Suzanne Stephens writes:
>> Well, it looks like it is not an isolated phenomenon:
>
>>> "We took an enormous gamble when we put all of our content on the
>>> Web for free," <snip: And for years we've known a safe, proven way
>>> to make money off that content placing it between covers and
>>> selling it as books.">>
>>> But the results are now in, and they seem definitive: The cow's
>>> got nothing to worry about. Every year since Rough Guides launched
>>> its site, book sales have increased at least 20 percent.
>
> This doesn't surprise me much, even though it's counter-intuitive. Ever
> since I began putting Rose Morningstar's book Walk in Kindness online a
> year or so ago, I've received a steady stream of inquiries about buying a
> print copy of the book. Rose and I put the info out on the Web because we
It doesn't surprise me, and it isn't counter-intuitive when you
remember that reading from computer screens is about 25% slower than
reading from paper, not to mention more wearing on the eyes. Check
out Jakob Nielsen's Usability Alert Box website (www.alertbox.com).
Putting the text on the site lets people get a chance to look at it
and decide if they really want it, but unless you're charging some
absurd amount, it's almost always more practical to buy the book for
full reading.
Printing the book out is possible, but printouts don't fulfill a
lot of the needs that the book form factor fulfills. It's amazing how
much the little issues of size, binding, paper weight, etc, matter.
Steven J. Owens
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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