Will physical books become obsolete?

[6packofun]

I hope not, and not just because I like physical books better! How do you wrap up an e-book and give it as a gift? Just another impersonal gift card? Books are one of my favorite things to give. :)

 

I'm also curious about the physiological effects--if there are any--of long-term reading on a screen. I'm sure e-reader screens are better than laptop screens, but I still wonder.

[Word Nerd]

Yes, in a different way, but yes. For me, reading Jane Austen on the Kindle is like eating prime rib on Chinet. :tongue_smilie:

 

But why? It's not as if any of us are reading original copies of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility like Jane herself would have, so I don't get the snobbery, for lack of a better word.

Edited December 29, 2011 by WordGirl

[SailorMom]

Yes, in a different way, but yes. For me, reading Jane Austen on the Kindle is like eating prime rib on Chinet. :tongue_smilie:

 

Well - I guess I think of Jane Austen as the Chinet... blech.

But I've read many classics on my Nook, and after a few weeks of owning the Nook the technology becomes invisible. You just don't notice it anymore.....

[Jennifer3141]

:lol:

 

Oh the smell of the clay... and the inconvenience of having to unroll those darn scrolls.

 

 

:D:D:D

 

LOVE this!!

 

And I used to be one of those people adamantly opposed to ereaders and even ipods. Seriously. I bought a CD a few weeks ago and everyone laughed at me.

 

But now I have an iphone and I'm in love.

 

We're traveling a lot now and I'm taking a fabric grocery tote and a small suitcase full of books with us every.single.time. And you know what? I'm getting tired of it. And I'm getting tired of culling the stack to make it more managable. How do I know if we'll read 28 or 47 books every week??

 

I think we're 100 years from paper books being completely gone and I suspect there will always be niche marketers because people are going to want to be "old fashioned" and nostalgic in the future too. But let's face it, economically we're at least 100 years away from every home on the planet having ereaders in their homes. And as long as books are published in the most impoverished areas, people elsewhere will want them either for the feel of it or just to be different.

Edited December 29, 2011 by Jennifer3141

[Myeightkiddies]

My hands cannot grip physical books any longer, at least not more than a few minutes, and my eyes struggle to see anything except larger print. I'm really thankful for digital readers. They allow me to enjoy reading again. Having said that, though, I don't believe physical books will become obsolete, and I hope that they don't. More and more people will use e-readers but some never will.

[justamouse]

Not for a while.

 

Though I read on my kindles all the time, there are many (paper) books i buy because my intent is to share them with people who don't ahve kindles. there are three that I was recently unable to buy because I knew people who would want to borrow them, and I have to wait to buy paper versions.

 

Books will always be with us, the format may change.

[justamouse]

Thanks for sharing your experience. My MIL, who has written textbooks and now medical murder mysteries, used to be adamant against self-publishing. Her latest book is self-published.

 

A few years ago I had huge fights with high ups in RWA about self publishing and e-publishing authors being True Authors, despite their not having gone through the gatekeepers.

[4Kiddos]

Dh gave my eldest dd and I Kindles for Christmas. I was on the fence about getting one for ages, because I love the feel and smell of a real book. Dd really wanted one though. Now that I have it, I do like my Kindle a lot, but I'm about to get rid of our 2000+ books and convert entirely to e-books.

 

Dh and FIL keep telling me that in about 20 years books will be obsolete and everything will be digital. I find that hard to believe. However, when you consider all the things that have become obsolete over the last 20-30 years (cassette tapes, video cassettes, rotary phones, etc.) I suppose it could be possible.

 

I guess I just find it hard to believe that there could come a day when there were no more physical books, libraries, bookstores, etc. because everything is digital. It seems to Jetsons to me.

 

So, what say you? Will physical books someday disappear from our culture?

