One would expect that as a former IT Manager I would be the first to embrace new technologies. But I’m not.

When a bank sent me a visa card back in the 1970’s I cut it up and sent it back. I have since embraced the dreaded card, but only as a means of gaining a month’s free credit. I was equally slow adopting the mobile phone. I only gave in when I realised it was a great solution to my problem of keeping in contact with family when I was away writing novels on my boat.  

I use my mobile very little and Vodafone are no doubt dismayed that last week I migrated from a plan to pay-as-you-go. I did this thanks to the recent introduction of number portability which enables the user to change from a plan to pay-as-you-go and retain their old number. Not everyone knows that – possibly because the mobile phone companies are not advertising the fact!

When the suggestion of additionally offering my latest novel Blood Line in E-Book format was raised, I found myself as reluctant as ever to embrace new technologies (but as with the visa card and mobile phone I eventually gave in).

Firstly I wanted to know why the royalties paid to authors for E-Books were so low. The explanation offered was that it was costing the companies establishing E-Portals a great deal of money to set them up, and therefore the authors should accept low royalties. That seems to me a pretty clever way of funding business development. I must try it myself sometime!

But the greatest question facing me was – “What is the point of E-Books anyway?”  Mobile phone operators have spent a fortune (funded by high call rates) attempting to develop that golden application that we will all be surprised we managed to live without for so long. Let’s hope they succeed soon, else we will be faced with high call costs forever.  

Computer software developers have similarly produced a raft of systems which they were convinced we could not live without. Few have taken off. Some have of course, Amazon and Trade-me being good examples.  

Will the E-Book be a golden application or a flop?

I adopted the mobile phone because it solved a problem (public phone boxes are few and far between out in the Hauraki Gulf). But try as I may I can’t think why I personally would want to buy an E-Book.  

I did consider an E-book for my annual flight to the UK.  I have to take my computer and it is always a struggle to keep my hand luggage below the prescribed weight limit. Maybe the multi pocketed coat I wear would be a little lighter (my coat with all my heavy objects secreted in it, has been known to weigh more than my suitcase!). The coat reduces my height a further two inches which means I have difficulty seeing over the top of the check-in desk. (Why are those desks so high? Is it to stop you trying to throttle the check-in clerk when they tell you how much they are going to charge you per kilo for your excess luggage?)

An E-Book would mean one less item to carry (or free up space for more heavy items in my coat pockets). Just as I was becoming wildly excited I realised that my computer battery life is only about an hour and a half. Since, as an impoverished author, I can only afford to travel cattle-class (where power outlets are not provided) an e-book would seem impractical.  

If I were the owner of an E-book Portal company I could of course afford to travel business class and I would get a power outlet. But there again, if I did travelled business class I wouldn’t need to worry about the weight of my hand luggage.  

I once got upgraded to business class (heaven knows how I slipped through the net of screening out undesirable characters). Information displayed at cattle-class check-in advised that hand luggage must weigh less than 7kgs due to the risk of heavy objects falling on passenger’s heads. I noticed that some of the hand luggage being stowed in the business class overhead lockers was heavier than the suitcase I had deposited at check-in. Clearly the term hard-headed businessman is not simply a metaphorical expression.

Next it occurred to me that perhaps I should at least try an e-book. Just as I again became wildly excited I realised that I only ever read novels in bed. When I nod off with a paperback at present (which I always do) the book slips quietly onto the floor and I don’t wake up till morning.  

If I had an E-book, the computer would no doubt crash to the floor and wake me up, which would be an advantage since the light wouldn’t be burning all night as it is at present. However I’d probably need to buy a new computer which would make the E-book an expensive option.

So I am interested to know if anyone has discovered a GOOD reason for purchasing an E-book. If you have, please email me which will also answer my other great techno question. Does anyone actually read Blogs?