Saturday, July 01, 2006

Epublishing and the writer

In today’s growing technology, the writer has many more options in the world of publishing. There are some myths that need to be dealt with as we enter the technologically advanced publishing realm. As we stride forward into the 21st century, writers are turning to electronic publishing as a viable medium. Yet, many readers are either unaware of epublishing or have heard horror stories.

Let’s separate fact from fiction. Only by taking an in-depth look at epublishing and getting beyond the horror stories can we find out the truth about the e-world. The main complaints by many in the print publishing arena are: popularity, quality, growth, technology, and that it causes a glut in the seemingly crowded publishing world. Let’s address the issues one by one.

Popularity and Growth- You’ll hear it said that epublishing, especially ebooks aren’t popular and that most people are unaware that ebooks exist. Those who are against the world of epublishing will say that most people don’t want to curl up with a computer and that ebook readers are too expensive. They also state that sales prove they’re not as popular as print books.

According to the June 7, 2004 article at MacWorld UK and PR Newswire, ebook sales are the publishing industry’s largest growth sector. Sales were up 46% in the first quarter of 2004. What’s even more interesting are the names of the publishers who gave information to correlate the data. The article reads, “Publishers and retailers that contributed to the 1st quarter 2004 survey are: eBooks.com, Elib, E-Reads, Fictionwise.com, Hard Shell Word Factory, HarperCollins, Mobipocket, Palm Digital Media, RAND Corporation, Random House, Simon & Schuster, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Time Warner Book Group, and Zondervan.

Notice that even major print publishers are aboard the epublishing wagon. In fact, you can peruse many of their websites and find their ebook divisions. If there weren’t a market for it, the publishers wouldn’t offer online buying of their books in various formats, including electronically. Then there’s the fact that many academic publishers are doing etextbooks to bring down the costs as well.

What about ebook readers are too expensive? Since many of the formats of ebooks, ejournals are in PDF and HTML, you can read them off of your computer with the simple installation of a PDF reader, like Adobe, which is free to download. Your computer comes equipped to read an HTML book. Some other formats are specific to devices, Mobi Pocket being one of the top programs to use on PDAs, iPods, ebook readers, and other multimedia devices. The cost varies from $50 for a reconditioned PDA on up for a new one on up the scale depending on the gadgets wanted. So, if you’re buying a PDA to get rid of the paper ladened date book you already possess, then you also possess and ebook reader. The programs to read the ebooks are available at no cost and often come preinstalled. Thus pricing isn’t a factor either as the popularity of PDAs and similar items are growing. In fact, Sony had developed an ebook reader that even had pages you turn, letting you have that page turning sensation.

Another thing to keep in mind when you deal with price, major academic publishers are looking at etextbooks for schools because it’d be cheaper for kids to have their textbooks uploaded onto an ebook reader. Look at the many scholarly journals that have gone to an online format, as it saves money for them. Thus, we have a diverse section of publishing that are going to electronic formats for various reasons. Electronic books are a bit proportionately cheaper than print, though that’s always the case.

Quality- This is an area that most frequently crops up when there’s a discussion of electronic publishing and print publishing. Quality covers a whole range of areas, but most specifically this is aimed at the editing, plot, and grammar core of the book or article. Are ebooks, ejournals, and ezines terribly written, edited, and formatted?

As mentioned prior, there are many print publishers who have ebook divisions. They have a good quality team, but even they make mistakes in their editing and formatting. Yes, in the past, there were many ebooks and online articles that were poorly formatted, edited, and written coherently. However, the same can be said about print publishing as well. There are typesetting problems, there’s a change in editors as one leaves, or the writers just don’t write up to the expected standard.

Thus, good and bad writing, editing, and such can slip by anyone at any given time. There are many epublishers that have been around for quite a few years consistently providing high quality work.

Technology- It seems like every few years, we need to upgrade our electronic gadgets. If that’s the case and software is always changing and improving, what does that mean for the ebooks, ejournals, etcetera that are in an older format? Is technology that spawned the epublishing revolution, in fact, also be the cause of its demise?

The best way to look at this realistically is to do an example. Let’s say that we buy an ebook in a format compatible to our PDA at the time. A couple years down the road, our needs change, as does the software. What do you do?