 

Although I am relatively young (28) I feel like I am a dinosaur as I am not really technologically advanced (no iPOD or Kindle/Nook). I appreciate technology very much but I love books (especially old ones) and have been trying to collect them for my kids. Somehow, snuggling with my three little boys over a computer screen doesn't seem as nice. I think that real books will always hold a special place in people's hearts, especially ones that have childhood memories of hours pouring over that cherished book. A book is real- you can touch the outside, feel the texture of the pages, turn the pages, see the lovely print or illustrations, and it has that glorious smell (both old book smell and new book smell).

Edited December 29, 2011 by Mommyof3boys
Forgot to add something!

[cin]

Some good points already made; My problem with an e-reader right now is that our library does NOT have a good e-library. At. All. Add that to paperbackswap and half price books and there is NO WAY I could afford to read JUST with my ereader. I need 'real' books.

 

In addition, the light from the ereader is brighter than that from reading light, so I wouldn't be able to read at night. of course, DH is not a good sleeper, so for most people, that might not be a problem.

[justamouse]

Some good points already made; My problem with an e-reader right now is that our library does NOT have a good e-library. At. All. Add that to paperbackswap and half price books and there is NO WAY I could afford to read JUST with my ereader. I need 'real' books.

 

In addition, the light from the ereader is brighter than that from reading light, so I wouldn't be able to read at night. of course, DH is not a good sleeper, so for most people, that might not be a problem.

 

Apparently now Amazon IS a library. Which has ramifications all on its own.

[Forget-Me-Not]

Well I certainly hope they invent a waterproof Kindle before they get rid of books because I like to read in the bath :D

 

They make waterproof covers for it. Or you can go the cheap route and put it in a ziplock bag :D

 

I'm curious about the trend towards self-publishing. Will people still hire editors? Because I've read more than a few self-published works from the Amazon freebie list that needed an editor desperately, both for spelling and grammar issues. One I read recently used the word 'pack' in place of 'pact'. . . and did it more than once, so it wasn't just a spelling error that spellcheck didn't catch.

[Alte Veste Academy]

But why? It's not as if any of us are reading original copies of Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility like Jane herself would have, so I don't get the snobbery, for lack of a better word.

 

Well I'm :lol: at the thought of my snobbery. I can't fathom anyone who knows me in real life thinking of me as a snob.

 

But why? For me, the physical book itself is a big part of the experience of reading. I find books romantic and escapist. Books have always been a haven for me. They just are. As I stated earlier in the thread, the e-reader didn't do it for me. Screens don't have the same allure for me as a bound book. When I look into a screen, I feel like I'm...connected. I like to read books to disconnect.

 

My personal feelings should not be taken as an insult those who love their e-readers and, likewise, your feelings are not insulting to me. I just prefer physical books to e-readers. No biggie. :)

 

Well - I guess I think of Jane Austen as the Chinet... blech.

But I've read many classics on my Nook, and after a few weeks of owning the Nook the technology becomes invisible. You just don't notice it anymore.....

 

It didn't become invisible to me. I didn't care for it and it didn't grow on me. Eh.

 

My profound thought for the day: People are different. :tongue_smilie:;)

[funschooler5]

I don't think they will go away.

 

I think the books people really love will still be printed, because they will want them printed.

 

An ebook is fine for something I don't love or to get a quick taste of something, but the books I love, I will always want to own in a tangible way.

 

Books are like art to me. Some people adorn their home with paintings and knick knacks. Mine is adorned with books.

 

Reading an ebook is much like looking at art online to me. I can appreciate both and enjoy both, but if at all possible, I prefer to hang the art on my wall or go visit it in person. You just can't replace that with an e edition.

:iagree:

 

 

I'm curious about the trend towards self-publishing. Will people still hire editors? Because I've read more than a few self-published works from the Amazon freebie list that needed an editor desperately, both for spelling and grammar issues. One I read recently used the word 'pack' in place of 'pact'. . . and did it more than once, so it wasn't just a spelling error that spellcheck didn't catch.

 

This is the trend I'm seeing. While there are some wonderful self-published ebooks out there, there is also a ton of poorly written (or at least poorly edited) books too. A lot of authors who couldn't get their stuff published with "real" publishers are doing ebooks because it's so cheap. I wonder if there will be a way to differentiate, without having to read every sample out there.

