Debates: VERSUS?
The authors are lovers of the written word, reading many books and owning personal book collections — printed and digital — numbering in the thousands. Between them, they have access to at least 12 different e-reading devices, plus the usual number of current and recently retired laptops. Through exposure to consumer data collected by BISG (with comparable data from Library Journal and elsewhere), they have developed an appreciation for the dilemmas now facing publishers. The EVP issue is not a simple pro and con matter; it is nuanced and difficult. Nevertheless, the following is an attempt to speak for the two "sides."
John Parsons (john@intuideas.com), former Editorial Director of The Seybold Report, is an independent writer, ghostwriter, and editor. He is the co-author of the interactive printed textbook, Introduction to Graphic Communication, on the art, science and business of print, which has been adopted by Ryerson, Arizona State, the University of Houston, and many other schools and vocational training centers. Custom editions of the book are under consideration by major printing companies and franchises for internal training purposes.