Yet, before you pick up your CD, diskette, or wipe that hard drive, let’s delve a bit deeper. We go online to the PDA manufacturer to see what ebook reader formats are available. The variety of formats allows you to choose which one is best for you and the books you own. Then you pull out a CD or diskette of one of your ebooks and decide to see if it’ll work. When you put it in your computer and link up your reader, you’re asked which format you’d like to download into it. You had forgotten that on the disk there were the various formats there to accommodate your needs.

Still the doubts linger. What about those ebooks that only have download from their site capabilities? What can be done about those? Most reputable epublisher has a listing with your id number and what books you bought. When you log into your account, you notice that once again, you are able to redownload the book in the proper system. Granted, there will be some of your digital books that you might not be able to get in a new format if the company has gone out of business. Just remember, that print books do go out of print and get worn with repeated wear and tear. Print technology is also changing. Some things work better than others, but there still are issues, such as paper deteriorating, ink fading or running, and the book no longer being available for one reason or another.

Ever notice that you no longer have those bulky oversized manuals in how to play games or how to deal with problems that pop up with software or other electronic equipment? This is because most businesses create their manuals in PDF or rich text format in order to save space and paper. Most VCRs, DVDs, and other electronic equipment have on-screen programming, forcing you to read not from a paper, but a screen. What about text cellular phones? We read text messages from friends, not on the notebook paper or stationary, but off a screen. Many of us are somewhat computer literate since most of us type up our resumes, book reports, and etcetera. Do people say that your resume isn’t professional unless you have a professional printer do it for you? No, many of us type them up and print them out, following a basic set format that we were taught. This is true also with epublishing. Just because it’s a different medium, doesn’t mean that it had forgotten its roots in print publishing.
What this means is that there are going to be times when one medium will be preferable and more readily accessible than the other.

In this day of rapidly changing technology, the publishing industry has somewhat separated into two major arenas: print and electronic. Though print has been around for much longer, electronic format does make it easier in some ways for busy people. Instead of carrying a four hundred-page book, which weighs you down, you can download from one to many books onto your ebook reader and be able to switch over to another book if bored with the current one. Further, the weight is considerably less. Considering that most school-age children are forced to carry from ten to thirty pounds of books on their back not only to and from school, but between classes if they switch classes, we can see why academia is looking at less weighty, less expensive alternatives.

Let’s recap a bit and go a little into what it means for a writer in the epublishing world. Considering that there are some of the heavy hitters in the publishing business involved with epublishing, it behooves all writers to know what their electronic rights are as well as learning what royalties are given for sales if they're in electronic medium by their publisher. It’s always good to get it down in writing in a clear manner regarding publication rights- domestic, foreign, and all other media, including electronic.

An epublisher might establish themselves in ebook format due to their fresh style and stories, then when they're ready, make the move to offer print books. Ellora’s Cave is one such example of a company that started as an epublisher and now offers POD books as well for their customers. But it wasn't until there were compelling reasons that it was accomplished. It saves the company and the consumer money by not having overages as the books are either downloaded on demand or printed when demanded, thus reducing returns as well as over-printings. If you ever doubt there are many fans of ebooks, you can go to the Yahoo groups and type in various key words for epublishing and ebook to see for yourself how large an audience is there. On one ebook loop alone there are over 500 people who read electronic print. In fact, there are some epublishers who want to remain only in ebook format—such as Loose Id LLC.

Electronic publishing is a great medium for writers who don’t quite fit into any particular genre. Because epublishing is still new, they are the trendsetters for the industry in many ways. They cater to the demands of their readers because if they don’t, then their business fails. This means that a writer might be able to sell a work that might be considered too unique and unusual for regular, established print publisher to an epublisher with fantastic results. A good example is the paranormal romance upsurge. The ebook publishers were catering to the reader demand, thus forcing the traditional publishing houses to find openings for paranormal romance where for many years, they would’ve turned it down. Erotic romance is another arena where electronic publishers caught onto the wishes of readers and gave them what was asked for. A creative writer can almost carve their own special niche within the epublishing and genre realms with a well-crafted, unique story that captures the interest of the many ebook readers out there.

