Scott Porad

The main tweak I made to this theme when I downloaded it was that I made the main column more narrow than the original designer. Let me explain why.

Have you ever noticed that newspapers and magazines use narrow columns?  There’s a reason for that, and those lessons should be applied when displaying text on the web.

Narrow columns are faster to read because the reader’s eyes don’t have to scan as far back-and-forth, and can rely on peripheral vision to take in words at the beginning and end of the lines.

In addition, narrow columns are easier on the eyes, so the reader can read longer before tiring.  Each time the reader’s eyes perform a “carriage return”–moving from the end of a line and move back to the beginning of the next–they get a little rest.

The net result is text that is both faster to read and easier on the eyes.

P.S.  Tangentially related, when I was trying out the iPhone Kindle recently, one of the thing that made it a real delight to read was that the text is very narrow in on the iPhone.  Notwithstanding the brightness of the screen, I was able to read very quickly for a long time without eye fatigue.I really enjoyed that.

If I buy a book on the Kindle, can I lend it to a friend?  My understanding is that I cannot.  (Well, I could lend my whole Kindle, but not just the book.)

If I were an author, I’m not sure I would like this because it eliminates the viral nature of books.  As an author, or any content creator, there is a lot of value in virality.  To simply have your name “out there” as a meme in the a community, hive or culture has a lot of value–as part of the conversation at a cocktail party, so to speak.

Think of this case: have you ever been lent a book that you enjoyed reading, then suggested to someone else that they read the book?  I have.  In other words, I became an evangelist for the author.  I think this is worth as much, if not more, than few dollars they would have earned from the book.

Or, what about books checked out from the library?

And, second-hand bookstores.  In a pure sense, the author not the seller, should be earning the dollars when a book is resold.  However, Mr. Market factors that loss into the original price of the book.  In other words, pricing has reached an equilibrium taking into account the viral benefits of the secondary market.

There are lots of technical ways Kindle could solve this problem, but let me suggest just one.  It’s not the best solution, but it’s easy: for each Kindle book that I buy and download I get to “share it” with exactly one other person.

From an implementation point of view, the act of “sharing” is simply by giving a unique promo code to a friend.  The code can be used only once and only for a specific book.  Online promo codes are well established, so this shouldn’t be hard.  And, there are many easy ways that they could be shared from device-to-device, by e-mail, etc.

Anyhow, all I’m saying is that there’s a lot of value to viralty.  This about it this way: in a perfect world, content creators would get paid each time their work is used.  However, just because they’re not getting paid cash doesn’t mean they’re not getting value from their work.

I was reconsidering yesterday’s post about the Kindle…you may recall that I wrote it while my local library.  It occurred to me: what does digital media and digital rights mean for public libraries?

Libraries have come to be viewed as an indispensable civic institution, but it hasn’t always been that way.  The first libraries were sort of like clubs: books were expensive and hard to come by, so people who had them would pool them together and share.  As I recall, Benjamin Franklin started the first library in the British Colonies…it was this type of library.

I mentioned this situation on the horizon to my grandmother who is a great lover of books.  She told me that she remembers “lending libraries” when she was growing up (in the teens, twenties and thirties).  They were sort of like a video rental shop–you’d get a book and pay by the day.  “A nickel a day,” she said.

In the future, when all books a digital, how will we check a book out from the library?  What does that mean for our society?  I have no idea, but it’s a fascinating question.

I’ve been considering buying a Kindle for awhile, but have mixed feelings about it.  For one, it’s expensive.  In addition, I like physical books…they make me feel warm and happy.  (In fact, I’m typing this very blog post from a desk at my local public library.)

Nevertheless, I was away last week, so I took the opportunity to download a book to the iPhone Kindle reader and give it a real try.  Honestly, it was surreal…soooooo many thoughts swirled through my head as I read the book.

The first thing was that it felt weird to pay $12.99 for something that effectively cost zero to produce.  Well, I suppose there were a lot of computers involved to produce it, but the marginal cost of each unit is zero (or very, very close to it).

After I thought about it for awhile I realized that how I felt was a reflection of the new relationship I was having with the “book”.  I wasn’t paying $12.99 for the bits that I downloaded from Amazon: I was paying the author for his work!

Think about that.  It’s a fundamental shift in consumer thinking…where we go from buying an object–a book or compact disc–to actually just buying the content.   In the past, I’ve always considered buying media as a function of the cost to produce and deliver it, but that is no longer the case.  My sense (although I have no hard data on this) is that consumer attitudes on this will adapt over time, just like mine did, and we’ll see a reduction in piracy as consumers come to terms with paying for content, not product.

That being said, the Kindle is one model of this new consumption framework–paying a fixed price to the content creator.  Another model that comes to mind is what Radiohead did with In Rainbows: they gave it away for free and said pay what you feel it’s worth.  Both models are more pure than the previous model of buying an object, and there other other models too–like Rhapsody or Netflix.  I couldn’t tell you which is the best, but I’m sure Mr. Market will figure it out.

Anyhow, so many more thoughts on the Kindle…expect another post tomorrow.