Comments on: My Own ePublishing Rant http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/ A mutual support group for SF/F Novelists Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:10:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Timothy http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-8073 Timothy Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:12:24 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-8073 I realize that I am so very late to this conversation, but I have to say that for me everything that Mr. Piziks stated in his post has turned out to be spot on. I just say this for those who may stumble across this interesting discussion as I did. The point Mr. Piziks makes about the e-reader being free before the customer will by the e-book describes me to a tee. To prove this I write this post on 2/19/2010 eight months shy of two years after Mr. Piziks original post and I have to admit I just bought my first e-book yesterday. Something I steadfastly resisted for several years. Ironically, my first and only purchase was Mr. Piziks’ books (writing as Steven Harper) The Silent Empire series. And to tell the truth I hold very little interest in buying many more books. That’s because as some have stated, including Mr. Piziks, I find reading from a computer screen unappealing. I just don’t like it. That’s it in a nutshell. You may not agree with me, you may think I am out of touch, old fashion, take you pick or come up with your own I don’t care: I Do Not Care For It. I only purchased the books because Amazon finally released a Kindle App designed specifically for my Blackberry phone. An app they gave it away for free had they not done so, I would still be firmly in the ‘I am not interested’ category. I am sure that Amazon only did this because they realized that there was a market out there that they could not tap simply because those customers, customers like me, who refused to pay an exurbanite price for one more electronic item to carry around. If the whole idea is convenience, then why do we need so many different electronic devices to carry around? That has always been my contention thanks Amazon for finally seeing it my way. Oh, I have to say the whole I have no space for my books is a copout. You get rid of the books you don’t want, keep the books you do, you gain the extra space for the new books you want to buy. I realize that hindsight is 20/20, but come on if Amazon would have been just relying on those you who were looking for extra shelf space the Kindle would have never taken off. And as for convenience, that is and always will be relative. What you find convenient to carry around will always differ from your neighbor, when break that argument down to the individual it never hold up, so just give it up. So for those of you who doubted Mr. Piziks' assertion that people would be more likely to purchase e-books if the Kindle were free and/or able to read on their phone, here I am, the man who has waited for (how long has it been since the Kindle hit the market, I can’t remember) two years plus, as living confirmation and proof. Yes, proof that there are people out there who think in practical terms. Yes, living confirmation that there are people who are not fooled by the "you have to get in on the ground floor" mentality. Roland you should pay close attention even you can be wrong. I realize that I am so very late to this conversation, but I have to say that for me everything that Mr. Piziks stated in his post has turned out to be spot on. I just say this for those who may stumble across this interesting discussion as I did.

The point Mr. Piziks makes about the e-reader being free before the customer will by the e-book describes me to a tee. To prove this I write this post on 2/19/2010 eight months shy of two years after Mr. Piziks original post and I have to admit I just bought my first e-book yesterday. Something I steadfastly resisted for several years. Ironically, my first and only purchase was Mr. Piziks’ books (writing as Steven Harper) The Silent Empire series. And to tell the truth I hold very little interest in buying many more books. That’s because as some have stated, including Mr. Piziks, I find reading from a computer screen unappealing. I just don’t like it. That’s it in a nutshell. You may not agree with me, you may think I am out of touch, old fashion, take you pick or come up with your own I don’t care: I Do Not Care For It.

I only purchased the books because Amazon finally released a Kindle App designed specifically for my Blackberry phone. An app they gave it away for free had they not done so, I would still be firmly in the ‘I am not interested’ category. I am sure that Amazon only did this because they realized that there was a market out there that they could not tap simply because those customers, customers like me, who refused to pay an exurbanite price for one more electronic item to carry around. If the whole idea is convenience, then why do we need so many different electronic devices to carry around? That has always been my contention thanks Amazon for finally seeing it my way.

