What could reignite the Rise of eBooks?

eBooks, when the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook first started taking off, in 2008 and 2009, were growing very fast

Within a few years they had captured 20% to 30% of the market

However, in the decade since then, in 2010 to 2019, eBooks have hardly grown

1. They have been stuck at roughly 30% market share
2. What is worrying is that it has been An Entire Decade
3. ebooks have not increased their share of the market, despite the massive increase in phones and mobile devices

What could reignite the Rise of eBooks?

Things that would reignite the Rise of eBooks

1. An eBook First Store
   1. If there were an ebook store that would focus solely on ebooks
   2. Which did not have any incentive to protect paper book sales
   3. If this store were able to capture market share
   4. If this store were able to focus on what readers are asking for (ebooks below $5, ebooks at $0.99, free ebooks)
   5. Then we might see the market share of ebooks start growing again
2. An Author Cooperative
   1. Most self published authors are happy to give readers cheap and free ebooks
   2. The book stores make it hard
   3. If an author cooperative could be built, then it would be able to connect authors with readers
   4. This would allow readers to get what they want (cheap and free ebooks)
   5. This would allow authors to get what they want (reach readers, sell to readers, not have to pay a high toll/tax to ebook stores)
3. Anti Trust Action against ebookstores and/or Publishers
   1. In most markets, due to the way Anti Trust precedent and rules are set, large companies can do anything
      1. They can easily say that predatory pricing to kill competitors is a benefit to end customers, and therefore not anti trust
   2. In ebooks, it becomes very interesting. If ebook stores try to hide low priced books
      1. Then they are forcing readers to buy higher priced ebooks instead
      2. This is reducing consumer choice
      3. eBooks become the one area where the large companies are obviously breaking anti trust laws as they are in the US (i.e. you can do absolutely anything as long as the customer doesn’t have to pay more)
   3. While there is unlikely to be any action, the environment is changing and the large technology companies are under scrutiny
      1. In a market like ebooks, where the ebook stores are hiding $0.99 ebooks and $0 ebooks, Anti Trust can come into play
      2. Again, it is unlikely that anything will happen. However, the conditions are present for the unlikely possibility of anti trust action
4. The Rise of some Discovery Mechanism or Company which bypasses the store and connects readers with authors
   1. The interesting thing about ebooks is that there are no more gatekeepers and no more gates
   2. All the ‘gatekeeping’ now is IMAGINARY
   3. If a Books Discovery Mechanism or a Company were to arise, which bypasses the ebook stores, then readers and authors could transact with each other directly and easily

In some ways, it is amazing that for one decade both authors and readers have been tricked into thinking they can’t connect with each other

You cannot fool all of the people all of the time

Because authors are not tech savvy, they have fallen for this Imaginary New Gatekeeping. Sooner or later they will realise they are in a prison of their own making