~{Shehrina}~

I’m an avid reader of romance novels, particularly in the e-book format. In fact, I can barely stand reading hardback or paperback books anymore. With the rising popularity of e-books, I know I’m not alone.

I love e-books because of the convenience and reader experience. If I’m interested in reading a book, I just have to click a few buttons and voila—a novel is ready to read.  I can search for recommendations online, and as soon as something catches my eye, I can purchase it. If I see a book on sale (I love the 99 cent sales!), I don’t have to waste time (and gas money) driving to a bookstore in order to take advantage of the reduced price. Not only is the purchase of an e-book easier than traditional books, I feel that the user experience is better. With the advent of dedicated e-readers like the Kindle and Nook, tablets like the iPad, and e-book apps for smart phones such as Aldiko, I can read a book absolutely anywhere I want. I don’t have to CARRY a book with me. Nor do I have to decide what book I want to read ahead of time. With e-books, I can have a library of books on my phone, tablet, or e-reader…all just a touch away. I also don’t need to worry about losing my place in the book since most e-book readers allow me to bookmark where I left off. No more losing plastic bookmarks or having to fold the edges of pages to mark my place!

I tend to read my e-books on my laptop. I don’t even have to HOLD the book. I can literally set the laptop on my stomach and click a button every time I want to flip a page. If I want to change positions, I can get on my side and prop the laptop on my bed. With a traditional book, I’d have to hold the book during my reading experience. Since I have a tendency to finish books in one sitting (about 4-5 hours), having to hold a book wouldn’t be comfortable. Also, though I don’t suggest this, reading in the dark is actually plausible with e-books if the device you are reading on has some kind of light. For college students that share a room but want to read late into the night, this is a huge plus!

So now that I’ve finished my spiel on why e-books are so great, what exactly do I want to do with this topic? Well, I’d like to explore the following things:

• Why do people prefer e-books over traditional books and vice versa?
• Is the growth in e-books in a particular genre (romance?) or in all genres?
• What types of consumers (age groups, genders, etc.) are jumping on the e-book bandwagon?
• With e-books, more authors are self-publishing. Is this affecting the quality of books? In other words, is the rise of the e-book leading to a fall in the quality of the work?
• How are authors, publishing houses, and traditional book retailers dealing with this change from paper/hardback to electronic?
• What kind of security concerns result from e-books? I know leaked books and piracy are definitely an issue.
• What are the parallels between the change in the publishing industry and the changes in the music industry? And what does this tell us about the future of the publishing industry?

I feel that this huge shift from traditional to electronic books has a huge impact on customer experience because the change is essentially in how customers EXPERIENCE books. Though change is tough to deal with, many think that this change may actually be good for the publishing industry.

According to an article in the Economist titled “Great Digital Expectations,” publishers don’t believe they will suffer the negative fate of the music and newspaper publishing industries. Since e-books have a high profit margin with none of the inventory management issues of traditional books, publishers may be better off with the change. However, due to the small size of e-books, piracy is a huge concern.

The article also points out that with traditional novels, prices could be set based on physical differences—paperback vs. hardback or new vs. old. However, all e-books are physically the same, leaving the only distinguishable factor to be the story itself. New, self-publishing authors are flooding the market with their super low priced e-books in order to compete with established authors that have the backing of big publishing houses.  This difference in pricing when there is not a physical difference may be tough to swallow so publishing houses and authors may have to work extra hard to make readers see the VALUE in their books. The question is how?

Anyone who knows me knows that I am absolutely addicted to perfumes. I have a growing collection (going on a little over 30 now) of perfumes. Of course buying brand name perfumes can get a bit costly, but I tend to make my purchases online. I never understood why anyone would buy a perfume from the mall when you can get the same perfume online for almost if not more than half the retail price. Of course, that was before I discovered Sephora.

We don’t have a Sephora where I’m from so if you wanted to buy perfume, you would buy it from a department store or one of those perfume carts at the mall. Neither option was very cheap. One day I received a coupon in my inbox for $15 off of a Sephora purchase. Those who know about Sephora know that they very rarely give coupons so I decided to head to a Sephora in Austin (where I go to school) and take advantage of such a rare occasion. I went with a group of friends (of course they just wanted to see the mall in general…I was strictly interested in Sephora).

As soon as I walked into Sephora, cool air carrying the scents of hundreds of perfumes wafted toward me. The spicy scents, the sweet scents, the fresh scents, the musky scents…I felt like I was in heaven. I walked to the wall of perfumes on my right, finding my favorites and spritzing some on the tester sheets. I shared my favorite fragrances with my friends, and they shared theirs with me. I then took one of those fragrance personality tests that Sephora has and smelled all the perfumes recommended for me. As I drifted farther down the wall of perfumes, something else caught my eye. Bare Minerals makeup kits were on sale for $40!