Oh, I have to say the whole I have no space for my books is a copout. You get rid of the books you don’t want, keep the books you do, you gain the extra space for the new books you want to buy. I realize that hindsight is 20/20, but come on if Amazon would have been just relying on those you who were looking for extra shelf space the Kindle would have never taken off. And as for convenience, that is and always will be relative. What you find convenient to carry around will always differ from your neighbor, when break that argument down to the individual it never hold up, so just give it up.

So for those of you who doubted Mr. Piziks’ assertion that people would be more likely to purchase e-books if the Kindle were free and/or able to read on their phone, here I am, the man who has waited for (how long has it been since the Kindle hit the market, I can’t remember) two years plus, as living confirmation and proof. Yes, proof that there are people out there who think in practical terms. Yes, living confirmation that there are people who are not fooled by the “you have to get in on the ground floor” mentality. Roland you should pay close attention even you can be wrong.

]]> By: Kelly McCullough http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3760 Kelly McCullough Sun, 05 Oct 2008 03:10:02 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3760 Roland, this bit: <i>Amazon pay authors whose works are available via the Kindle 30% royalties - and that’s 30% of the *retail price set by the author/publisher, even if Amazon decide to discount the book*.</i> might be correct for some authors who have work out via the Kindle. It is not true for all books released on the Kindle. For anyone who has a prior contract with their publisher for electronic editions the royalties will be paid based on whatever percentage of the price of the book the published and author have agreed to for eformat books. For example, my book, CodeSpell, (Penguin/Ace) is out in Kindle edition and the numbers you sited are incorrect for my contract. In that particular part of your response, you are simply flat wrong. That said, I think the ebook is here now and only getting better. Roland, this bit:

Amazon pay authors whose works are available via the Kindle 30% royalties - and that’s 30% of the *retail price set by the author/publisher, even if Amazon decide to discount the book*.

might be correct for some authors who have work out via the Kindle. It is not true for all books released on the Kindle. For anyone who has a prior contract with their publisher for electronic editions the royalties will be paid based on whatever percentage of the price of the book the published and author have agreed to for eformat books. For example, my book, CodeSpell, (Penguin/Ace) is out in Kindle edition and the numbers you sited are incorrect for my contract. In that particular part of your response, you are simply flat wrong. That said, I think the ebook is here now and only getting better.

]]> By: Lisa L http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3745 Lisa L Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:22:03 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3745 Okay, I'll chime in and say that I'm one of those readers who has avoided ebooks for many of the reasons that Steven has listed. If an ereader was cheap, I'd give it a try, but right now it's just to costly a gadget for me to want to risk it being tossed aside. Like the way I used my palm pilot for a month and never touched it again. What a waste. Eventually something came out - the iphone - that made it worth my while to get a PDA again. So I imagine someday my ideal ereader will come out, but a really cheap one that uses eInk would get me into the e-book market a lot sooner and then maybe I'd buy up to a fancier reader. (And yes, I could read on my iphone - I even installed an ereader, but the screen is a bit too small for my comfort.) Okay, I’ll chime in and say that I’m one of those readers who has avoided ebooks for many of the reasons that Steven has listed. If an ereader was cheap, I’d give it a try, but right now it’s just to costly a gadget for me to want to risk it being tossed aside. Like the way I used my palm pilot for a month and never touched it again. What a waste. Eventually something came out - the iphone - that made it worth my while to get a PDA again. So I imagine someday my ideal ereader will come out, but a really cheap one that uses eInk would get me into the e-book market a lot sooner and then maybe I’d buy up to a fancier reader.

(And yes, I could read on my iphone - I even installed an ereader, but the screen is a bit too small for my comfort.)

