What would it take...?

[Grack21]

Also, I'm old school. I love books. I love the joy of holding a book and the intimacy of turning pages. I want at least one part of my life free from technology, batteries and the like. I often am in front of a computer all day, the last thing I want is to be in front of a screen again for my recreation (even with all the advances in e-ink and such).

Sir, you have won Grack21's coveted Person of the Month award.

[kcf]

Sir, you have won Grack21's coveted Person of the Month award.

it's an honor....I think

[Grack21]

it's an honor....I think

Nah, its just a cookie. (30 Rock refernce there).

I agree though. I love the feel of a book in my hands. If they make Kindles that feel like paper, maybe I'll get one.

[Joe Abercrombie]

Even if you didn't bother with a print edition and released solely electronically, you still need a publisher - or at least some person or set of persons fulfilling the same roles - you still need publicity, marketing, editing, design, artwork, accounting, managed relationships with retailers and international publishers and etc. etc. The more successful you are, the more of this stuff you need.

Of course you could try and do some or all of this stuff yourself but why? The chances are you'll never be as good at it as specialised professionals, and in general, as a writer, your time is best spent writing.

People can be very successful at self-publishing, and the internet has certainly made that a more realistic proposition, but it's noticeable that many of the most successful end up making deals with traditional publishers.

[jdiddyesquire]

Even if you didn't bother with a print edition and released solely electronically, you still need a publisher - or at least some person or set of persons fulfilling the same roles - you still need publicity, marketing, editing, design, artwork, accounting, managed relationships with retailers and international publishers and etc. etc. The more successful you are, the more of this stuff you need.

Of course you could try and do some or all of this stuff yourself but why? The chances are you'll never be as good at it as specialised professionals, and in general, as a writer, your time is best spent writing.

People can be very successful at self-publishing, and the internet has certainly made that a more realistic proposition, but it's noticeable that many of the most successful end up making deals with traditional publishers.

That's pretty much what I figured.

I just find it interesting that the eMarket is an elephant in the room that no one seems to really be all that thrilled about in the industry. It's more like an annoyance that they have to deal with as opposed to something that's being embraced. I'm obviously not an insider so maybe I'm way off.

Orbit and Angry Robot seem to be the most progressive of the bunch.

[jdiddyesquire]

Nah, its just a cookie. (30 Rock refernce there).

I agree though. I love the feel of a book in my hands. If they make Kindles that feel like paper, maybe I'll get one.

The real problem is if I have a real book my daughter (18 months old) takes it and starts paging through it and "reading" it. She ignores my Kindle. :read:

[Astra]

I love the feel of a book in my hands. If they make Kindles that feel like paper, maybe I'll get one.

They made one.

Sony Reader PRS-650 ;)

[Spring Bass]

I love e-books, and e-reading. Perhaps e-readers are less durable and more expensive to replace (although considering the way that the Kindle price-point is dropping, that may not be the case for long), but they also don't take up large volumes of space. I've got 50-60 titles on my Kindle (and "Kindle for PC" application), which would take up half a wall's worth of space on a shelf.

Moreover, I can mark and highlight passages in my e-books without feeling like I've desecrated the work, like I do when I have to mark a physical copy (and delete those highlights later on if I choose). I can leave extensive notes here and there (and Kindle for PC is particularly good for this), as opposed to trying to squeeze them into the margins by the print. I can mark specific passages so I can return to them later for references (I've been thinking about buying the e-books for ASOIAF specifically for that purpose, even though I own physical copies of the books).

Amazon and the Kindle are the only e-reader with the particularly annoying restriction on what can be read on it (they still can't use ePub, IIRC), although that may be changing with their project with Overdrive (which handles e-books for a lot of libraries, including my local county branch). Most other e-readers can run a range of formats, which also means that you can borrow e-books from your library if they have them.

[Nukelavee]

If GRRM went E-book only...it's not I wouldn't read it, it's that I couldn't read it. I don't own anything like a Kindle, and likely never will.

It goes beyond just my love of physical books, and Bard's battery issues.

I too would be enraged if my battery died while i recovered from chili night, and I'd also miss cover art badly.

Next - What happens when formats change? A book is a book, but what do you do with your literature when your e-reader has become a roomie with 8-tracks?

Just try and break a physical book and render it unreadable - durability rules.

Now, on the "fuck publishers, writers gonna do it our own selfs!", Peter Watts, for one, has gone down that road at least once. His third Rifters (dear God, nearly called it the Rimmer series) book is available fro free as a pdf, because his publisher pissed him off over how they planned on releasing it.

Thomas Harlan has, as well, with his sci-fi series that includes House of Reeds. The third book sounds like it was stuck in Limbo...so, on the web it went.

[Spring Bass]

What type of E-Reader are we talking about here? If my Kindle dies, I can re-download my e-books free onto a new Kindle off my Amazon account.

As for formats, most E-Readers can handle a variety of formats, including the most popular free one, ePub. Kindle and Amazon are the unfortunate exception to that, although they may be headed towards accepting it with the deal they've got worked out with Overdrive.

I only care about cover art for a handful of books. Most cover art sucks, and always has.

[jdiddyesquire]

What type of E-Reader are we talking about here? If my Kindle dies, I can re-download my e-books free onto a new Kindle off my Amazon account.

As for formats, most E-Readers can handle a variety of formats, including the most popular free one, ePub. Kindle and Amazon are the unfortunate exception to that, although they may be headed towards accepting it with the deal they've got worked out with Overdrive.

I only care about cover art for a handful of books. Most cover art sucks, and always has.

