Even now you can get a Kindle for what 150 bucks? That is well within the range of most people in the US and the developed world. And really if it is you are probably not buying that many books as it is instead relying on the library which as he says, will still exist.

With e-book prices somewhat less than print version it would not take that long to recoup that cost.

Paperback.

Buy it.

Use it.

Love it.

@1 ... $150 is what it costs for HIV drugs in Africa. For a year.

Fuck the Kindle.

@3 And the price of a paperback could feed a family for a week.

@2, Will is jumping on the paperback bandwagon, a mere EIGHTY YEARS after everybody else.

I have hundreds of paperbacks that are older than you, Will. What an illiterate piece of shit you are. You don't even fucking read (you have never successfully referenced a book of any kind on Slog, despite numerous failed attempts).

@5 lol. I was pimping paperbacks back when APAs were in vogue, before the zine movement hit mainstream, when we sent around tape shares for music APAs.

Now drop your Kindle in the toilet and flush.

@7, you are the biggest piece of shit that ever walked on the earth. FUCK you, Will, FUCK you and your fucking APAs and your fucking bullshit and lies. NOBODY HERE LIKES YOU. NOBODY ANYWHERE LIKES YOU. Nobody is impressed with your bullshit resume of lies and puffery. Nobody believes a word you say. You are an EMBARRASSMENT.

@7: & by "pimping" you mean gum chomping on the infant/toddler board books that match your reading level.

cue vid of Will gnashing down on his i-pad download of the Very Hungry Caterpillar.

My biggest concern is that authors aren't going to be able to earn a living.

Which isn't really a valid concern because the vast majority of authors don't earn a living in the paper model.

So anyway, my biggest concern is that my dreams of writing a book and living like Stephen King are probably ill-founded and I need to actually finish a book first anyway.

So ebooks, yeah, cool, whatever. Is "Bisexual Hermaphrodite Swordsperson" a good name for first book a fantasy epic?

@11, I know. I will burn in hell. It's worth it. Someone has to do it.

I thought the linked article was pretty lame. If a guy (a literary agent, no less) is going to put ten dubious and lame Chicken-Little-style arguments on his blog and then refute them, I want to see some hardcore takedowns. His lame non-refutations actually made me more sympathetic to the arguments he was supposedly debunking, because he didn't address the substance of the fears at all.