]]> By: RfP http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3732 RfP Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:12:34 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3732 "Even better would be to make sure every Blackberry or iPhone had a killer e-book app. on it. People are trying to condense the number of electronic devices that they have to carry around" Ben, you make a good point; the e-publishers should work to make e-reading easy on smartphones of all types. However, most people still have phones that are primarily for voice use, and many avid readers are wedded to something approximately book-like. So greater usage of e-reader devices is important alongside iPhone and Blackberry applications. "I don’t like reading on a computer screen, never did and never will. ... so giving away Kindle for free, wouldn’t work with my kind of people, would it?" Liv, the Kindle and the Sony Reader are not backlit "screens" like your computer. They use eInk technology that looks like paper. That's why getting more eInk readers into consumers' hands could make a big difference to widespread adoption. It's done the trick in my case. I despise reading on either a backlit computer screen or a small iPhone screen, but once I tried the Sony Reader, e-books suddenly made sense to me. “Even better would be to make sure every Blackberry or iPhone had a killer e-book app. on it. People are trying to condense the number of electronic devices that they have to carry around”

Ben, you make a good point; the e-publishers should work to make e-reading easy on smartphones of all types. However, most people still have phones that are primarily for voice use, and many avid readers are wedded to something approximately book-like. So greater usage of e-reader devices is important alongside iPhone and Blackberry applications.

“I don’t like reading on a computer screen, never did and never will. … so giving away Kindle for free, wouldn’t work with my kind of people, would it?”

Liv, the Kindle and the Sony Reader are not backlit “screens” like your computer. They use eInk technology that looks like paper. That’s why getting more eInk readers into consumers’ hands could make a big difference to widespread adoption.

It’s done the trick in my case. I despise reading on either a backlit computer screen or a small iPhone screen, but once I tried the Sony Reader, e-books suddenly made sense to me.

]]> By: Gary Gibson http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3731 Gary Gibson Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:30:56 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3731 Just a quick addition - I'm not sure if I was clear enough in my comment; I mean to say that the list above is of books that the authors have made available online as free ebooks, often in a multitude of formats. Just a quick addition - I’m not sure if I was clear enough in my comment; I mean to say that the list above is of books that the authors have made available online as free ebooks, often in a multitude of formats.

]]> By: Gary Gibson http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3730 Gary Gibson Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:44:29 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3730 I am temporarily relocated to the Far East from Europe, and although I wish to keep reading, I do not wish to lug a couple of tons of paper books home to the UK when the time comes. Partly motivated by this, and partly by my desire for shiny new toys, and even more by the difficulty of obtaining english-language works in Taiwan without suffering the penalty of high postage costs, I purchased a cheap Sony Reader 500 from Ebay. It's wonderful. It's wrong to call it a screen - it is better to think of it as a 'sheet of e-ink'. 'Screen' puts across the wrong idea. In terms of economics, the argument in favour of a free device collapses in view of the sheer quantity of legally freely available works currently out there in order to promote the authors concerned, and I have certainly discovered some new favourites. On my ereader just now, I have: 4 Cory Doctorow titles 4 Peter Watts titles, Dogland by Will Shetterly, Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones, Ant King by Ben Rosenbaum, Geek mafia by R. Dakan, Postsingularity by R. Rucker, Content by Cory Doctorow, Neptune Crossing by J. Carver, Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright, Accelerando by C. Stross, Black & White by L. Shiner, Eifelheim by M. Flynn, Move Underground by N. Mamatas, Halo by T. Maddox, Burn by JP Kelly, Soul by Tobsha Learner, Flash by LE Modesitt, The Baum Plan by J. Kessel, Deadstock by J. Thomas, City of Pearl by K. Traviss, Crystal Rain by T. Buckell, Grey by J. Armstrong, Four & Twenty Blackbirds by C. Priest, Farthing by J. Walton, 2 titles by K. Schroeder, Old Man's War by J. Scalzi, Monsters & Other Monsters by M McHugh, Metrophage, by R. kadrey, and Painkillers by S. Ings. And these really are just a few - slightly under forty, altogether. All previously or concurrently published by major publishing houses and a few well-respected indies. There are quite a lot more out there I could name if I took the trouble to source them, but these are only the ones that happen to currently be on my machine. Your argument that the problem with an ebook reader should be free is partially correct, partially wrong, and has in fact already taken place. The device is not free - but if one wishes, a very great deal of the content is. I'm neither a fast or slow reader, but to work my way through the amount of legally free texts that pique my interest would take me between one and two years. The cost of purchasing these works in paper format, even discounting postage & purchased back home in Britain, would most certainly exceed that of the device itself. And that's not even counting the stuff that's out of copyright and available via Gutenberg etc. Hence, the motivation you suggest would necessary in order to buy such a device is, in fact, already present, albeit in a slightly altered form: the device is not free, but a great deal of the content most certainly is. I am temporarily relocated to the Far East from Europe, and although I wish to keep reading, I do not wish to lug a couple of tons of paper books home to the UK when the time comes. Partly motivated by this, and partly by my desire for shiny new toys, and even more by the difficulty of obtaining english-language works in Taiwan without suffering the penalty of high postage costs, I purchased a cheap Sony Reader 500 from Ebay. It’s wonderful. It’s wrong to call it a screen - it is better to think of it as a ’sheet of e-ink’. ‘Screen’ puts across the wrong idea.