 

This is a discussion we've had in my writer's group many times. Some in our group have decided to e-publish, and those that do will get their books professionally edited before e-publishing. They are terrified of putting their stories out there before they're ready.

 

I am still determined to go the traditional route of submitting to publishers before I try self-publishing. I want to see my books in print. Unfortunately, the chances of getting traditionally published are getting slimmer and slimmer.

[TheHomeScientist]

This is the trend I'm seeing. While there are some wonderful self-published ebooks out there, there is also a ton of poorly written (or at least poorly edited) books too. A lot of authors who couldn't get their stuff published with "real" publishers are doing ebooks because it's so cheap. I wonder if there will be a way to differentiate, without having to read every sample out there.

 

This is a discussion we've had in my writer's group many times. Some in our group have decided to e-publish, and those that do will get their books professionally edited before e-publishing. They are terrified of putting their stories out there before they're ready.

 

I am still determined to go the traditional route of submitting to publishers before I try self-publishing. I want to see my books in print. Unfortunately, the chances of getting traditionally published are getting slimmer and slimmer.

 

The really amateurish stuff pretty much sinks without a trace. The best self-pubbed stuff is indistinguishable from the best trad-pubbed stuff in all respects, including writing quality, editing, and covers. And many of the trad-pubbed books now being published as ebooks are truly bad. Basically, the trad publishers are rushing to get backlist titles into ebook form, and in many cases it appears that they've just done a scan and OCR without doing even a quick read-through to catch OCR artifacts and bad formatting (I'm talking formatting problems like hard line breaks in the middle of sentences and even words). And in many cases the publishers don't even have the ebook rights, but they go ahead and publish anyway. I'd love to see the authors whose work they're stealing file copyright infringement charges against them.

 

Good luck to you getting a trad publishing contract. The chances are about the same as winning the lottery, if that. And then you get a tiny advance (typically $2,000 to $5,000) paid usually in three installments over a year or more. Your book will actually be published anything from one to two years after you submit the final manuscript. The print run will probably be 5,000 copies, if you're lucky. Most bookstores probably won't order any copies, and those that do will order one or two copies and bury them spine-out. Your book will stay on the shelves for a month, if you're lucky, and will then be returned and pulped.

 

Conversely, if you self-pub, you can do both ebooks and pbooks and have them sold by Amazon and B&N, both of which have infinite shelf space. Your books will live forever if you self-pub. You get no advance, and if you want to do it right you'll have to pay for a professional editor and cover designer, which together might run you anything from $300 or $400 up to maybe $1,500, depending on who you use. Your book will start earning 70% royalties the day you publish it to Amazon and B&N. If your ebook enjoys even mediocre sales, you'll earn far more in royalties from self-pubbing before the trad-published book would even have been published than you'll get from the trad publisher as an advance. And for the next 100 years you and your heirs will continue to collect royalties on that book.

 

I think it's a no-brainer to self-publish fiction titles, and more and more authors are doing so, both newbie authors and established ones. As most trad published authors will tell you, the "dream" of getting a publishing contract usually turns into a real nightmare. Of the many authors I know who've been traditionally published, some with 30 or more titles over decades, every single one of them that's gone to self-publishing is making more money by self-pubbing than they ever made with trad publishing. In many cases, much, much more. I just had an email exchange with one of them a few days ago. He said that over the last decade he'd averaged about $40K per year as a full-time author in trad publishing (and he was on the high end; most do nowhere near that). He started self-pubbing in late 2010, and for a few months things were slow. But he continued to add new and backlist titles, and for the last six months his self-pub royalties have averaged $20,000. Per month.

[JennyD]

I think that the technology has a ways to go before books could become obsolete, with some genres more likely to go before others.

 

I was actually discussing this very thing with my BIL, who works in tech in Silicon Valley and is an uber-early-adopter of all things new and shiny. He of course had an e-reader right off the bat but has gone back to reading actual books, because he likes to skip pages, go back and reread sections, write in his books, etc., and at the moment you can't do that on an e-reader.