Ya, there's a bit of misconception about Kindle. I've put all kinds of formats on mine. I get the frustration with DRM, but I fully expect that to get cleaned up in the years ahead (see when iTunes un-DRMed their stuff).

[Nukelavee]

My point is more the fact that books don't break, and aren't vunerable to any of the things digital storage is.

Sure, for one point of view, the permanence of a book is a drawback, i guess (storage).

From the other point of view, the permanent nature of a book is the plus.

[Athelstane]

I view E-readers the same way I view Ipods (or any other mp3 player). They are a mighty convenience, and I recently gave in and got a 160 gig Ipod (I had over 600 CDs before then). I love my Ipod, but the idea of it being stolen or lost always looms over me. I guard my Ipod like I would guard a gold brick. Not just because of the price ($250), but because of the music on it. I have two bookselves full of books, quite a bit of which are out of print or otherwise hard to find. I can't imagine what I would do if I spent all that money to fill my e-reader, and suddenly lost it or it was stolen. :(

On the other hand, I think E-readers are great for magazines, newspapers, and textbooks. I think that e-readers are inevitable for these mediums, especially textsbooks (as soon as the textbook industry is finally broken, talk about a corrupt industry...). Imagine the money schools would save if all textbooks and reading material were on e-readers, and each student got one. Even at $100 a piece, over a four-year school stay, that would equal hundreds of dollars of saving for each student.

BUUUUT, for private use? Nah. Like someone else said, what if you want to lend something to a friend, but you're still reading something yourself? Not gonna happen. Not to mention they're relatively expensive (so far, who knows in the future).

I personally think e-reading will flourish as part of the Tablet movement, but standalone e-readers (just like standalone GPS devices) will soon become obsolete.

As for authors who could hold their own in e-publishing without physical publishing, someone like Stephen King probably could. He's pretty much the most well known author of our times, and if he released something as "e-reader" only, I guarantee it would become a bestseller.

As I stated earlier, I have quite a few books that I love for their antiquity as much as their words. I have a book written by Einstein about quantum mechanics, a bible from the 1850s, a book from the 1920s about Kaspar Hauser, as well as countless pulp fiction books that I would never part with. I guess Im a bit of a bibliophile. Something about the printed format is somewhat timeless and magical to me. To think that books, in basically the same format, have been around for thousands of years, fills me with a sense of wonder and awe. To get rid of that timeless format in exchange for technology would be akin to giving up our own human spirit.

Finally, the idea of authors feeling shafted because they don't get anything off of resales is stupid. Same for musicians. Once you sell a book or Cd or anything else, you give up rights to that specific copy. Scholars throughout history traded and sold books to each other without a thought of paying the original author. This idea of payment for resale has only been brought up during modern capitalistic time. Should we send some money to a manufacturer anytime we resell a T.V., or car, or washer and dryer through a yard sale? Why the hell would anyone do the same for books or any other media. Intellectual rights are a load of shit. You are buying the physical item, not the ideas within it.

[Joe Abercrombie]

As for authors who could hold their own in e-publishing without physical publishing, someone like Stephen King probably could. He's pretty much the most well known author of our times, and if he released something as "e-reader" only, I guarantee it would become a bestseller.

Didn't he try something along those lines a while back - one of those schemes where people would pay him for instalments released on the web, and it didn't really work out? I could be wrong. Certainly Tad Williams tried it with Shadowmarch and couldn't really get folks to pay for it, so it went back to traditional publishing. For me, if you have access to traditional publishing, it's hard to see what advantage you really gain by choosing to go it alone.

Finally, the idea of authors feeling shafted because they don't get anything off of resales is stupid.

I would agree, but I don't think I've ever heard any author express that opinion.

[Eponine]

It reminds me that authors really get so little from each copy of their book sold. Many work on upfront contracts and some get money upfront and then a piece of what sells. It's a pretty inexact science both for publishers (who have to give money upfront for an unwritten manuscript) and authors (who may not be getting anything close to the actual value of their work).

I would definitely join something like Netflix for e-readers. Pay a monthly fee to be able to temporarily check out a large selection of ebooks.

Although, I guess if libraries start having more ebooks, that would fulfill the same purpose - but at least right now, most library selections are crap, and libraries also usually have a small crappy DVD selection as well.

[nickg]

I'm not totally against eBooks. I have read a few on my phone, and tried out my brothers kindle, but I MUCH prefer a book in my hands. That will never change. Sure, they take up more space, but I love the sight of my bookshelves crammed full of books. Hell, even my wife stopped complaining about them.

[SkynJay]

I can't imagine what I would do if I spent all that money to fill my e-reader, and suddenly lost it or it was stolen. :(

One thing I have asked around about, and at least on Kindle, the book rights are not just physically stored on the device itself, but through Amazon. If you lost the reader, you still have the books through your account.

That said, I still do not own an e-reader either. Though i would like too some day, I have said before, I want the E-rights to be packaged with the book itself, even if it means a bit more cash up front.

[The faceless others]

The only thing I like about ereaders is their accessibility for the blind. Braille books are too bulky, and a lot of titles I like are still not brailled, which is most of the times frustrating.

[cseresz]

I have a bad feeling about this.

[The Fan]

I think the true path will be something of a hybrid, a book is "published", and the eReader crowd can download it, the tree-killers book-in-hand crowd can utilize a print and bind kiosk service, and (brace yourself) once you own that book right, the bookies can download it to an eReader if they choose, and the techies can go print out a copy to hike through the mud with (what have you).

Although, if the financial incentive is one cent cheaper to stay the same than it is to innovate.... hello stone age! <_<

ETA: don't get all pissy, its a joke...