In terms of economics, the argument in favour of a free device collapses in view of the sheer quantity of legally freely available works currently out there in order to promote the authors concerned, and I have certainly discovered some new favourites. On my ereader just now, I have:

4 Cory Doctorow titles
4 Peter Watts titles,
Dogland by Will Shetterly,
Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones,
Ant King by Ben Rosenbaum,
Geek mafia by R. Dakan,
Postsingularity by R. Rucker,
Content by Cory Doctorow,
Neptune Crossing by J. Carver,
Orphans of Chaos by John C. Wright,
Accelerando by C. Stross,
Black & White by L. Shiner,
Eifelheim by M. Flynn,
Move Underground by N. Mamatas,
Halo by T. Maddox,
Burn by JP Kelly,
Soul by Tobsha Learner,
Flash by LE Modesitt,
The Baum Plan by J. Kessel,
Deadstock by J. Thomas,
City of Pearl by K. Traviss,
Crystal Rain by T. Buckell,
Grey by J. Armstrong,
Four & Twenty Blackbirds by C. Priest,
Farthing by J. Walton,
2 titles by K. Schroeder,
Old Man’s War by J. Scalzi,
Monsters & Other Monsters by M McHugh,
Metrophage, by R. kadrey,
and Painkillers by S. Ings.

And these really are just a few - slightly under forty, altogether. All previously or concurrently published by major publishing houses and a few well-respected indies. There are quite a lot more out there I could name if I took the trouble to source them, but these are only the ones that happen to currently be on my machine.

Your argument that the problem with an ebook reader should be free is partially correct, partially wrong, and has in fact already taken place. The device is not free - but if one wishes, a very great deal of the content is. I’m neither a fast or slow reader, but to work my way through the amount of legally free texts that pique my interest would take me between one and two years. The cost of purchasing these works in paper format, even discounting postage & purchased back home in Britain, would most certainly exceed that of the device itself. And that’s not even counting the stuff that’s out of copyright and available via Gutenberg etc. Hence, the motivation you suggest would necessary in order to buy such a device is, in fact, already present, albeit in a slightly altered form: the device is not free, but a great deal of the content most certainly is.

]]> By: Robotech_Master http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3729 Robotech_Master Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:00:02 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3729 Another point (which I brought up in the pingback post as well, but don't know how many people actually click through to read those): The cellphone companies can afford to give cellphones away because they're so cheap anyway. Most giveaway phones are only $50-$100, or else they knock the equivalent amount off of more expensive phone. Why? Because they know that they can make it back in just a year or so of service. But they haven't been able to get an e-book reader of any quality much below the $300 mark yet. It would take an awful lot of $10 e-book sales to make back what such a giveaway would cost—especially since there are enough free e-books out there that one could read for the rest of his life without ever having to buy a book. When e-book readers dip below $100 is when you'll start to see them really take off, giveaway or no—because more people will be able to afford to buy them for themselves. Another point (which I brought up in the pingback post as well, but don’t know how many people actually click through to read those):

The cellphone companies can afford to give cellphones away because they’re so cheap anyway. Most giveaway phones are only $50-$100, or else they knock the equivalent amount off of more expensive phone. Why? Because they know that they can make it back in just a year or so of service.

