June 13th, 2010 
Brad McGraw 
Currently there are a number of formats for e-books and a number of e-book readers, some of which have proprietary e-book formats. The problem with this is that while one of your favourite authors may be read on one reader, not all of your favorites will be available on that reader. This is extremely frustrating as it completely defeats the purpose of being able to have one small device hold the books you want to read. Back when I could afford to buy a reader I looked at which one would best suit my purposes and which authors I could read with them. Which did I buy? None of them. Too many authors spread out among the readers would mean I would have to spend nearly $1,000 just the readers alone. Add the cost of putting my large library of books on them and it just wasn’t worth it. How many other people have come to the same conclusion I have?
I’ve been saying for awhile now that there needs to be one format and that the readers can compete as electronics has always competed. Stereos, cassette players, CD players, MP3 players, all centre around one format and its the pluses and minuses of the electronics that sell the players. This benefits the artists so that their music can be heard no matter the player you are using. This is not the case with e-books. Publishers have to decide which reader best suits them, which one gives them the best revenue back, who has the biggest store to push their authors, etc… None of this actually helps the authors, nor does it help the consumer.
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