Why is this blog-worthy? Well it is a demonstration of a new publishing era. If you fancy yourself an amateur author (all you NaNoWriMo's) then all you need to do nowadays is convert your masterpiece to a PDF file and post it for sale. Amazon will even take your book (for a piece of the profit). Other sites exist to post your books like...
...and I'm sure many others. This is pretty new business and probably a good time to be looking at it.
Publishing in this way has a slim fraction of the overhead costs of a paper printing. Authors can get a much larger portion of the purchase price. Digital media will never completely replace the book, but it is a nice way to dabble and take some risks with new authors.
There are other devices as well. The Kindle2 is probably the coolest, but it only works in North America--due to that wireless dependence on Sprint. But other versions of readers sync to your computer and therefore can store all the same content for travel--you just won't be able to download from the airport. Unless, that is, you travel with a laptop. Clunky, but cheaper. The Kindle2 comes in at $359 USD. That's a chunk for most folks--even in America. But readers will likely come down. Certainly if readership picks up (and thus purchase revenue increases) you'll see more subsidized devices--where Amazon give the device away cheaper to facilitate more eBook sales.
Stephen Fry is a UK comedian and actor. While you might remember him from the blockbuster film "V is for Vendetta" (also starring Natalie Portman), he is more recently famous for being the biggest user of Twitter on the planet. Stephen has over 250,000 followers on the trendy new application. Twitter lets you type out a short 160 character message that will be broadcast to everyone that choses to follow you. These messages are usually delivered to your mobile phone via SMS (thus the 160 character limit). Why is Stephen important to this story? Well Stephen has recently purchased a Kindle while on holiday in America. He's broadcasting his positive experiences with the device to all 250,000 of his followers. While this is only a small fraction of Oprah's viewership, it is a more mobile device oriented crowd. There is a powerful surge of marketing behind the Kindle now. Digital publishing is going to increase in the next few years. Will it hold out as a lasting media? Who knows? But certainly the short-term outlook is all positive growth.
I've looked at the Kindle...but still, there is something about holding a book........the magic of it. I'd hate to see books completely disappear because we're all walking around with little devices to read from...oh wait, that's already happening in a way......
ReplyDeleteBeing a geek, I will still most likely get one if the prices come down. There's the green side too....saving paper, etc. And of course, a house can only hold so many books!
We are far, far from being rid of paper books--if indeed we ever will be. Digital publishing is just another means to commune with the rest of the beings capable of questioning this existance and imagining a different one.
ReplyDeletePublishing companies are far too attached to their profits to make digital readers THAT popular. ;o) They'll make arguments and throw up dust whenever they can. Besides, I think most agree - there's something special about books.
ReplyDeleteThough, I wouldn't mind a PDF version of some of the books I wind up buying. A.) no waiting for shipping B.) less expense for what usually winds up being a subpar story and C.) as Sharon mentioned - way greener!