E-Books- Will they replace books?

[ray gower]

A comment that EmilyH made in another thread made me wonder.

Will Electronic Books ever manage to replace printed works?

I have read a couple, but with the exception of the one I tried on a Jornada, I've always found it easier to print them. The same as I do with fan-fiction on the Internet.

Then there is the question of who do you pay and how. Especially when one can find a lot of good fiction free and the price, as has been observed elsewhere, does not equal quality or value.

 

[Wingless Flyer]

Personally I prefer to hold and read a printed book, I can't really read long texts on a monitor and printed sheets don't look so good on a book shelf

 

[EmilyH]

A lot of new authors, especially in genres like sci-fi, are turning to e-books since most mainstream publishers will still only publish writers who have agents, and even then you've only got a small chance of getting in.

I tried e-book software this weekend on one of my original (non fan-fic) short stories. It's relatively inexpensive. The software I got was $30 to register. It's also very simple to learn. But you're right, when anyone can use the technology, the quality of output can vary greatly.

It's like fan fiction. Anyone can write a fanfic, but it takes talent to write a good one. There are many talented fanfic authors as well as bad ones, just as there are published authors. I've seen a lot of drek in the bookstore.

For those who like printed books, e-books take a regular html or text file and just compress it into a reader similar to Adobe Acrobat. So you can print the pages if you choose to & put them into a binder. However, you're right, it's not quite the same and will never be. But it may be the best chance some people have of getting their writing distributed.

 

[Tabitha]

Originally posted by Wingless Flyer
Personally I prefer to hold and read a printed book, I can't really read long texts on a monitor and printed sheets don't look so good on a book shelf

That sums up exactly how I feel. I think it might be easier to deal with if we went the route of Star Trek, and had books on our PDAs. For all I know this is already happening, but I can't afford a PDA yet!

My eyes get strained staring at a screen for a long time, I suppose there would need to be some kind of advances in presentation to make them easier to read.

I doubt if they will really ever fully replace paper books, at least for a very long time. I read an article recently that described the advent of the 'paperless office' as an illusion - that people tended to print out their emails and faxes rather than keep the information on their computers. leading to offices that are actually more paper-heavy than we might expect. I imagine that if I ever did get an e-book I would probably print it out, making it a much harder format to read than a novel.

 

[ray gower]

The problem with displaying books on the screen is you can never really get comfortable. I like to lounge back, pipe and glass on the side table, and emerse myself in what I am reading. I don't think I will ever do that with a computer monitor.

PDA's are a little better. Depending upon what one is using and what format the book is on. For some reason PDF's never feel comfortable on a Psion. Whilst (I spit on the name) Microsoft eBookReader is actually quite neat, with all its referencing and display options.

Sadly PDA's still do not like the bath

If you want to try the PC version, they are giving it away here:- http://www.microsoft.com/catalog/display.asp?subid=22&site=11171&x=29&y=14
Whilst create your own software is available from here: http://www.overdrive.com/readerworks/downloads/default.asp?Download=RWSTAN

 

[Bayleaf48]

I prefer reading them in a book rather than on the computer screen myself as you can sit comfortably & most important of all be able 2 read any where!

:blush:

 

[Krystal]

Well, personally I agree with the ones that prefer to have the book and read it. I have read some E-books, I think its great for new authors to show their talent and are great for famous authors to give people a first look at some of their new work. I personally will prefer always to buy the book and read it on the comfort of my home. Or as Bayleaf48 says in any place I have to wait "doctors office, airports, airplanes, etc."


Krystal

 

[EmilyH]

Paper books are nice, but for a lot of new authors, e-books are the only option for getting published because:

1. You generally have to find an agent to be published except for poetry & very short fics in magazines,
2. You have to pay the agent lots of $$$ to even read your work,
3. You're darn lucky if you don't get a letter of rejection from the publisher after the agent has finally gotten them to consider it.

Publishers also limit the number of new authors they will publish, and so everyone who might be the next Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or J.R.R. Tolkien doesn't stand a whole lot of chance except on the Internet.

Unless publishers change their ways to be more accepting of new authors, I really think the Internet is going to be the only way new books will get published in the future. Maybe not next year, but in 10 or 20 years, perhaps.

 

[Bayleaf48]

Bu then again like it has been pointed out, the internet is the best way 2 be able 2 read books by new authors

:blush:

 

[ray gower]

I take Emily's point about e-books being the only way a new author can get started on their own.