I was surprised that anything besides perfume even caught my eye at Sephora. I had been meaning to get a Bare Minerals make up kit for months now but the price (at $60 was too steep for me). I kept comparing Sephora’s perfume pricing to the pricing I would find online for perfumes, and even with the Sephora coupon, I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much for a small bottle of perfume. However, the Bare Minerals kit would cost me only $25…compared to $60, that’s a steal!

Happy that I had made a purchase decision, I asked a worker at Sephora to test my skin for the right shade. The employee said she would send someone over to test my skin. I waited for 10 minutes and no one came. Since I was still next to that big, enticing wall of perfume, I decided to explore more scents.

Sephora allows you to get 3 samples of perfumes a day. I couldn’t narrow down my choices to 3 so I asked my friends to get some samples for me as well. The employee getting our samples ready became annoyed, even going as far as saying “that’s the last sample for you” to one of my friends (who had only asked for one sample). Normally, I would be annoyed with the crappy customer service. After all, long waits and bad attitudes aren’t the way to win customers. But I was in heaven…who gets mad in heaven?

Eventually my friends got tired of waiting with me and decided to explore other stores at the mall. I continued to smell perfumes. I had to remind an employee that I needed to get my skin tested before someone finally came over to test the make up on me. Having made a decision on the color I wanted, I walked to the register to ring up my purchase. When I got to the register, the makeup showed up as $60. I was alarmed! I told the cashier that that could not be right. He called the manager over who told me that the sale was technically over, but she would give it to me for the sale price. I provided my coupon, charged the makeup on my card, and happily headed out of Sephora—but not before stopping to sniff one more perfume on the display at the front of the store.

So what did this experience tell me about myself? No matter how crappy the service, if I think that I got a good deal, I’ll be happy. In fact, the first thing I did when I left Sephora was call my friend to gloat about the amazing deal I got on Bare Minerals. I also noticed that even though waiting is painful, when I’m surrounded by something I love (perfumes), I don’t mind the wait. I was entertained during what could have been a bad customer experience. I walked out with what I deemed a great price and two or three perfumes to add to my wish list.

Tyler is a 23 year old recent college graduate who has yet to find a job. He has the brains, but is extremely picky. Any job won't do. He knows what he wants and will not settle for anything less.
  
Photo Courtesy of Getty Images

As an advertising major with a focus on the the creative process, Tyler is definitely artistic. Though he understands business, he sees big business and major corporations as corrupt entities that drain the creativity out of advertising. He would rather work somewhere where he will be free to do as he wishes. No conformity for him. If a job doesn’t give him creative leeway, then he wants nothing to do with it. In this economy getting a job is difficult enough. But Tyler doesn’t believe in the saying beggars can’t be choosers. He knows finding the perfect job for him is like finding a needle in a haystack, but he’s willing to go through the entire haystack for that needle. And if finding that needle takes too long, there’s always grad school as a back up plan.

Though Tyler may be patient about his job search, the same cannot be said of his parents. While Tyler looks for the perfect job, he is living at home with his parents. His parents are from a community where being unemployed is seen as failure. They don’t understand why Tyler does not have a job. After all, isn’t everyone supposed to have a job after college?

As Tyler’s parents harangue him about his unemployed status, Tyler becomes frustrated and resentful. Why can’t his parent’s understand that this is his life, and he doesn’t want some boring desk job that will drain the life out of him? It’s not like he WANTS to be unemployed. Most times he’s bored out of his mind, but that is not a reason to settle for less than the best!  However, Tyler is not unreasonable. He knows his parents are more traditional and have certain expectations of him. In order to appease them, Tyler tries to be a more dutiful son, running errand after errand without complaint. After all, his parents are supporting him financially, and it’s the least he can do.

As Tyler continues his search for the perfect job, he fills his days with classic movies and music. He loves playing with design software (since design is what he ultimately wants to do) such as photoshop on his Mac (he denounces everything Windows). Though he doesn’t consider himself a techie, more often then not,Tyler’s friends reach out to him with tech related issues. Having the answers makes Tyler feel useful–a welcome feeling after the boredom that comes with being unemployed.

Though he has technically graduated, Tyler has not completely moved on from college life. He still has no job or finanancial responsbility, and he often visits his college town because most of his friends are still in college.

Tyler is always looking for something new and interesting–whether it’s a new technology, web site, or media. He is an avid user of social media and likes to keep up to date with what is happening in the world. Tyler is very opinionated and likes to critique films, television shows, and pop culture in general. He often acts as an influencer, especially to his friends that are still in college. His friend’s view him as an authority on almost anything he talks about because he’s knowledgeable on so many subjects.

Though Tyler values individuality and creative expression, he can’t stand pointless drama or when people fail to be logical. In his own way, Tyler is a study of balance–the balance between creative thinker and logical thinker, the balance between an undergrad student and post-grad adult,  and the balance between an individualistic boy and dutiful son.