Advantages and disadvantages of the e-book publishing market

[Kathy Maxwell]

In this age of e-book publishing, more and more authors are able to publish their books.  This has advantages and disadvantages to the author and to their readers.  Let's talk about what they are!

[kjforce]

Spelling evidently is overlooked in the English language..I have seem many educated people that don't know how to spell or for that matter understand the usuage of the word...for instance..we redid the post out of steal..(steel)

I want to come to ( too-meaning also)...they went round and round ( instead of around) you get the drift..all of these people graduated with honors from the best schools..I worked with a physician years ago , his spelling was horrid and his penmanship was so bad he could not read his own charts notes..pretty bad when you think someones life is a steak ( stake) get it ? so perhaps phonics doesn't work quite as well as the education system thinks..anyway just sharing a thought...weedbbychoice..

[kjforce]

oops..that's "someones life is at steak...see I hit the button to soon...shame on me..I,m bad..

[Louise Wise]

I think the problem is that it's too easy to publish. Anything goes. It might divide the writing world even more with eReaders being the "pound shop" against Marks and Spencers hard copy books.

 

[Laurawrites.net]

I adore it. My first book was published in 2001, as an ebook only, and I had over 50,000 downloads in about 2 years. Doesn't seem like a lot today, but that was an ebook and many years ago, long before Kindles, Nooks, or any real popularity. It isn't for every author, but to coin a phrase, it suits me to a "T."

 

I've had 2 published via the traditional print route since then and haven't even came close to those numbers. I started independently publishing ebooks this year, and again, have nothing bad to say about it. It's awesome. I should've been doing this last year or the year before.

 

The publishing scene in NY is broken, companies are cutting and consolidating. Material is chosen more based on how the individual likes you based upon how you word your query, rather than what your work actually holds. I still get books, from the major houses today, and wonder if anyone in the company even read it prior to its release. 

 

Epublishing is paper-free and there's no such thing as "out-of-print." If the major companies hadn't tried so hard, for so long, to villify ebooks and the authors who do publish electronically, they could've harnassed this new venue for publication and used it wisely. Instead, most held out until it was reflecting negatively on them, then tried to charge $10-$15 for a single ebook, and wondered why it just didn't work. Most of those closed, not because of a lack of demand, but because of their prices. You could easily get a paperback for the same price.

 

There's always going to be low quality authors in epublishing and in print. Medium holds no promise. There will always be badly written books. Epublishing allows readers to decide what work has worth, not the editor, not the agent, but the reader. I think that's the most important individual to any author.

[K.L. Little]

With the current print on demand technology I see no reason why an author couldn't offer both e-books as well as hard copies.

[C.V. Smith]

Hi Laura,

How does a new author get 50,000 people to even know about your book?  I recently published my ebook with Amazon and Barnes & Noble and have only gotten a few sales.  How did you get the word out?

Thanks, Cindy

[Laurawrites.net]

The publisher at the time was retired so she devoted hours, it must've been 12 to 14 (at least IMHO) a day, to getting the word out on her company. She also had an incredibly tough editor so every work was pretty close to impeccable once they were finished with it. Add to that all of us authors there were fairly aggressive promoters so the combined efforts really paid off. It makes all the difference when you have a group like that. My book was only the second most popular with them while they were going, too. Sadly, I can't recall the name of the most read author there, she was a romance author and her book far surpassed mine in popularity.

 

No, no other books of mine have done that since although I still promote the same. It really makes a difference when you have a group behind you and everyone is promoting. 

[Laurawrites.net]

I can see that point, to a point.

 

However, books will never stop being printed on physical paper, so there is no worry there. I mean ever. Ebooks in no way have replaced (or had any intention of replacing) physical books in 2001 (that was actually a common belief then, all books were going to be ebooks, etc.) and do not today. They just provide another medium, that's all. Television was a far greater threat to the book, that a book in any other form, but printed books have survived and continue being popular today. If an ebook is any kind of threat to the printed book, audio books would be, as well. They've been out far longer. I'm just elated people are reading.

 

Look at Google's book project. Millions of books, long out-of-print, long gathering dust and rotting in the nether regions of bookshelves at libraries worldwide are accessible globally. Thanks to the ebook technology, we can all have copies of them. We can have our own copies of those ancient books that would likely cost you hundreds (if not thousands or tens of thousands) of dollars to purchase copies of in print. I have on my computer a book published in the Fifteenth Century in Europe. I could never buy that, if print copies did exist and were available for purchase. As a reader, I am in love with the idea that books are no longer decaying and deteriorating or just forgotten. That authors from the Nineteenth Century are as accessible and available as James Patterson or Kay Hooper.

 

Paper is here to stay and, even if you could create a "paperless" world, paper books will always survive, as they always have. If anything, the advent of POD technology has really reinforced the paper book industry and that is a field that's just starting up, too.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[kjforce]

Have any of you ever viewed a sci-fi movie regarding the future..I'm talking over forty years ago ?

I remember the lifestyle was that of the biblical days, people spent  half the day looking for food and the other half trying to prevent anyone from stealing it..anyway..one scene an old man was talking to a man in his 20's about the talking books(discs).

which could have been CD's ( they didn't have them 40 years ago they had  vinyl records or 8 track tapes) anyway the young man had never seen a book, nor had the old man..remember he was speaking of talking discs. I cannot remember the name of the movie,but know one had ever seen a book, and from what they said "only the wealthy ever even saw let alone owned a book"..by the way I did a survey last year regarding people who actually use their computers..you would be amazed at how many people don't even own one..so my thoughts are books will always be around, as long as we keep writing.Look at the Bibles...that's a pretty old book eh?  justa thought..kjforce

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

 

I don't think I've sen that movie, but it reminds me of an Asimov short story. Nobody in the future knew how to read, because nobody had to. They all used "talking books."

[Faisal Aleem]

I am with printed books reader, but it is also true that e-book publishing is easy rather than print edition

[Komal Mansoor]

I am totally new to the idea of e-books. I am the kind of person who likes to lay on a couch and comfortably read n enjoy the book in print. But, now when I see here that many authors r publishing e-books, it makes me want to read one n see whats the difference, and will i get used to of reading in formats on gadgets. For me, its too early to judge which one is better.