Electronic vs. Print

I think we've touched on this in recent previous threads, a bit. But it doesn't hurt to do it again.

I know I'm probably still being old fashioned, but electronic publications just don't feel "real" to me. I'm getting better, it's bothering me less and less, but they are a recent concept to me and not one that's settled into my brain as being Published.

That said, I see electronic publishing as being a big wave of the future, particularly for the short story market. I think that the internet can be for short stories what the pulp market was, seventy years ago or so.

I also think that the electronic medium, since it's not bound to the same set up of relying on a printer to get your stuff out, means that publishers of short stories can get much more creative about selling stories and can move beyond the walled-in boundaries of magazine "issues," since you no longer have to have something solid to send to the printer.

...

The downside is that anyone can put up a web-site and call themselves a magazine. There's a lot of crap out there. And if the internet short story market explodes like I want it to,then the crap level will increase many-fold. There will therefore become necessary for ways to find these stories, these good publications around the internet.

...

The internet went from being The Wave Of Future Business in the nineties, to being just a useful way to communicate with a very large portion of the human race. That's fine by me, but I do think that for short stories at least, it can be a "wave of the future" type of thing.

I'm not ashamed of any of my books with e-publishers, and I feel they all count as legit credits. However, I find myself being drawn to the e-pubs that now have a print option, and I know the day will come when I abandon e-pubs completely. I've been happy, but it comes down to numbers. I would like to sell my books. well, more of them.

Of course, at the same time, I don't write stories that fit nicely in one genre. And I don't write books that fit nicely with big New York pubs. I haven't seen too many of them ask for menage (m/m/f), or Gay vampire BDSM. Which is what I feel like writing now.

So in conclusion, I think epubs should be legit credits, but most epubs have a long way to go in terms of quality and sales. Other epubs are really making a place for themselves in the world.

There's no reason why e-Books can't go through the same editorial process (except print and shipping and distribution, of course) and sustain the same level of quality as print. There's no reason why they can't sell and promote and treat e-Books like print. Because of the distribution method as well as format, they're likely to be cheaper than print, but it doesn't mean they're of poorer quality. I'm sure Stephen King (him again!) was as proud of Riding the Bullet as his other books.

I do think e-Books are great complements to print.

It's not a matter of the format or even distribution method. Anyone can put up a website and sell their vanity-press print books as well. To me, the quality is not in the book binding and the paper, but in the actual content. I'll buy an e-Book, an audible book, or a print book from a reputable publisher -- as long as I like what's inside... the words!

That's why we said ebooks don't work for "us," Ray. We weren't trying to bring down the e-publishing world. It just doesn't do much for me.

And I was talking about the short story field anyway. e-novels are someone else's jazz.

I agree that the editorial bar is sometimes just as high as the print media. E-pubbing is gaining respectability, especially when I see sales surpassing small press print. I can only imagine that Ellora's Cave and the other biggie will no doubt end up full print resources as their popularity continues. I'm still a big book fan, though. Although my perceptions are changing. We'll see what the future brings.

Tri

To me, electronic media are real. I deal with electronic content all the time. But there is a notion to many people that "electronic content" (web sites, information, news, even music... etc. etc.) should be "free." That's one hurdle. People still think if they can download a song from the net, the song should be free!

One of my betas read my entire novel on her computer screen. She actually preferred it that way. So I know there's a market out there, even if it's not mainstream. I think, like someone said in another thread, it will take another generation for e-Books to take off. Kids now grow up in an electronic environment and many of them do prefer electronic formats. Kids are downloading songs, video games, videos and Mangas to their PSP. Who wants to carry a book?

maestrowork said:

I know there's a market out there, even if it's not mainstream. I think, like someone said in another thread, it will take another generation for e-Books to take off. Kids now grow up in an electronic environment and many of them do prefer electronic formats. Kids are downloading songs, video games, videos and Mangas to their PSP. Who wants to carry a book?

Click to expand...

I agree. E-publishing is really taking off in the reference market. Chapters of some reference works can be purchased individually off of Amazon. Complementary coursework and tests are being incorporated into some electronic reference products, which can then be passed on to students in an electronic format. The electronic publishing market is growing significantly, but the extent of its impact has yet to be felt. It's the people who grow up with all of this access and technology at their fingertips who are going to show us just how big a market e-publishing can be.

Epublishing is getting pretty mainstream in erotic romance where the average ebook reader age is in the 30s. People will buy ebooks if the print presses don't make the product.

On the flipside I have heard epublisher gripe about authors wanting print books even if they makes them less money, as it often will. But I do like having a print copy and would take lower earnings to get it.

With respect to those here who have/do/prefer epublishing, I can't help but have this residual feeling that it's 'not quite real'. Though honestly I know it is, it's just different. But I see reactions from non-writers who feel if you can find it on the Internet, it's probably crap. They won't pay for something that isn't sold in a bookstore because they figure the quality isn't there, that if it were then it would be printed and sold.

And my own stigma of having put my work on the 'net previously, makes me feel like it's different than being "published". My perceptions have been changing since coming here, and I have nothing but respect for those writers who have sold to honest epub sites - but my own preference is to be in print. That's what I prefer to buy and read. Even though I write on the computer, I can't stand to sit down and read something on the screen - not book-length, anyway. I can't even edit my own work unless it's printed and I'm sitting at a table somewhere with a nice pen, a cup of coffee or tea and maybe bird poo on the bench next to me.

As huge as the Internet is and seems, I've heard it's still only used by a third of the population. So there's a good swatch of readers without access to e-pubbed work, who still rely on bookstores and libraries for their entertainment.

Plus, even with the advent of hand held readers and PDA's, it's still easier to pack a paperback along to the park or beach. No batteries required, and the sun doesn't glare off the pages.

I think putting stuff on the open internet or even a subscription site is another thing, c.f. selling a digital book often with a POD option.

maestrowork said:

One of my betas read my entire novel on her computer screen. She actually preferred it that way.

Click to expand...

I'm the opposite. I read a book last week in Word format that was absolutely awesome. Could not "put it down." But it still took me a week to read because I had to sit at my computer to do so. And I'm saying that as someone who spends 12 hours a day at a computer, easily. When the book actually comes out later this year, I'm going to buy a copy immediately (and read it again; it was that good.)

E-publishing is still in its infancy. It will outstrip the popularity of "real" books - not in my lifetime but probably in the lifetime of many of you. Right now though, and for the short-mid-term, the real money is with mainstream publishing. If you want to make a decent living at this, you need to focus on where the money is.

...If you want to write genres that make more money in print than online.

Yes there are, admitted only a few, fulltime ebook writers making a living wage. No, I am not one of them. But I normally find I am making more than the run of the mill hobby writer.

veinglory said:

...If you want to write genres that make more money in print than online.

Yes there are, admitted only a few, fulltime ebook writers making a living wage. No, I am not one of them. But I normally find I am making more than the run of the mill hobby writer.

Click to expand...

Right. I'm not making a living wage from my books, but I'm sure as hell making more money that people who aren't published at all. Hey, who doesn't want a check every month or so for a couple of hundred? It adds up!

Epublishing is a niche field right now, for niche markets. Look, people may prefer to have print books, but they don't like to go to the corner book store and buy hardcore bdsm/vampire/menage/erotica (or porn) written with an audience of women in mind. And I dare you to find a mainstream print publisher who regularly publishes and distributes such a beast. A few of the romance publishers are *now* starting to move in that direction, but only because of the obvious popularity of erotic romance epubs.

I also don't understand the problem people have reading on a comp, but that's just me. I do pretty much all my reading on my computer, and I don't miss having "actual books" at all. In fact, I'm so attached to my computer that I resent it when I have to set it aside to hold an actual book.

Birol said:

What do you think of electronic publications vs. print publications? Does one feel more legitimate to you, a more impressive credit to you, than the other?

What do you see as the future for electronic and print publications? Are electronic publications just a fad? Are print publications going to fade from existence?

How do you evaluate the quality of each?

Click to expand...

I hate reading e-books, there's no money in them, and they look lousy on a bookshelf, be it in a bookstore, a library, or at home.

"No money" is clearly incorrect as a literal statement. Never being afraid to be specific, I made US$4900 this year with my after work writing sold entirely in ebook form.

Is that a lot? I it depends. It made my life a lot easier but I sure couldn't live on it. Most ebook writers I know make less, a couple make in the area of $30-50,000.

Like many areas there are naysayers and cheerleaders. But it is what it is. Before signing up with an epublisher research their sales figures, compare that to any comparable print publishers and pick the best of the lot.

I believe we're on the cusp with regards to e-publishing. It's moving slowly for many of the reasons mentioned above (quality reader devices, etc.), but it is moving. Like so many things, there will come a 'tipping point' and then it will explode.

Just look at DVD players, for example. I coveted one back in the late 1990s, but couldn't justify the price. When I first started looking at them, they were in the multiple thousands of dollars. It took years for them to drop in price to around what it cost for a decent hi-fi VCR capable of surround sound output. When they became comparable in price to what they would supplant, that was the tipping point. I bought my DVD player for something like $375, the same as I paid for my hi-fi VCR when I put in my surround sound system, and within six months, the price had plummeted to less than half that and sales skyrocketed to the point where DVD players became the fastest selling consumer electronics item of all time. Now you can get a DVD player that is far superior to mine for less than fifty bucks and VCRs are considered quaint.

I don't know exactly what the specific thing will be that will push e-publishing over the tipping point, but it will come, of that I am certain.

Well, I wrote one book with a magically transgendered hero(ine). It found a home eventually at Champagne books where it will appear as an e-book and eventually in print. Most of the agents commented that they were more concerned with marketability rather than the quality of writing. They may of course, be right.

The military SF book I sold to the ill-fated Capri House, has been sold again for e-rights to Books for a Buck (where it is available as a $1 download for thirty days) after that the price will probably be $4, and I'll get half. I am still arranging print rights for the book, and we'll see how it does that way later on.

Would I rather have had MMPB runs for the books? Probably, but that's because I've been reading rackbacks all my life (60 years). I can remember buying new Jack Vance novels for $.49. He was making about 4 cents a book in those days. I can only imagine that Robert Heinlein and Isaac Assimov and all the greats of SF in those days would jump at the opportunity to e-publish today if it was early in their career.

I hope I get to make $4900 in 2008 from my books, Veinglory. Good on you.

Regards,
Scott

It occurs to me the timeline may coincide with the Internet generation reaching adulthood. Kids who grew up with ubiquitous computing and on all the time Internet access won't bat an eyelash at the idea of reading off a computer screen since they've been doing it all their lives. Once they get into the position of being both consumers of and producers of literature, I think things will speed up drastically.

Kids born in 1995, the year Windows 95 came out and the Internet started to take off, will be of voting age in about five years or so. I think a good many things are going to change at that point. We can either hang ten and ride the wave, or get left behind.

Also color me sceptical about ebooks as they are breaking through. I am as e-savy as anyone and read them only when a paperback version is not available and I want to read that book.

PeeDee said:

That said, I see electronic publishing as being a big wave of the future, particularly for the short story market. I think that the internet can be for short stories what the pulp market was, seventy years ago or so.

Click to expand...

I agree. People are more likely to read a short online than a novel.