolete before it hits the shelves. E-books allow titles to be more easily updated and stay more relevant and current. This new technology will revolutionize the world of text books. Costs can come down while volumes expand and stay up-to-the-minute with cutting-edge information.

My late, great mentor and friend, Paul Harvey, was fond of saying, "Not everything we call new and improved is either new or improved." Mr. Harvey was speaking of things that are changed simply for the sake of changing them. This is not the case with e-books. They are here to stay. If Paul Harvey were still here among us, he would be approaching a century of life with an e-book grasped firmly in his hands.

As you go through your day today, find ways to engage timely technology in the pursuit of timeless principles.

Today's the day!

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Article Tags: Amazon, Electronic Books, Jim Stovall, Kindle, perspective



Related Forum Posts
Book Promo 101 - comment - Judging by the TOC: what an extremely comprehensive book - and one all authors should definitely have! Congrats!
My reading log - Hi OmnivoreInk, Before starting my business, I read the following books as research: -"The Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki -"The AdSense Code" by Joel Comm -"Don't Think Pink" and "Mind Your X's and Y's" by Lisa Johnson And since then I've continued my "research" by reading (in this order): -"Technical Tennis" by Rod Cross -"For One More Day" by Mitch Albom -"The Twits" by Roald Dahl -"Little Black Book of Connections" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne -"The Profitable Retailer" by Doug Fleener -"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell -"Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" by C.S. Lewis -"Little Green Book of Getting Your Way" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling And I'm currently reading and am in the process of finishing the following: -"There's No Such Thing as Public Speaking" by Jeanette and Roy Henderson -"The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell -"The Book of Tells" by Peter Collett -"Little Red Book of Sales Answers" by Jeffrey Gitomer -"Chocolates on the Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience" by Jonathan M. Tisch -"The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity" by Julia Cameron -"The Inner Game of Tennis" by Timothy Gallwey
Re: Is Google Search getting better or worse? - I haven´t noticed a worsening in Google search either, not in the sense that the search is hindered by the new algorithm. I will quote GT Bulmer though when he says that the results are getting way more personal and refined. Judging how a search engine works, you have to think about the common user, not the web-enthusiast, and the common user doesn´t have much time or knowledge to tweak the SE when he´s looking for something, or he just doesn´t want to - and why should he really?
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: 10 Reasons Who Startups Fail & Book Recommendations - Great post,but please edit the headline. I presume it is "10 Reasons Why Startups Fail & Book Recommendation


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