 

I teach at a university and would *love* to find an alternative for the heavy, expensive, unwieldy coursepacks that I use in my classes. But colleagues who have tried scanning their materials for students to access online say that that they have found that their classes just don't go as well as they do when the students have the materials printed out. For whatever reason, the students engage better with the materials in print. Getting everything into an e-book (assuming I could work out the copyright issues for doing this) would presumably be better than having them read online, but I fear that the format still wouldn't lend itself as well to close textual analysis, and not being able to skip around easily would be a major hassle for both reading and teaching. Still, the current format has so many clear drawbacks; I wish there were a better option. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.

[TranquilMind]

Dh gave my eldest dd and I Kindles for Christmas. I was on the fence about getting one for ages, because I love the feel and smell of a real book. Dd really wanted one though. Now that I have it, I do like my Kindle a lot, but I'm about to get rid of our 2000+ books and convert entirely to e-books.

 

Dh and FIL keep telling me that in about 20 years books will be obsolete and everything will be digital. I find that hard to believe. However, when you consider all the things that have become obsolete over the last 20-30 years (cassette tapes, video cassettes, rotary phones, etc.) I suppose it could be possible.

 

I guess I just find it hard to believe that there could come a day when there were no more physical books, libraries, bookstores, etc. because everything is digital. It seems to Jetsons to me.

 

So, what say you? Will physical books someday disappear from our culture?

Noooooooo!

 

I won't allow it. I buy a lot of books!

[TranquilMind]

EMP strike. Just sayin'. I am not an ereader fan. I love the smell, texture and solid feel of a real book.

Me too! And my real book cannot malfunction. If there is light, I can read it.

[TheHomeScientist]

Absolutely. For pure text material that is read sequentially, e.g., novels and narrative non-fiction, an eInk reader is the best solution, better than print books in so many ways.

 

But for anything that requires color or a lot of page real estate (like the technical books I write) any ebook reader including an iPad is grossly inferior to print. The same is true for anything that requires jumping around in the text or anything (PDFs, magazines, etc.) that is columnar or uses lots of tables.

 

Ereaders aren't going to kill cookbooks, technical books, children's books and similar print books anytime soon, but they're already killing pure text-based print books, particularly novels. I'd be very surprised if at least one or two traditional publishers don't go bankrupt in 2012. They're doing their best to continue selling large numbers of buggy whips when the rest of the world has already abandoned horses for horseless carriages.

 

I think I'm fairly representative of many ebook reader owners. Excluding technical books, for the entire year of 2011 I bought maybe half a dozen new print books, all of which were gifts, and only a handful of used paperbacks. In the past, I've probably averaged buying 100+ print books a year. Conversely, I bought more than 300 ebooks in 2011, the vast majority of which were priced at $0.00 to $2.99 and only a handful were more than $3.99.

[funschooler5]

The really amateurish stuff pretty much sinks without a trace. The best self-pubbed stuff is indistinguishable from the best trad-pubbed stuff in all respects, including writing quality, editing, and covers. And many of the trad-pubbed books now being published as ebooks are truly bad. Basically, the trad publishers are rushing to get backlist titles into ebook form, and in many cases it appears that they've just done a scan and OCR without doing even a quick read-through to catch OCR artifacts and bad formatting (I'm talking formatting problems like hard line breaks in the middle of sentences and even words). And in many cases the publishers don't even have the ebook rights, but they go ahead and publish anyway. I'd love to see the authors whose work they're stealing file copyright infringement charges against them.

 

Oh, yeah...I've noticed those too. they seem to be whipping them out pretty quickly without worrying about quality.

 

 

Good luck to you getting a trad publishing contract. The chances are about the same as winning the lottery, if that. And then you get a tiny advance (typically $2,000 to $5,000) paid usually in three installments over a year or more. Your book will actually be published anything from one to two years after you submit the final manuscript. The print run will probably be 5,000 copies, if you're lucky. Most bookstores probably won't order any copies, and those that do will order one or two copies and bury them spine-out. Your book will stay on the shelves for a month, if you're lucky, and will then be returned and pulped.

