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E-books

edited November 2010 in Writing
Hello everyone, this is my first 'talk'.
So what do we think about E-books? Lots of comments just lately from Amazon, and publishers. Lots of people telling me that they won't replace the book; but they're all over 50! Regardless of statistics, I think its to early to call right now.

Comments

  • I downloaded my very first e-book the other day! Only because I was too impatient to wait to go to the shop/have it delivered. The thing I had to download to read it had a print button which I couldn't use on this particular book (dunno about others).

    I personally would have preferred to print out the e-book, which defies actually having it.

    I think that books will not go out of fashion for an extremely long time yet. As long as writers can still earn a crust, I don't think it matters.
  • Febes, e-books can have DRM on them- Digital Rights Management. This prevents them from being copies or printed out- they can only be read on the computer or e-reader.

    Welcome to Talkback Follzy.
    We have a few threads on e-books and e-readers, so use the search box to find out what was said then. :)
    I've been blogging recently and last month about e-books and the agency model, which is causing all the fuss at the moment. You can read it here: http://carol-bevitt.blogspot.com/2010/11/e-books-and-agency-model-part-2.html

    No they will never replace books...
  • I remember the outset of video was going to sound the death knell of the cimema. Just look at multi-plex to show how wrong they were. Books will always be with us.
  • In the late 19th century some people thought that photography would kill art!
  • Hi Follzy.
    There's room in the world for both, speaking as an over 50 (way over) I am going for Kindle or something like when I get the pennies. I would like that for travelling, staying over somewhere, even lunch when a book is awkward, but the books will be there, at home.
  • edited November 2010
    I got a book today which I also have as an e-book- I got the e-book first. The book will be easier to refer to, but for reading the e-book is better.
  • I agree that both formats will coexist as have many other supposed media killers in the past. As for printing, just convert to PDF in Calibre and print that, only takes a few seconds.
  • Interesting subject - about which, I know diddly-squat! I'm a comparative "Blog Virgin", let alone anything else on-line, so can someone point me (and other forum members, perhaps) in the right direction for a flat explanation of what e-books actually are (beside the obvious, digital text, I mean!) in terms of input/return, profitability, versatility, good/bad/indifferent publishers, etc?

    May seem a tall order, but I'm only just getting into all this on-line malarkey after years in the dark, getting skilled with WP/DTP, etc, with few avenues of output (by choice - practice makes perfect, blahblah). Now I'm getting the hang of things and gradually sorting plots and the like, it'd be nice to look at all the options in hardcopy publishing and digital.

    All decent advice very much appreciated!
  • Hi BL,
    There was a six-page feature in the November issue of Writing Magazine that attempted to go through the basics of ebook publication. The subs team should be able to send a back issue if you'd like one!
    While I'm on... the upcoming January one has something similar about blogs, so perhaps that will be of some interest too.
  • That sounds good Webbo, thanks for telling us. :)

    BLZ the article Webbo mentions will help with some of your questions, but others are open to question. The e-book market is going through changes at the moment.
    I know someone who co-runs a small company- they do produce paperbacks but the majority of the books are produced as e-books- all the formats. He mentioned recently that the e-books were making money while the paperbacks weren't...
  • Thanks muchly for the info, folks - much appreciated!

    Webo, I'll browse the back-issues list & see if I can order a copy (unless you're sending out freebies! :-) Only kidding...)

    Carol, I read bits of your blog on the subject, but I couldn't make sense of much, as I don't have the basic info, so I'll have another go when I've brushed up...

    Thanks again!
  • No problem.
    Once you understand the basics it will start to make more sense.
  • As an E-book owner, mine comes into it's own when we are travelling in our motorhome; space being of a premium. As a writer (?) I don't care which format my works of art take, just being published would be wonderful - oh yes, and getting past the present 'Writer's Block' would help!
  • Good to hear from you again LizG.
    Yes, I too find travelling is when e-books really prove their worth.
  • I followed with interest the articles in Writing Magazine in November 2010 concerning publishing an E-Book. It seemed a good approach to consider after 35 rejections of my first manuscript. At Christmas my wife bought me a Kindle.

    The device enables you to send documents to it via e-mail for free providing you use your wireless link. I sent within days all my four word manuscripts, and was surprised how well they looked on the Kindle. I only needed about an hours work on each manuscript to sort out a few errors. They were mostly associated with page breaks. (At the end of a chapter ensure you make a page break to the next chapter otherwise sometimes you may have a blank page)

    I then published my first book after only a further hour on the Kindle Direct Publishing website.

    So providing your format your book to basic rules in Word its easy to publish an e-book.

    The front page picture and marketing plan are more difficult and need substancial work. But at least you can get you book out at zero cost to friends and family, who can read on a Kindle, a Windows PC, Mac PC, Iphone, IPad, or any Android based cell phone or pad.

    Before I started with the Kindle I read Jules Verne 'Mysterious Island' on the Kindle app on my Samsung Galaxy cell phone, and found it suprisingly easy to read. I doubt I will be reading paper books from now onwards.

    You can find my book 'Virtual Companions' which is Part 1 of my Science Fiction Trilogy 'Pet's Chronicles' at the following link:

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Virtual-Companions-Pets-Chronicles/dp/B004LZ527G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296991640&sr=1-1

    Part's 1 & 2 will follow in April.
  • Well done Stewart.
  • Very well done! My husband is trying to put my published book on Kindle, as he's had one for Christmas, but it's taking ages to get it right, so congratulations for getting yours so quickly.
  • The key to getting the formatting correct is being 100% consistent with the use of tabs, spaces, page breaks etc.

    What I do is upload my book as it is to the Kindle by sending as attachment to my Kindle address. Then check the book and modify until it is correct.
  • Grumpy old bookman's great articles feature digital publishing quite a lot lately and they've inspired me. It's certainly the way to go to get your work published and hopefully successful

    I'm bidding for the Barclay's 'takeonesmallstep' award to set up a business handling all this techie stuff, including setting up social media sites for writers.

    Tony
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