After thirteen years of doing this e-book poll, something interesting seems to be happening. Have we leveled off into a stalemate?
With the usual caveats that this is an unscientific poll, the results are below. And wouldn’t you know it: e-books stayed on top. Barely. Like… it’s very close.
Here’s a graph of the results, with the pro-e-bookers in blue and the paper people in red:
There was a period of e-book optimism in the early aughts that seems to have died down, though e-books still have retained a slight edge.
Did a wave of techno-optimism pass? Did we all get tired of our screens and decide to go back to paper? Did publishers switching to the agency model and raising e-book prices in the early aughts change the value prop? Are we becoming creatures of habits? All of the above?
Anecdotally, it tracks my experience. I have friends who swear by paper and I have friends who swear by e-books, but I don’t know anyone who has switched over to e-books or gone back to paper books in quite a while.
What do you make of the results?
Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!
For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book.
And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!
Obviously, those dang stink bugs are finally slowing down their home invasions and stopping the switch over to digital. I was about equal in paper and ebooks read until the stink bugs began to attack me while I was reading under a light. Strafing my face, landing in my hair, thumping the lampshade like bullets, they drove me crazy, every night. I went totally ebooks so I wouldn’t need the light, and I reached the point of not wanting to read paper with its tiny print and pages filled with allergens. I have gone so far as to buy an ebook version of a paper book a friend gave me and insists I read. The only paper I do buy are presents. So, blame it on the stink bugs.