EBOOKS WINNING THE BATTLE?

[Parris Afton Bonds]

Is it any wonder E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey ebook is outselling the hard copy six to one?  The ebook revolution, of course, plays a huge part, but it's also just quite possible we don't want the rest of the world to judge us by the cover of the book we're reading,

[Joyce S Sherr]

So True!! There was a recent article in the book section of the Wall Street Journal expressing just those sentiments...one of the advantages of an ebook is no obvious cover.

Aside from that, the notoriety Fifty Shades of Grey has received is overwhelming. Check out my blog, Joyce's Choices for a very on target review of Fifty Shades of Grey by a guest reviewer, believe it or not a male reader. Most of the readers are women, even though it's a definite step backwards in women's lib.

You can catch the review on Http://www.jssherr.blogspot.com

It's very revealing! (Like the book!!)

[Parris Afton Bonds]

Thank you, Joyce ~ and I most defintely will check out your blogspot for this titlating title (love alliteration). 8-)

 

[Joyce S Sherr]

Do you have  blog or website?

[Parris Afton Bonds]

Yes, Joyce, it's parrisaftonbonds.com.  BTW, I checked out your blog site and, truly, was very, very impressed with its wide range of subject ~ and, I confess, I enjoyed both Fifty Shades of Grey and the review on your blogsite posted by a male, no less.  Well done!

 

[Joyce S Sherr]

Parris...I had no idea what an accomplished and prolific author you are.. And thank you for checking out my blog...

[DrDLN]

eBooks are the future and these are going to stay. How long print will last, I don't know....lol

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"We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly": http://amzn.to/dMBLWW

[Parris Afton Bonds]

I have a televised engagement to speak to a city library, and, in talking with its director, I realized just how culture changing the ebooks are.  He told me that libraries are scrambling to make it tecky easy for readers to download books rather than check out hard copies.  The hard copy book is vanishing as, according to him, the DVD's already are.  People download to their computers/ipads/kindles/nooks/ipods, etc.  Will even the edifice of a library exist in a decade from now?

[Grace]

There's a big problem with e-books and libraries though because publishers charge libraries a lot more for them and place a lot of restrictions on how many times they can be loaned before libraries have to buy a new one.  They end up being significantly more expensive for libraries to collect than paper books and they don't last as long.

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Books Without Any Pictures

[Parris Afton Bonds]

Really?  I didn't know that, Grace.  Very interesting.  I'll ask the director of the library where I'll be speaking how his library plans to address this problem.  Thanks so much for letting me know another side to this issue.

[mjhangge]

I believe ebooks are the future.  I still personally love the feel of the pages in my hands and the smell of the paper, but I tend to be old school.  My (ex) agent in NY, told me that the ebook industry is really making an impact upon the publishing world and causing them to struggle.  In turn, it is harder for new authors to get picked up by agents or publishers to take a chance on a new writer.  As far as E.L. James's book - my wife just downloaded it ebook version.  It wasn't that she was worried about judgement but she loves the instant access to books.  

mjHangge

[Parris Afton Bonds]

mj,thank you for presenting a male view on Fifty Shades of Grey's spectacular succcess.  Another reason to download, if Ihave read correctly, is that it is has sold out in hard copy at a lot of book stores, and, of course, with ebooks, one doesn't have to worry about that problem.

As  per the publishing industry scrambling to survive, I believe, like everything in life, there are the upsides and the downsides.  For the writer, is is much easier to make one's work available to the general public, where as before the publishing houses could only concentrate on a selected few ~ not always the best material available.  However, the marketing/promo side is a huge, almost insurmountable challenge for the writer; to easy to get lost in cyberspace.  As a published author of thirty-five hard copy novels and one ebook, I am seeing both sides of the coin here and, alas, don't have a solution.

[Chris Stevenson]

Oh, Lord. Isn't this the truth. My e-book version of  Planet Janitor has sold hundreds of copies, while the beautiful lithograph, wrap-around hardback sold 4 copies in a year. Trade paperbacks are taking a very hard hit at the moment, also. Personally, I can't predict the trends, but every time I turn around and read an article or blog post, e-books continue to gain ground, with no let-up in sight. Yet.

I'm eating bags of popcorn and watching this trend unfold. It's history.

chris