But they haven’t been able to get an e-book reader of any quality much below the $300 mark yet. It would take an awful lot of $10 e-book sales to make back what such a giveaway would cost—especially since there are enough free e-books out there that one could read for the rest of his life without ever having to buy a book.

When e-book readers dip below $100 is when you’ll start to see them really take off, giveaway or no—because more people will be able to afford to buy them for themselves.

]]> By: Arachne Jericho http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3728 Arachne Jericho Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:32:18 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3728 Skip: And the iTunes store could have died a stricken death. Mind you, it would have taken Apple down with it. To me, Kindle is iPod in more ways than one, although Amazon itself wouldn't tank right now if the Kindle store died. Although that wouldn't, really wouldn't, look good. It may just be me, but Kindle/Kindle store and iPod/iTunes parallel too closely. DRM sites only shut down when they <i>don't win</i>. Which is why the iTunes store is still around on mostly DRM; Amazon MP3 downloads is trying to kill it, but DRM is just three letters to lots of folks. It might be the case that the Kindle store loses, but watching the fight between iTunes and Amazon MP3 (and now Video Downloads) is interesting. Also: Google mobi2mobi. You'll also find the MobileRead forums interesting if you haven't found them already (I assume you have). I'm fondest of Feedbooks for the public domain that's definitely public domain (after 1923/before 1970 copyright law starts to get nasty in the US and internationally). Not just because their eBook formatting is wonderful with real chapter jumps and suchlike, but they support a wide variety of formats and have extensive author information in every book (along with links to get more of that author's books). Their formatting is on par or even better than the ones from the Penguin/Dover eBook collections. Their <i>Little Brother</i> edition is also better than the "official" one on Cory's site. Right now the works of Shakespeare are being put on Feedbooks. Also, Feedbooks has a web app that creates special files that let you download blog updates to your reader, Kindle or not. How cool is *that*? And all free, too. Pete: I kind of reserve my hate for Borders and Wal*mart. Actually, Borders will kill itself before it damages publishing overmuch, although they've already managed to hurt the mid-list. Wal*mart has never been about variety, and yet its market is probably bigger than Amazon's. Amazon continues to sell mid-list stuff. Since most writers, if they're lucky, will mid-list, um... you know... it's nice to have a venue that will always sell your stuff because it helps them and has never hurt them. (Physical bookstores, on the other hand, almost always get hurt when a book doesn't have great sell-through. Thus the dynamic of returns becomes an issue... and this is all part of the reason why Borders is being run into the ground by a maniac at the moment.) Skip: And the iTunes store could have died a stricken death. Mind you, it would have taken Apple down with it. To me, Kindle is iPod in more ways than one, although Amazon itself wouldn’t tank right now if the Kindle store died. Although that wouldn’t, really wouldn’t, look good.

It may just be me, but Kindle/Kindle store and iPod/iTunes parallel too closely. DRM sites only shut down when they don’t win. Which is why the iTunes store is still around on mostly DRM; Amazon MP3 downloads is trying to kill it, but DRM is just three letters to lots of folks.

It might be the case that the Kindle store loses, but watching the fight between iTunes and Amazon MP3 (and now Video Downloads) is interesting.

Also: Google mobi2mobi. You’ll also find the MobileRead forums interesting if you haven’t found them already (I assume you have).

I’m fondest of Feedbooks for the public domain that’s definitely public domain (after 1923/before 1970 copyright law starts to get nasty in the US and internationally). Not just because their eBook formatting is wonderful with real chapter jumps and suchlike, but they support a wide variety of formats and have extensive author information in every book (along with links to get more of that author’s books). Their formatting is on par or even better than the ones from the Penguin/Dover eBook collections. Their Little Brother edition is also better than the “official” one on Cory’s site.