 

Yeah, I've been submitting stuff off and on for 10+ years...it's tough out there. My stories and illustrations have been published in magazines, and I've illustrated a few educational books, but my novel hasn't had any bites yet (though I've only sent it out twice so far). I've gotten good feedback from editors at writer's conferences, but the chances of hitting the right editor at the right time are pretty slim.

 

Conversely, if you self-pub, you can do both ebooks and pbooks and have them sold by Amazon and B&N, both of which have infinite shelf space. Your books will live forever if you self-pub. You get no advance, and if you want to do it right you'll have to pay for a professional editor and cover designer, which together might run you anything from $300 or $400 up to maybe $1,500, depending on who you use. Your book will start earning 70% royalties the day you publish it to Amazon and B&N. If your ebook enjoys even mediocre sales, you'll earn far more in royalties from self-pubbing before the trad-published book would even have been published than you'll get from the trad publisher as an advance. And for the next 100 years you and your heirs will continue to collect royalties on that book.

 

I think it's a no-brainer to self-publish fiction titles, and more and more authors are doing so, both newbie authors and established ones. As most trad published authors will tell you, the "dream" of getting a publishing contract usually turns into a real nightmare. Of the many authors I know who've been traditionally published, some with 30 or more titles over decades, every single one of them that's gone to self-publishing is making more money by self-pubbing than they ever made with trad publishing. In many cases, much, much more. I just had an email exchange with one of them a few days ago. He said that over the last decade he'd averaged about $40K per year as a full-time author in trad publishing (and he was on the high end; most do nowhere near that). He started self-pubbing in late 2010, and for a few months things were slow. But he continued to add new and backlist titles, and for the last six months his self-pub royalties have averaged $20,000. Per month.

 

Yes, but being previously published, he probably already had a loyal following of readers. I'm guessing that unknown authors have a steeper hill to climb when it comes to getting noticed. I know there are exceptions to the rule, though (Amanda Hocking, John Locke, etc.). If I go the self-publishing route, I definitely want to learn how these authors market their books. I have John Locke's book on e-publishing which explains how he used Twitter and his blog to create a large following.

 

My main hesitation is that I write children's books. I know that more and more kids are getting e-readers, but right now, I think most of them read "regular" books. When I search for children's books on my Kindle there doesn't seem to much of a selection. But maybe if I take the time to get an e-book ready, by the time I'm finished there will be more kids with e-readers.

[Jenny in Florida]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

:crying:

 

 

I'm with you 100%.

 

I use lots of technology. I am learning to love my iPhone, and I adore having music available to me on it or an iPod. I appreciate the convenience of being able to download an audiobook from a website to an iPod and plug it so I can listen in my car.

 

I don't want to imagine living without my computer or internet.

 

I make daily use of our DVR.

 

But, books? Reading on a cold, electronic screen? No how, no way. I've fiddled around with the Nook in B&N stores, and I can't tell you how unappealing it is to me.

 

I. Like. Books.

 

I like the way they feel, the way they smell. Books have personality, soul, history. Electronic gadgets don't.

 

I don't want to live in a world in which books are obsolete.

[Jenny in Florida]

An ebook is fine for something I don't love or to get a quick taste of something, but the books I love, I will always want to own in a tangible way.

 

Books are like art to me. Some people adorn their home with paintings and knick knacks. Mine is adorned with books.

 

And I agree with this, too.

[Jenny in Florida]

Something did just occur to me, though.

 

If there is even the slightest possibility that printed books may stop being available, that makes every tome I have in my house a potential collector's item! Now my husband can never again bug me about buying more. After all, it might be an investment!

[Melinda in VT]

I have a nice, handmade, leather cover for my Kindle, so reading on my Kindle is actually a better tactile experience for me than reading from a paperback book.

