Distilled Thoughts on Ebooks

[talon]

Authors write stories that publishers convert into books so bookstores can sell them to readers.

A book is not a physical object; it is the content.

That said, books take many forms: ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, podiobook, .pdf, graphic novel, oral, and more.

The publisher is not the "middleman" in this process, but a skilled collection of professionals that bring a book from its raw authorial form to reader-ready status.

The "middlemen" are book distributors (like Ingrams), booksellers (like Amazon and Barnes and Noble) , and everyone else between the reader and the publisher.

The process of producing a book up to the moment it is converted to digital or print is identical.

Acquisitions (what the publisher eventually pays the author), editing, copyediting, design, formatting, graphics, proofreading, salaries, building overheads, equipment, and other associated costs don't go away just because the book is digital.

An ebook is the end-product of the publishing process.

Publishers have the right to spread out the entire cost of publishing a book over all the versions in which that book will legally appear .

They also have the right to control how many copies are available, whether it's audio, print, ebook, or other.

Publishers have the right to fight pricing that brings the price of their product below what it costs them to produce it.

Authors have the right to join in that fight.

Publishers want to embrace ebooks.

Authors want to embrace ebooks.

Libraries want to embrace ebooks.

Print books are a by-product of the publishing industry.

The transition between paper books and ebooks will time, and it will take much longer if people persist in seeing print books as the end-product.

In 10 years, the easiest, most common way to buy a book will be ebook. I couldn't have said this 10 years ago, but tech has improved considerably.