Right now the works of Shakespeare are being put on Feedbooks.

Also, Feedbooks has a web app that creates special files that let you download blog updates to your reader, Kindle or not. How cool is *that*? And all free, too.

Pete: I kind of reserve my hate for Borders and Wal*mart. Actually, Borders will kill itself before it damages publishing overmuch, although they’ve already managed to hurt the mid-list. Wal*mart has never been about variety, and yet its market is probably bigger than Amazon’s.

Amazon continues to sell mid-list stuff. Since most writers, if they’re lucky, will mid-list, um… you know… it’s nice to have a venue that will always sell your stuff because it helps them and has never hurt them. (Physical bookstores, on the other hand, almost always get hurt when a book doesn’t have great sell-through. Thus the dynamic of returns becomes an issue… and this is all part of the reason why Borders is being run into the ground by a maniac at the moment.)

]]> By: Zora http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3727 Zora Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:48:32 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3727 I've been reading ebooks for seven years, with a cheap (under $100) monochrome Sony Clie PDA. Comfy? You bet. I can hold it in one hand and turn pages with the scroll wheel. I use the tiniest font available and take off my glasses. I'm nearsighted, so holding the screen a few inches from my nose works fine. It's got backlighting, so I can read at night without turning on the light. Lie down on the bed, curl up with the PDA, and enjoy. If I fall asleep, my Clie turns itself off. If my part-time secretarial job holds steady for a while longer, I'll probably be upgrading to a Palm J22 PDA, which several friends have recommended. Under $100. I can carry dozens of books with me. I have thousands of books on my computer, filed neatly in my elibrary. When I want to read something, I just browse in my library, then transfer my picks to my PDA. The vast majority of my ebooks were FREE. Want the complete works of Dickens? Sure, download them for free from Manybooks.net. But wait, there's more! I enjoy reading Victorian novels. Many of the books I'd like to read (Charlotte Yonge, anyone?) are out of print. I can get them for free, online. (I should perhaps add that I also make the free ebooks; I volunteer at Distributed Proofreaders. As of this morning, we've published 13,620 free ebooks. Some of them early SF. Greg Weeks is overseeing a project to turn the entire 1930 run of Astounding Stories into ebooks.) I also buy ebooks. Not often, because I'm poor, but when I can. I just spent $19.95 for a copy of Anathem, Neal Stephenson's latest, from Fictionwise. Instant gratification and a book that I can read without risking wrist strain. It doesn't take up any space and it doesn't have to be dusted. I'll be happy when I can get rid of all but a few of the thousands of dead tree books cluttering my apartment, keeping only the books that are best read in paper (sewing and crafts books, frex) or that are old and rare (my 1816 copy of A Guide to True Peace). I was a lone weird outlier in 2001 and I'm getting less weird by the minute. I’ve been reading ebooks for seven years, with a cheap (under $100) monochrome Sony Clie PDA. Comfy? You bet. I can hold it in one hand and turn pages with the scroll wheel. I use the tiniest font available and take off my glasses. I’m nearsighted, so holding the screen a few inches from my nose works fine. It’s got backlighting, so I can read at night without turning on the light. Lie down on the bed, curl up with the PDA, and enjoy. If I fall asleep, my Clie turns itself off.

If my part-time secretarial job holds steady for a while longer, I’ll probably be upgrading to a Palm J22 PDA, which several friends have recommended. Under $100.

I can carry dozens of books with me. I have thousands of books on my computer, filed neatly in my elibrary. When I want to read something, I just browse in my library, then transfer my picks to my PDA.

The vast majority of my ebooks were FREE. Want the complete works of Dickens? Sure, download them for free from Manybooks.net. But wait, there’s more! I enjoy reading Victorian novels. Many of the books I’d like to read (Charlotte Yonge, anyone?) are out of print. I can get them for free, online.