[cecily]

Not in my house! I am adding to our book collection and making our home a no-screen-book-reading zone! :001_smile:

[justamouse]

I think it's a no-brainer to self-publish fiction titles, and more and more authors are doing so, both newbie authors and established ones. As most trad published authors will tell you, the "dream" of getting a publishing contract usually turns into a real nightmare. Of the many authors I know who've been traditionally published, some with 30 or more titles over decades, every single one of them that's gone to self-publishing is making more money by self-pubbing than they ever made with trad publishing. In many cases, much, much more. I just had an email exchange with one of them a few days ago. He said that over the last decade he'd averaged about $40K per year as a full-time author in trad publishing (and he was on the high end; most do nowhere near that). He started self-pubbing in late 2010, and for a few months things were slow. But he continued to add new and backlist titles, and for the last six months his self-pub royalties have averaged $20,000. Per month.

 

Your whole post is made of awesome. But yeah, people think you sign on the line and you are rolling in it-Nope. Not even close. You sign to get on the gerbil wheel. Then you need three out in the first year, then they want one more a year out of you and you're not going to making any real money until about book 10. And by then, your career may have been sunk by bad shelving, a horrible cover, lazy editing (few editors, many books) or the team shelving a book as, say, sci fi, when it was a romance, and then the sci fi people got pissed and ripped it, and the romance people didn't even see it.

 

Then, if any of those things happen and you don't earn out your advance, your career is over anyway and you're starting all over. Or they can tell you what they want you to write, though your fan base wants something else.

 

JA Konrath is kicking butt and taking names, if anyone wants to know about how to self publish. But don't think you don't need an editor, formatter and cover artist. And you still need to get your 10k hours in to be a good writer. :001_smile:

 

I am loving these older authors (the really awesomely good ones) who are coming out and self pubbing shelved books that their publishers passed on, and making buko bucks. The best part about this is that the publishing houses don't have to tell you what is good anymore-the market decides.

[justamouse]

Something did just occur to me, though.

 

If there is even the slightest possibility that printed books may stop being available, that makes every tome I have in my house a potential collector's item! Now my husband can never again bug me about buying more. After all, it might be an investment!

 

That won't happen. You'll be able to print out your book and have it bound in the store. The machines are already available, and I haven't been keeping up with it, but I think the last snag was developing fast drying inks for covers.

[Jenny in Florida]

That won't happen. You'll be able to print out your book and have it bound in the store. The machines are already available, and I haven't been keeping up with it, but I think the last snag was developing fast drying inks for covers.

 

Yeah, I doubt that for my hypothetical collectors of the future, a reprint will be the same.

 

Don't burst my bubble, please. I get so upset at the very idea that there might not be physical books in the future that I have to grasp at whatever straws are available. Seriously, the last time we had this conversation, I dipped into a funk for three days.

[TheHomeScientist]

Your whole post is made of awesome. But yeah, people think you sign on the line and you are rolling in it-Nope. Not even close. You sign to get on the gerbil wheel. Then you need three out in the first year, then they want one more a year out of you and you're not going to making any real money until about book 10. And by then, your career may have been sunk by bad shelving, a horrible cover, lazy editing (few editors, many books) or the team shelving a book as, say, sci fi, when it was a romance, and then the sci fi people got pissed and ripped it, and the romance people didn't even see it.

 

Then, if any of those things happen and you don't earn out your advance, your career is over anyway and you're starting all over. Or they can tell you what they want you to write, though your fan base wants something else.

 

JA Konrath is kicking butt and taking names, if anyone wants to know about how to self publish. But don't think you don't need an editor, formatter and cover artist. And you still need to get your 10k hours in to be a good writer. :001_smile:

 

I am loving these older authors (the really awesomely good ones) who are coming out and self pubbing shelved books that their publishers passed on, and making buko bucks. The best part about this is that the publishing houses don't have to tell you what is good anymore-the market decides.

 

Oh, it gets worse. Midlist authors are an endangered species in trad publishing. Even authors who sell well and are profitable are routinely dropped because sales of their most recent books aren't as high as earlier books. And publishers don't take into account the huge decline in sales overall.

