Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A Fascinating Discussion of Ebooks vs Paper

Still looking at the ebook publishing concept and saw this thought-provoking discussion between J.A Konrath and Barry Eisler on how paper is on the way out and ebooks have already won the war. I am certainly disposed to drink the kool-aid, so someone please point out the flaws in this argument.

Okay. Truthfully I can see some flaws. Many people put there writing out there before it's fully cooked. I do think quality writing will rise to the top, but as time goes on, there will be more and more to sift through. I'm interested to see where the quality control will come from.

But they actually convinced me that I don't want a monolithic publisher in charge of my writing. It's like giving your kid to a babysitter with a hundred kids to look after and expecting yours to get the treatment he or she deserves. New authors are expected to care for and market their own books. A publisher just gets you bookstore distribution - and business isn't looking so hot for brick and mortar bookstores. And if it doesn't hit quickly, the publisher moves on and you are left crying in your beer. I think I'll go read some blogs against epublishing and see if they bring me back over from the dark side. You never know...

2 comments:

Betty Craker Henderson said...

Let's not confuse the method of publication with the quality of writing being published. There is printed trash and e-published trash. Simply speaking, now we are enjoying more possibilities concerning the methods by which we are able to read these published materials. I have an I-Pad, and I-Phone, a computer and countless hardback and paperback books and I intend to keep using all of them. I figure when my collection gets in the thousands at least I won't have to build shelves for all of them!

zeldadg said...

Well said.

I have heard the content farms are producing gibberish books just to sell a few - but with a huge number of books to make them money. Amazon will have to find ways to take down the chaff among the wheat.