But I think the ease with which e-books can be produced may be a stumbling block to general acceptance.

I am told my written English is better than many (friends are wonderful people). But it is no where near good enough for published work. It would take many hours from a proper editor to bang the miss-spelling, miss-phrasing and sometimes poor grammar into an acceptable form- Let alone any ommissions in plot and story. I know they exist, I keep finding and correcting them.

Yet there are quite a few 'Writers', who, to my biased opinion, produce texts that are far worse and are attempting to sell their missives as e-books. Obviously forsaking any form of editing, possibly on the grounds that their wordprocessor managed not to pick up errors, but just as likely they are simply unable to find a person who is capable of editing the text properly (it is a specialist (and expensive) job.

It only requires a few punters to part with cash for a few of these 'bad examples' to start making a major impact upon the acceptability of the whole concept.

At least with a publisher behind a story, one can expect all of these problems to have been removed. Though I am beginning to wonder about this as well

 

[Bayleaf48]

So is that good or bad then?

:blush:

 

[ray gower]

Bad!

What would you think about say your Jordan book, if it had been written by somebody with the writing skills of Pooh bear?
Every other word mis-spelt, wrong punctuation, generally looks as if it has been produced by a Mongolian, with schoolboy Hebrew and a German/Spanish dictionary?

Then perhaps you try another, which is even worse?

I think your future purchases of e-books would become a little stunted.

 

[Bayleaf48]

I'd me mad myself, so I can see were you're coming from ray

Never brought an e-book myself & don't plan 2 either!

:blush:

 

[EmilyH]

You have a point, Ray. Perhaps the work around would be to say that "This has been beta-read" or "This has been edited" when trying to promote an e-book. Or, if not, the author could state "I have run multiple spell-checks & grammar checks, and revised this many times. If you find a typo, let me know, but there shouldn't be any!"

Sort of like many authors do for fan fiction already.

I have, btw, found typos in published novels that the editor must have missed. Some of them a spell checker would never have caught, but others, there were no excuse for. OTOH, one typo out of something like 400 pages isn't bad!

 

[Bayleaf48]

Would be a good idea if they did something like that Emily

:blush:

 

[ray gower]

Originally posted by EmilyH
You have a point, Ray. Perhaps the work around would be to say that "This has been beta-read" or "This has been edited" when trying to promote an e-book. Or, if not, the author could state "I have run multiple spell-checks & grammar checks, and revised this many times. If you find a typo, let me know, but there shouldn't be any!"

Sort of like many authors do for fan fiction already.

Would that work?

Remember we are trying to persuade punters to part with their money. Would they pay to do your corrections?

Proper books cost about £7. Real publishers e-books about £5, but one really expects not to find many errors. So what could Privateers sell their 'self admitted' bad books at?

I have, btw, found typos in published novels that the editor must have missed. Some of them a spell checker would never have caught, but others, there were no excuse for. OTOH, one typo out of something like 400 pages isn't bad! [/B]

I am told that the first print of one of the Harry Potter books actually managed nineteen serious grammatical errors on the first page!

 

[Bayleaf48]

Yipes!

If I was buying an e-book, I wouldn't also like 2 pay 2 make sure that the spelling & grammar is correct as having 2 do that would put me off buying it

:blush:

 

[EmilyH]

Would that work?

Remember we are trying to persuade punters to part with their money. Would they pay to do your corrections?

That's not to imply someone should do the corrections, but to imply instead that the author has done their best to make sure there aren't any. Not everyone has a beta, and admitting they haven't had a fic edited, but have run spelling & grammar checks, doesn't mean it's necessarily bad.

I typically use betas for fan fiction, but as I've gotten better, I've depended less on betas for original fiction. If someone is careful at revising, it is possible to catch them. Granted, I work in a very detail-oriented job (computer programming). One typo in code can ensure that the program won't work. So I've become very careful about typos in fics.

Perhaps there needs to be sort of a certification panel for e-books -- if an e-book is "certified" typo & glaring mistake free, people will know that they can trust it.

 

[ray gower]

Sort of Beta Reading club to do the certification?
Perhaps a little of the proceeds going to the readers that do the certifying?

Sounds like a good idea from here.

But it starts to look like a publishing concern, with overheads and what-not if it becomes popular.

 

[Bayleaf48]

So what could be the situation in regards 2 e-books then?

:blush: