On other topics

[kinzel]

Theo is in process. Sorry the chapter is late, was going over important paperwork ... sigh.

Meanwhile, not paperwork, is some commentary about ebooks on the SFnovelists blog ...
http://www.sfnovelists.com/2008/09/28/my-own-epublishing-rant/
which seems of the opinion that ebooks are not where it is. Please feel free to read and comment...

Comments

[jryson.livejournal.com]

More to it than that. The readers, IFAIK, all have proprietary "book stores." Buy a reader, you can only read books for that reader. I don't plan to spring for a reader until I can buy anything and read it.

And the readers do have to take a lot more abuse than, say phones and iPods take today. Certainly more than laptops. They have to go into a jacket pocket.

I do read on screen at home. Other places, I ogle women.

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

You know -- I can read a lot of stuff on my eeePC carry along. There are a lot of non-DRM materials out there, you betcha.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned there are several problems with e-books. One is the readers, I want something which has around the same word density as a paperback book (around 10 words per line, 30 lines per page). The only reader I've found which meets that is the iLiad, but that costs $600 (400 pounds Sterling)!

The other is the availability of material, and that is where it really falls down. In particular I want copies of the books I already have and enjoy re-reading, and around 95% of those aren't even in print let alone available in electronic form, nor are they at all likely to be made available in my lifetime (in fact the probability drops with time, since many of them are obsolete in terms of the science in the "Science Fiction" and they have limited appeal from a literary perspective).

I read certain things on the screen at home. LJ and the like, email, newsgroups, source code -- and Fledgling and Saltation, of course (they are in small enough chunks that I don't mind them being on screen; my main fiction reading however is done in bed, where I typically read several chapoters or even a whole book in one chunk, and doing that with a screen would be very hard on my eyes).

[jryson.livejournal.com]

In particular I want copies of the books I already have and enjoy re-reading, and around 95% of those aren't even in print let alone available in electronic form, nor are they at all likely to be made available in my lifetime (in fact the probability drops with time, since many of them are obsolete in terms of the science in the "Science Fiction" and they have limited appeal from a literary perspective).

I have some optimism about that. Probably any book printed in the last decade or so exists in machine-readable format in somebody' vault. Then it's a matter of finding it and arranging to pay for intellectual property. Or, you can scan the book yourself. Scanning paper type-to-machine-readable software is cheap and pretty good.

[paw3pals.livejournal.com]

By using a PDA as a reader, I can read many proprietary and all open formats. eBooks are now my first choice as I don't have to come up with storage room for all the keeper books. I have over 2000 ebooks on my hard drive and a tiny SD card (a really good catalog program that accepts all formats and drag and drop would be appreciated).

I am waiting for an eInk device that will accept eReader, Mobipocket, MS Reader and open formats. The Cybook is approaching acceptance with it's open format and Mobipocket usability.

Pricing policies and DRM are the other major areas that need work.

[jryson.livejournal.com]

Pricing policies and DRM are the other major areas that need work.

In the near future, finding a decent eBook is going to be a challenge. You write a book, and put it up on a pay website. I want to read an eBook like yours, but have not heard of you. How do you arrange for me to end up buying your book?

If you're in a bookstore and pick up a book by an author you've never heard of, all you've got is the cover art and the publisher. What the publisher does for you the reader is recommend the book with the publishing company's good name. I think future editors/publishers will end up editing as now, but then functioning to recommend a book this way. More or less like a reviewer, but representing the book, as with publishers today. When I buy an eBook, most of what I will pay will hopefully go to the author. But Part of what i pay will go to the publisher, not for making the book available, that's cheap in computerland; but for reading all the slush and selecting what I can expect to be a good book from it.

Which is what the editor/publisher does now, right?

there are also epublishers

[mtz322.livejournal.com]

While I'm a fan of Baen Webscriptions and looking forward to seeing some other print publishers get the message and start offering e-versions I also buy quite a few ebooks that were written, edited, formatted, designed, and produced as ebooks from the start.

Yes, Edited, and all that other stuff. It makes a difference! And it doesn't come free.

And Distribution? At least 50% of the cost of an ebook goes to distributors now. Granted a few epublishers avoid that by selling only from their own websites (lessee, monthly server fees, merchant accout fees, etc.) but for most of us it is go with Fictionwise, maybe Amazon, and share the profit and hope that our share is enough to pay royalties and cover artists and layout specialists, and so forth. Oh, yeah, it is nice to be able to pay the editors too.

Re: there are also epublishers

[jryson.livejournal.com]

But how do I find your book among all the shush?

Re: there are also epublishers

[mtz322.livejournal.com]

Solve that problem and you'll either get rich or revered as the genius who saved publishing!

It's nothing new. Ever heard the term mid-list? A few books/authors make it big-hit best seller lists, sell millions. Many more sell reasonably well but not necessarily well enough to survive without a day job. Used to be publishers would keep them in print long enough for them to find more readers.

But, despite generations of effort, nobody has really solved the problem.

For readers it is how to find the books they will enjoy and want more of out of the hundreds of thousands published.

To be more specific there is my own discovery of the Liad books. Somehow I missed them in bookstores. Maybe the stores I had access to didn't carry them or they might have had them when finances limited my buying. So, I didn't discover them until repeated recommendations on another fan list caught my attention and I went looking. Found one. Wanted more. Frustration ensued. Word of Mouth worked but availability wasn't there.

Eventually someone mentioned that Embiid was bringing them out in e-format. Hated the Embiid format. Had to read them on desktop screen. But I did and got all that were available of the novels. Never did find a device I could afford that would work with the Embiid format.

Found/got the eBookwise. Not perfect but good enough. And, oh joy, Fledgling! And then Baen Webscriptions with not just the novels but collections of the Chapbooks. Double, triple joy. Hooked a friend or two by sending them to Fledgling and then to Baen.

And now the older books are being reissued and there are new ones here/coming soon.

So, if you look instead of just waiting for some authority to tell you where; if you find groups with similar interests; if you scan the new offerings and the category listings at places like Fictionwise; then you have a fair chance of finding something you'll like. When you do, tell a friend or two.

(Note that if you were asking about my own books I haven't written any. I'm an e-publisher. Not sure if anything we've published would interest you although I do have dreams of discovering an author or authors that will.
http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/epress-onlineeBooks.htm?cache