OK, so ebooks *are* marketing: that is to say that giving away ebooks sells more books.

[eBook #11757] Language: English Character set encoding: US-ASCII ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VELVETEEN RABBIT*** This eBook is courtesy of the Celebration of Women Writers, online at http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/. THE Velveteen Rabbit

But ebooks *shouldn't* be just about marketing: ebooks are a goal unto themselves.

[eBook #11757] Language: English Character set encoding: US-ASCII ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VELVETEEN RABBIT*** This eBook is courtesy of the Celebration of Women Writers, online at http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/. THE Velveteen Rabbit

4. Ebooks are a better deal for writers.

It was strikingly weird that no one seemed to notice that the idea of ebooks as a "failure" was at strong odds with the notion that electronic book "piracy" was worth worrying about: I mean, if ebooks are a failure, then who gives a rats if intarweb dweebs are trading them on Usenet?

Ebooks are like paper books.