Is the Kindle Killing My Dream?

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WrittenIn1981

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I think everyone of us here dreams of a day seeing our work on a book shelf or store somewhere. The idea of e-books, however, scares me to no end. Not only does it undermine the work of legitimate authors (any idiot can publish a PDF and sell it for e-book readers without any editing or publisher backing), but it makes me worry about the future of hard copy books.

Is the Kindle just the latest e-book fad waiting for the bubble to burst so real books can come back in and re-take the throne, or is this a legitimate danger to legitimate writers and those that want their work to be published in real books?
 
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I think everyone of us here dreams of a day seeing our work on a book shelf or store somewhere. The idea of e-books, however, scares me to no end. Not only does it undermine the work of legitimate authors (any idiot can publish a PDF and sell it for e-book readers without any editing or publisher backing), but it makes me worry about the future of hard copy books.

Is the Kindle just the latest e-book fad waiting for the bubble to burst so real books can come back in and re-take the throne, or is this a legitimate danger to legitimate writers and those that want their work to be published in real books?
Uh, this makes it sound like you're suggesting authors of ebooks aren't legitimate...
 

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The Kindle and other digital book platforms aren't going to hurt publishing any more than paperback books did in the 1920s.

It's not like it's difficult to self-publish a printed book.

You'll note that all of the big six are making books available in a variety of digital formats.
 
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Amadan

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Is the Kindle just the latest e-book fad waiting for the bubble to burst so real books can come back in and re-take the throne, or is this a legitimate danger to legitimate writers and those that want their work to be published in real books?

No.
 

Williebee

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Not only does it undermine the work of legitimate authors (any idiot can publish a PDF and sell it for e-book readers without any editing or publisher backing), but it makes me worry about the future of hard copy books.


Obviously you are nervous about digital publishing. I'd suggest more research. The bolded statement, for example. Set about proving this. Look deep and read widely. I think you'll find this isn't as true as you so adamantly state it. Example, the rest of the sentence. Take e-books out of the equation and it is just as true. Any "idiot" (not a great choice of word, btw) with a little bit of money to spend, and a dream, can get whatever they write- or a 100 page collection of blank pages, published without any editing or publisher backing.

There's a collection of folks out there ready to take your money. For that matter, they/you/I can do it at home with a kit from Hobby Lobby.

If your dream is to see your book, in hard back, on a shelf somewhere, that is still doable. If your dream is to have it read by the most people possible, ebooks are a plus, not a minus. (Or at least one of each.)

The future of hard copy books is, perhaps, worth worrying about, but it isn't the largest concern. The future of reading and the shape of literacy, on the other hand...
 

brainstorm77

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I want sales. And if that's from e books or whatever, I'm good :)
 

kuwisdelu

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Digital downloads killed the movie industry.

The mp3 killed the music industry.

And now ebooks are killing the the publishing industry.

Keep dreaming.

Because any idiot can make a movie and post it on YouTube.

Any idiot can write a song and get it on iTunes.

And any idiot can write a book and successfully sell it online.

Right?

:D

(Sorry to sound harsh, but we've heard this a million times before, and we have lots of "legitimate" e-published writers here.)
 
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leahzero

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Is the Kindle just the latest e-book fad waiting for the bubble to burst so real books can come back in and re-take the throne, or is this a legitimate danger to legitimate writers and those that want their work to be published in real books?

No. E-books are here to stay.

And as others have pointed out, "any idiot" can also go the POD or vanity route and shit out a paper turd. It's not exclusive to e-publishing. (Though the outlay of money is considerably less for e-publishing, if not negligible, so you could argue that e-pub lowers barriers to producing crap.)
 
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"Shit out a paper turd" has got to be in the top ten AW posts of the past year.
 

Cyia

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Get yourself to nathan bransford's blog and read his posts on e-publishing.

And stop insulting your fellow writers. You're assuming that all e-pubs are unedited garbage; they're not. Some are highly edited garbage. Some are amazing pieces of literature. They run the spectrum just like print books do.

(And... not everyone dreams of seeing their book on a shelf so much as they dream of selling their books to readers.)
 

Sophia

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Is the Kindle just the latest e-book fad waiting for the bubble to burst so real books can come back in and re-take the throne, or is this a legitimate danger to legitimate writers and those that want their work to be published in real books?

Hello,

Your worries are things that have occurred to a lot of people, and as Williebee suggested, some research might solidify some of the issues for you and make it clearer what exactly the options for the future are.

I think these links might help you. They are by Nathan Bransford, a literary agent at Curtis Brown USA. They are aimed at writers, and are clearly written:

This Week in Publishing - 27th August 2010
The Top 10 Myths About E-Books
Don't Believe the E-Book Skeptics
 

Williebee

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And stop insulting your fellow writers. You're assuming that all e-pubs are unedited garbage; they're not

Let's be careful here, folks. The OP did NOT say this, and only implied it if we read into the post.

And, Cyia, apologies for picking on your post. Just needed the example.
 

jana13k

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All the midlist authors I know, including myself report less than 5% of their overall sales in any digital format (not just Kindle). I think your paper publishing career is safe for quite a while.
 

WrittenIn1981

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Would everyone get away from the "illegitimate writer" thing and stop taking it out of context. There are tons of real writers who publish on ebooks, but we also know that anyone can throw together a PDF, run to some self publishing place (even Amazon now does it) and have their work listed as well even though it may not be professional in the least form. It's just like in the old days when the internet first came about, my friend had a saying that any idiot could write anything on the web, but you had to at least be able to pretend you knew what you were doing to get a book on a shelf.
 

brainstorm77

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Would everyone get away from the "illegitimate writer" thing and stop taking it out of context. There are tons of real writers who publish on ebooks, but we also know that anyone can throw together a PDF, run to some self publishing place (even Amazon now does it) and have their work listed as well even though it may not be professional in the least form. It's just like in the old days when the internet first came about, my friend had a saying that any idiot could write anything on the web, but you had to at least be able to pretend you knew what you were doing to get a book on a shelf.

And anyone can do that with print.
 

Eileen

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To hell with Kindle, worry about mobile phones. Or take advantage of them, depending on your point of view. I've just noticed that in the last two months (since I learned how to do it), I've bought more e-books and downloaded them to my phone than paper books. I can now read standing in the bus while hanging on with one hand, and I can read in bed without turning on a light and waking my husband.

Most of the e-books are ones that are also available in print form, but if I download, the author gets more of the purchase price. And the self-published ones are so bad they they are never going to threaten serious writers. (Though I've got to admit, the story about the werewolf with "acute teeth" is mesmerising in a car crash sort of way)
 

WrittenIn1981

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Hello,

Your worries are things that have occurred to a lot of people, and as Williebee suggested, some research might solidify some of the issues for you and make it clearer what exactly the options for the future are.

I think these links might help you. They are by Nathan Bransford, a literary agent at Curtis Brown USA. They are aimed at writers, and are clearly written:

This Week in Publishing - 27th August 2010
The Top 10 Myths About E-Books
Don't Believe the E-Book Skeptics

Thanks. That was actually a big help. Much obliged.
 
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