In the realm of royalties, how do epublishers stack up against the print publishers? This is where it becomes a bit unusual. Print publishers often give their writers an advance that’s usually applied against royalties. Most print authors make their money on the advance with little on the back end of the royalties over the agreed amount of time. An epublished author usually makes a higher percentage on each book, but doesn’t receive an advance. Many e-authors generate a decent income from their writing. There are some print authors who also write for epublishers to supplement their income, as the returns can be higher, especially when they have a reader base.
So, epublishing is a true option for fiction writers as well as nonfiction writers.

The most important thing is to know your rights, find a quality, well-established epublisher, and to keep submitting in various places. Technology is changing the world and as it does, the print publishers are moving in the direction of offering their consumers books they want, in the format they desire. Electronic publishing is here to stay. It's a growing, thriving part of the publishing industry and anyone who doesn't find out more about it is actually working against themselves for their future. Ebooks will never replace print in total, however, one day you're going to walk into your local bookstore and see books offered in print, CD, disk for whatever way you choose to indulge your reading pleasure.


References:

http://www.newsjournalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Opinion/Columnists/247/03SceneTWEN011404.htm
http://www.palmpower.com/issuesprint/issue200206/ebook0602.html
http://books.guardian.co.uk/ebooks/story/0,11305,1133307,00.html
http://www.us.perfectbound.com/B89B0A8E-0F31-43CE-B563-814443E154CD/10/1/en/Default.htm
http://www.contentlinkinc.com
http://www.ebookyes.com/
http://www.twbookmark.com/ebooks/index.html
http://www.webscription.net/
http://us.penguingroup.com/static/html/us/ebooks/home.html
http://www.simonsays.com/content/index.cfm?sid=358


Here are some well-established, non-subsidy, royalty-paying epublishers (most of them are in the romance and/or fantasy genres):

Hard Shell Word Factory http://hardshell.com/
New Concepts Publishing http://www.newconceptspublishing.com
Awe-Struck E-Books http://www.awe-struck.net
C & M Online Media (Boson Books) http://www.cmonline.com/
Loose-id http://www.loose-id.net
Fictionwise, Inc. http://www.Fictionwise.com
Writer's Exchange E-Publishing http://ebooks.writers-exchange.com
Atlantic Bridge Publishing http://www.atlanticbridge.net/
Changeling Press http://www.changelingpress.com
Ellora's Cave Romantica E-Publishing http://www.ellorascave.com
Zuymaya Publications Ltd. http://www.zumayapublications.com/
CrowsNest Ebook Publishing http://www.computercrowsnest.com/greennebula/bkindex.htm
Alexandria Digital Literature http://www.alexlit.com
Aspen Mountain Press http://www.aspenmountainpress.com

EPIC is the Electronic Published Internet Connection for authors, publishers and writers who work in and promote electronic publishing. http://www.epicauthors.com

3 comments:

Emma Ray Garrett said...

Let's here it for night owls, LOL! Here, here Cynnara! Epublishing is here to stay and I for one am glad of it!

Not only because I write for Changeling Press, but also due to the fact that I have three small children. It's so wonderful to be able to read a book and not worry about the physical shape of the work being ruined by kool-aid run amok, or grubby hands, or an overly helpful husband (who didn't notice it before he ran it over with the vacuum) LOL!

Plus, full length novels run at least a dollar cheaper than trade or mass market from a brick and mortar. And every cent counts when you have a family!

Thank you very much for mentioning Changeling and for dispelling so many myths about e-publishing!

Maggie Nash said...

Hear Hear Cyn!

Most of the detractors of epublishing have yet to even attempt to read an ebook, or read one of the fledgling ones that had formatting problems.

We need to keep chipping away at the prejudices and show the detractors in the best way we can...through the best damn books we can write and publish!

Cynnara Tregarth said...

Thanks to you both. I have to admit, it's sometimes really hard to be an epublished author and fighting against perceptions that are about 15 years out of date. But as high tech makes its way throughout our daily lives more, those of us who are already part of the high-tech publishing industry will have a leg over others.

Emma, remind me to contact you sometime soon. I've been talking to Lacey and she's been encouraging me to submit to Changeling--something about my unusualness would fit right in there. LOL


Cyn