Publishing Evolution

Publishing Evolution #83: Paper to Pixels

Do you prefer paper or pixels? Is getting the material faster on the computer or is reading in a paper form more important to you? Why?

This depends on what I am doing. Normally I do not care if I read pixels or paper. If I am playing a game of D&D with some friends, I have found that paper is better than digital copies of the books. It takes a lot less time to look through a physical book for a rule than a thick digital title. I have patience so it does not matter if I can get it faster as a digital title.

Does price influence how you get your books or is it availability? Would you pay the same price for a digital book as you would for a paper copy?

Price would be a big deciding factor. I prefer to get my books free through the library. The library does not have a good selection of roleplaying books, but I will not get a title if it is to expensive. Some roleplaying titles I will get the PDF of because it is much cheaper than their physical counterparts. And no, I would not pay the same price for the digital copy as I would for the physical copy. This is not logical to me. If I wanted to pay that much, I would get the physical copy.

Do you like the idea of preview and then pay?

Yes. This is a great model and more of the bigger publishers should do this. Most of the self published comic books will allow you to read the first issue or two for free before they start charging for the rest of the series.