Comments on: Ebook to Print: Does it matter to you?

By: Emma Petersen

Emma Petersen — Wed, 23 May 2007 16:51:38 +0000

Ebooks are convenient. When that whole brouhaha over Anna Campbell’s Claiming the Courtesan was going on I didn’t want to wait until B&N or Amazon’s delivered my copy. So I took my happy self over to Fictionwise (I think) and bought a copy. *Shrugs* Can’t beat instant gratification. That doesn’t mean I read ebooks on a regular basis, hell I don’t really read anything on a regular basis, it just depends on whether I’m writing or reading at the time.

And on to the, is an author an author if the author is only epubbed? Let me answer a question with a question. Is an author an author if they are never published? What if Toni Morrison never published The Bluest Eye, if Alice Walker never published The Color Purple or Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club? Would that make their work any less poignant, beautiful or real? No. The only difference is the world would be missing out on some of the most brilliant work known to mankind.

I know my way of thinking is considered by some kind of new age-y or whatever but to me the only person who can define me is me.

By: Eva Gale

Eva Gale — Wed, 23 May 2007 15:55:05 +0000

Did anyone mention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail ? E-books have Long Tail viability. Print runs out, and unless it’s picked up for reprint, nada, right? I could be wrong.

Both e and print is good.

By: Gabriella Hewitt

Gabriella Hewitt — Tue, 22 May 2007 21:38:00 +0000

As for Jayne’s questions — E-pub or print. A good book is a good book no matter the format.

I have read some wonderful e-pubbed authors. It took me a while to get into it but once I started I got hooked. I have them in my Adobe Reader on my laptop. Love the feel of books in my hands and if I really want to buy the book, I just click POD on the e-pub site. A week later I have the book in my hand. I have Talons Anthology from Samhain and the quality is spectacular. Since reading he book I have discovered some new authors and downloaded their e-books.

So, I guess the print book is an evil necessaity in the land of e-publishing. Otherwise I would have never found out about these authors.

I guess the biggestquestion that needs to be asked right now is how to get more people interested in e-books at a grassroots level.
Personally, I think it comes from good marketing and some e-pubs just know how to do it better than others.

For now I am doing my best to spread the gospel about e-books to librarians and education administrators in high schools and colleges. If you want to hook people you got to get them when they are young and tech savvy. Hey, if you think I ‘m nuts then you need look no further than Madison Ave and its push to grab kids’ attention.

Now if only we could get e-books onto i-pods then you’d have such a huge audience!

By: Bev(BB)

Bev(BB) — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:15:30 +0000

[quote comment="29006"]Linnea’s books are available in eform. I had to check in case they’d been removed, but they are.[/quote]

Well, good. I thought it was strange that they wouldn’t be offered that way. Maybe the publishers are getting a clue finally.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Tue, 22 May 2007 01:54:46 +0000

The tech knowledge isn’t an issue, per se, as I tend to be pretty tech-y, but since all the programs you mentioned are MS products and I’m a Mac user (okay, I *do* have a PC in the house, but all things being equal, I’d rather use my Mac) and the idea of having to go to that much work to convert a file into a readable format when there are other, more convenient formats just doesn’t make sense. Glad to know there’s not something I’m missing in the format selection process.

Generally, if I’m going to choose to read an ebook over a print book, then it better be pretty much as easy as opening the print book and flipping the pages.

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 22 May 2007 01:00:52 +0000

If I had to choose, I would use mobipocket over PDF every single time because the DRM restrictions, while onerous, allow for portability and changing of your reading device ad infinitum.

You could use MS Lit, Converlit GUI and then read the resulting html file with ubook, but this requires more tech knowledge than the average bear wants to go through.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Tue, 22 May 2007 00:16:53 +0000

[quote comment="28989"]Rosie, I’m not Melanie, but you can read Mobipocket and PDF (use Adobe’s PDF reader for Palm).[/quote]
I haven’t really played with the pdf readers on my Treo yet, although I have both the Adobe reader and palmPDF. (palmPDF looks like it beats the Adobe product all to pieces but, as I said, I haven’t really played with either.) As I recall, when I started investigating readers and formats available for Palm OS, it seemed there were issues with being able to open and read DRM protected pdf ebooks. Or is my memory failing me? Can these secure books be read with either of the Palm pdf readers? (Without jumping through lots of hoops to make it happen?) What would be the reason for selecting this particular file type over mobipocket or palm reader (ereader)? Is it simply a matter of preference?

By: Ciar Cullen

Ciar Cullen — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:11:26 +0000

I’m still laughing over Nora’s response about royalties being held until they reach $25. Did someone answer her? Yes, that was twenty-five U.S. dollars. I’ve probably in my lifetime spent that ten times over on buying her books. I’ve had worse checks than that. This all has me thinking loooong and haaard. I really appreciate everyone’s input.

By: Sarah McCarty

Sarah McCarty — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:01:46 +0000

Robert-

I’m shocked. My ebookwise I consider indestructible. Want me to send my ebookwise over to talk to yours and make it more…street tough? *G*

By: Ellie M.

Ellie M. — Mon, 21 May 2007 18:48:58 +0000

I read ebooks on my old b&w Sony Clie. Love it! I can hold it with one hand in the dark while everyone’s asleep.

Man, that sound dirty.

It has several different reader programs on it – PDA, Word, maybe one other – but I was dismayed to learn it’s so old they no longer make the memory chips that fit in it. I wanted more ebooks and now I’ll have to cruelly delete some to make room.

Oh, I think paperbacks are real books, too :). I’d better, I’m in one.