-Caveat Lector- >From http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=nwhpm&guid=% 7B191C0232%2D746E%2D438A%2DB160%2D92412147FABC%7D
E-books for eggheads Politics, business texts attract online readers By Kristen Gerencher, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 12:01 AM ET Aug. 9, 2002 SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Patrons of e-book library site Questia.com apparently don't understand the concept of light summer reading. As the largest online archive for consumers, the Houston-based company offers 70,000 online books and journals - but you won't find Danielle Steel or John Grisham among its authors. All but 5 percent of its titles are nonfiction, patronized by a largely collegiate audience for a $19.95 monthly fee. Questia's users absorb such weighty topics as world politics and spiritual enlightenment. A Cold War text and an erudite exploration of business ethics were among its 20 most popular perusals last month as measured by page views and unique users, Chief Executive Troy Williams said. "Current events are playing a major role in what students are reading and researching now," Williams said. "It shows students are writing about topics they read about in the newspaper or hear about on TV." Growing demand While the market for electronic books is struggling to gain a foothold, Questia and Ebrary.com, which licenses e-books to universities and offers some content free on the Web, are among those making the greatest headway. The sites tout the benefit of convenience, saying that unlike physical libraries, e-books are available at any hour and are never missing or checked out. Much of the e-reading revolution has been episodic and relegated to experiments such as Stephen King's electronic-only book release last year. But there's growing demand for longer online periodicals and more credible content on the Web, Ebrary co-founder and Chief Executive Christopher Warnock said. "One of biggest problems with the Internet is that authoritative sources aren't accessible," he said. "When you go to Google, most people don't realize they're not searching through books." Some publishers are reluctant to tamper with the idea of releasing their products into cyberspace, especially where fiction is concerned, Williams said. When it comes to novels, readers still prefer toting dog-eared pages and curling up with the real thing. "People are used to reading on their screens the more serious type of books," he said. "When you get to something that's pure leisure or relaxation, they tend to want a physical book." Cyber-based texts can cut down on the heft factor for mobile booklovers, Warnock said. "E- books make sense if you're traveling and you're a voracious reader who wants to bring 20 books. You can have all of Shakespeare's works as individual e-books." Literature is an area where the Web can deliver on its promise, Williams said. "It really is leveraging the power of the Internet to enable students and others to have better access to the books they want to read." And that comes at a price. Questia negotiated rights with 240 publishers to get its service off the ground in early 2001, he said. "It's an exciting new revenue stream for publishers. We pay royalties as long as the book is copyrighted." Copyrights last for the life of the author plus seventy years, Williams said. "Most (e-books) are copyrighted until 2050 or beyond -- a pretty long annuity." At Ebrary.com, where a fifth of the site's 10,000 offerings are business and economics texts, consumers pay to copy pages, Warnock said. They also can link through to Barnes and Noble (BKS: news, chart, profile) and Amazon (AMZN: news, chart, profile) to make a purchase. Questia's Top 20 The following titles are the most popular e-books on Questia for July, the first month the company surveyed reader tastes. The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, by Ronald E. Powaski. Oxford University Press, 1998. A Better Way to Think about Business: How Personal Integrity Leads to Corporate Success, by Robert C. Solomon. Oxford University Press, 1999. The Other Half: Wives of Alcoholics and Their Social-Psychological Situation, by Jacqueline P. Wiseman. A. de Gruyter, 1991. The Ethics of Abortion: Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice, by Robert M. Baird, editor. Prometheus Books, 1993. Dictionary of Religion and Philosophy, by Geddes MacGregor. Paragon House, 1989. Capital Punishment in the United States: A Documentary History, by Bryan Vila, editor. Greenwood Press, 1997. Corporate Corruption: The Abuse of Power, by Marshall B. Clinard. Praeger Publishers, 1990. Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction, by Damien Keown. Oxford University Press, 1996. Democracy: A Short, Analytical History, by Roland N. Stromberg. M.E. Sharpe, 1996. We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History, by John Lewis Gaddis. Oxford University Press, 1997. The Abortion Controversy: A Documentary History, by Eva R. Rubin, editor. Praeger Publishers, 1998. Becoming Alcoholic: Alcoholics Anonymous and the Reality of Alcoholism, by David R. Rudy. Southern Illinois University Press, 1986. Corporate Misconduct: The Legal, Societal, and Management Issues, by Margaret P. Spencer, editor. Quorum Books, 1995. The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction, by Walter Laqueur. Oxford University Press, 1999. Ethics Through Corporate Strategy, by Daniel R. Gilbert Jr. Oxford University Press, 1996. Islam: An Introduction, by Annemarie Schimmel. State University of New York Press, 1992. Personality, by David C. McClelland. Sloane, 1951. Against Capital Punishment: The Anti-Death Penalty Movement in America, by Herbert H. Haines. Oxford University Press, 1996. Women and the Koran: The Status of Women in Islam, by Anwar Hekmat. Prometheus Books, 1997. Drug and Alcohol Abuse: The Authoritative Guide for Parents, Teachers, and Counselors, by H. Thomas Milhorn, Jr. Perseus Publishing, 1994. Kristen Gerencher is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco. © 1997-2002 MarketWatch.com, Inc. All rights reserved. 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