subject: The ebook revolution [print this page] The ebook revolution The ebook revolution
The paperback is in crisis. The costs of production, distribution and marketing have pushed prices higher than most people are prepared to pay. Editors are losing their jobs and the opportunities for new authors are abysmal - but take heart. A knight in digital armour has appeared. The ebook is galloping to the rescue and it is the greatest thing to hit the publishing trail since the invention of moveable type.
Don't be fooled by the current offerings. With notable exceptions, the ebooks you are seeing are no more than paperbacks in digital form. That's not surprising since the current effort is going into the conversion of previously published paper books to digital format. This won't last. The ebook is not just cheaper to produce and market: it has the potential to be far superior to the paper product.
The cost of including large numbers of colour images in paper books is colossal. But, pictures and sound can be inserted in ebooks at relatively low cost. The opportunities are immense. Authors will be able to illustrate their works in a way that was formerly prohibited by cost factors. Pictures and sound will add meaning and ambience to text.
The publishing industry has not yet come to grips with the new and evolving technologies. This means that pioneering authors have to do a lot of the footwork themselves. Needless to say, the exercise is not easy. Nothing is when the ground is continually changing beneath your feet.
I have converted one of my novels, Curtin Express, to digital form. As a paperback it retailed for $25. As an e-book, it can be retailed for as little as $3. The e-version contains over 130 colour pictures. Readers can see the plot unfold not just read about it. When I convert my next book, I shall include sound effects. Curtin Express ran to 347 pages in paperback form. The ebook version is 3.08 MB, including pictures.
I used the new epub format when making the conversion. It was designed by an international panel of experts to enable text to be displayed on screens of different sizes. Unlike the PDF format, epub enables both text and images to flow. Readers can select font types and font sizes to suit their individual needs.
Publications in epub format can be viewed on a desk computer and on handheld devices such as iPad, iPhone, Nook, Sony and Kindle. Files can be opened with Adobe Digital Editions and Bookworm. I was amazed to discover that Curtin Express was fully readable on an iPhone when converted to epub. Attempts to achieve a similar result with PDF were a total failure.
To see what I mean go to:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J8HRIW. It will cost you only $3 to download the book. Judge for yourself..