(I should perhaps add that I also make the free ebooks; I volunteer at Distributed Proofreaders. As of this morning, we’ve published 13,620 free ebooks. Some of them early SF. Greg Weeks is overseeing a project to turn the entire 1930 run of Astounding Stories into ebooks.)

I also buy ebooks. Not often, because I’m poor, but when I can. I just spent $19.95 for a copy of Anathem, Neal Stephenson’s latest, from Fictionwise. Instant gratification and a book that I can read without risking wrist strain. It doesn’t take up any space and it doesn’t have to be dusted.

I’ll be happy when I can get rid of all but a few of the thousands of dead tree books cluttering my apartment, keeping only the books that are best read in paper (sewing and crafts books, frex) or that are old and rare (my 1816 copy of A Guide to True Peace).

I was a lone weird outlier in 2001 and I’m getting less weird by the minute.

]]> By: Alma Alexander http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3726 Alma Alexander Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:08:50 +0000 http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/#comment-3726 I freely admit I am behind the times. Part of this is simply economics coupled with personal criteria that haven't yet been met - the kind of e-reader that would make it worthwhile for me to exchange reading a, yanno, BOOK instead of text scrolling down a screen just hasn't been invented yet. Yes, Kindle is cool - but there are things about it I just do not like, it's still expensive and limited, and frankly I do my WORK at a computer screen and when I relax I like to do it holding a real book rather than squint at another screen and exacerbate my incipient carpal tunnel fiddling with more buttons. That said, some of my own books are available as e-books - not all, but some - and since my royalty statements reflect the fact that they are being purchased and read in this format it is something I cannot ignore in terms of market share. Given that it's only a subset of my books that are so available, though, it is still my hope that someone who trips over these books in electronic form might be nudged into buying the rest of them in dead-tree format when they discover that the e-format may be unavailable. Either way, though, the publisher holds the rights to the e-books currently, in ALL cases, and it's out of my hands, period - it's a decision made by the editors and the marketers and the beancounters in my publishing house. If it brings in new readers, that's cool. If not, well, uh, yeah. There's still the books out there. But honestly. Speaking for myself, I just haven't graduated to reading for PLEASURE on a computer screen. Because I work at one, it feels too much like work. I'd probably start editing someone else's prose by sheer damned instinct - I mean, it's on-screen, so it can't be finiished and PUBLISHED, now, can it...? [grin] I freely admit I am behind the times. Part of this is simply economics coupled with personal criteria that haven’t yet been met - the kind of e-reader that would make it worthwhile for me to exchange reading a, yanno, BOOK instead of text scrolling down a screen just hasn’t been invented yet. Yes, Kindle is cool - but there are things about it I just do not like, it’s still expensive and limited, and frankly I do my WORK at a computer screen and when I relax I like to do it holding a real book rather than squint at another screen and exacerbate my incipient carpal tunnel fiddling with more buttons.

That said, some of my own books are available as e-books - not all, but some - and since my royalty statements reflect the fact that they are being purchased and read in this format it is something I cannot ignore in terms of market share. Given that it’s only a subset of my books that are so available, though, it is still my hope that someone who trips over these books in electronic form might be nudged into buying the rest of them in dead-tree format when they discover that the e-format may be unavailable. Either way, though, the publisher holds the rights to the e-books currently, in ALL cases, and it’s out of my hands, period - it’s a decision made by the editors and the marketers and the beancounters in my publishing house. If it brings in new readers, that’s cool. If not, well, uh, yeah. There’s still the books out there.

But honestly. Speaking for myself, I just haven’t graduated to reading for PLEASURE on a computer screen. Because I work at one, it feels too much like work. I’d probably start editing someone else’s prose by sheer damned instinct - I mean, it’s on-screen, so it can’t be finiished and PUBLISHED, now, can it…? [grin]

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