Are ebooks our friend or foe?
Tags: ebooks,news,publishing

I have been able to check out and use several Kindles from a local library. I didn't think I would, but I love the Kindle. It is not perfect, the buttons are in terrible positions, but carrying 2000 books with me at one time is great. Having a book electronically shipped to me is even better.

Electronic books should allow us to "publish" more. However, enabling everyone to publish will make it harder for consumers to sift through all the content to find the good stuff. In the end will ebooks and electronic publishing help or hurt authors?

Very interesting question, I have wondered that myself. I kind of think of it just like with the internet and searching, it is still a pain to find what you were really looking for. I think tools will develop to help us to find it, but left unchecked there will still be way too much out there that will overwhelm us. People would get frustrated trying to find a good book that it might lesson their desire to read. I know even now the thing that keeps me from reading more is not wanting to take the time to try and find something I would enjoy. I have a hard time stopping a book in the middle even if it isn't enjoyable. When I finish though, it upsets me that I read a book I didn't enjoy and it sours me to the whole experience.

I'm with sylon. I don't think electronic publication and e-book can do any harm to an author, but I do think it will diminish the quality of good books to choose from in comparison to the mountains of self published rejections. I wonder if the internet can really be regulated enough to overcome the frustrations readers will have to endure in an internet library.

I know this is off topic, but I'm thinking there should be more books available to be put on ipods or something. I looked around a bit at one point, but found that all the readers' voices infuriated me and basically ruined the book for me.

At one point I was going to get a kindle, but I thought it would annoy me, i prefer being able to physically own a book.

Regarding ebooks vs regular books, either one is a tool. There's no good or bad about either, really. It's like asking people "Do you use E-mail or the telephone?" The majority of people will probably say "Both. Why?" That's a bit of a bad metaphor, but oh well.

Regarding audio-e-books, there was actually a lawsuit against Kindle because they forced publishing companies to provide audio editions for any book that they wanted on Kindle. While that's a great idea from an accessibility standpoint, since it means blind people will still be able to enjoy them, it's a nightmare from a contracting view. Authors sign very specific contracts, and if it's going to be turned into an audio version that's an extra thing that would have had to be in that contract. With many books, this wasn't considered, so it's not in the contract, so companies have to hunt down each author, negotiate with them, possibly pay them more, etcetera. This is the same reason many books aren't available online. It would be a provision that wasn't even comprehensible until about 10 or 15 years ago.

Regarding ebooks vs regular books, either one is a tool. There's no good or bad about either, really. It's like asking people "Do you use E-mail or the telephone?" The majority of people will probably say "Both. Why?" That's a bit of a bad metaphor, but oh well.

Regarding audio-e-books, there was actually a lawsuit against Kindle because they forced publishing companies to provide audio editions for any book that they wanted on Kindle. While that's a great idea from an accessibility standpoint, since it means blind people will still be able to enjoy them, it's a nightmare from a contracting view. Authors sign very specific contracts, and if it's going to be turned into an audio version that's an extra thing that would have had to be in that contract. With many books, this wasn't considered, so it's not in the contract, so companies have to hunt down each author, negotiate with them, possibly pay them more, etcetera. This is the same reason many books aren't available online. It would be a provision that wasn't even comprehensible until about 10 or 15 years ago.

If you can create some buzz online it sure is easier to distribute ebooks than paper books. Of course without DRM people can redistribute your work easily too. I don't think Amazon has been able to do for books what iTunes did for music, but hopefully someday soon it will.

I agree with thestripedone. Ebook and physical book are just the same. For us author it's just the matter of our work being read by people regardless of how they can receive or buy it.