 

And sometimes this ends in tragedy. Ten years ago, an author friend of mine, Caroline Llewellyn, killed herself. She was having marital problems, but I think the thing that really put her over the edge was having her publisher refuse her latest book and finding that her agent wasn't able to sell it elsewhere. She was an excellent writer and a wonderful person. But her publisher's focus changed, an editor left, and Caroline was left blowing in the wind.

 

That's one of the best things about self-publishing. Having absolute control over what you write and how it's published. If you talk to just about any trad published author who's gone the self-publishing route, they'll tell you that they're making more money but what's really nice is having that freedom and control.

[elegantlion]

My wife and I are always on the lookout for good mysteries. Who's your MIL?

 

Here's her latest book, Cover Her Body.

 

And her other mystery novels.

[Ali in OR]

We all approach this issue as people who grew up reading real books. We're already readers. It will be interesting to see what will happen with our kids' generation and the next one or two to follow. It's quite possible that there will be fewer people who actually read.

 

I think children's books will actually be around for awhile. But what if parents begin to snuggle up on the couch with their kids and an e-reader or tablet computer instead of a print book? Perhaps it's the same exact device that the parents use to show a digital movie to keep the kids quiet at the doctor's office, or perhaps the kids use it to play Angry Birds or Boggle (my dd's faves). Suddenly reading and sitting still for a story has a lot of competition. I think SWB makes the point in The Well-Trained Mind that processing language (listening to or reading books) takes more work than processing images. She even recommends not using videos if I recall correctly. Why will tomorrow's children choose to work hard at learning to read that e-reader when they can just press a button and watch the movie instead? The demand for the written word (print or electronic) may be in for a long declne as the next generations come of age.

[justamouse]

 

That's one of the best things about self-publishing. Having absolute control over what you write and how it's published. If you talk to just about any trad published author who's gone the self-publishing route, they'll tell you that they're making more money but what's really nice is having that freedom and control.

 

So sorry about your friend. That is tragic.

 

Yes, I've seen the same from trad published authors. At least the ones that were wise enough to leave room in their contracts and not sell their souls.

[Robin M]

What happens if Amazon goes under? Is there a way to convert one's ebooks into another format?

 

 

There are quite a few online ebook sellers out there now in addition to Barnes and Noble. But I don't think we'll see the end of Amazon for a long time.

[Chava_Raizel]

We all approach this issue as people who grew up reading real books. We're already readers. It will be interesting to see what will happen with our kids' generation and the next one or two to follow. It's quite possible that there will be fewer people who actually read.

 

I think children's books will actually be around for awhile. But what if parents begin to snuggle up on the couch with their kids and an e-reader or tablet computer instead of a print book? Perhaps it's the same exact device that the parents use to show a digital movie to keep the kids quiet at the doctor's office, or perhaps the kids use it to play Angry Birds or Boggle (my dd's faves). Suddenly reading and sitting still for a story has a lot of competition. I think SWB makes the point in The Well-Trained Mind that processing language (listening to or reading books) takes more work than processing images. She even recommends not using videos if I recall correctly. Why will tomorrow's children choose to work hard at learning to read that e-reader when they can just press a button and watch the movie instead? The demand for the written word (print or electronic) may be in for a long declne as the next generations come of age.

 

That is a tragic thought. I think that would be the downfall of our society, because I don't care what anyone says, to be educated you must be well read. I like tv just as much as anyone else. I love watching a movie based on a book to see how others might visualize what I just read. I love watching documentaries about subjects that I'm interested in and have read about. But without the reading, the movies and documentaries are fairly shallow.

 

I try my hardest to make sure my home is full of books, whether they be physical or e-books. My kids will grow up knowing reading is important and hopefully they'll be readers when they're adults and pass it on to their children.

[Julie Smith]

Why will tomorrow's children choose to work hard at learning to read that e-reader when they can just press a button and watch the movie instead? The demand for the written word (print or electronic) may be in for a long declne as the next generations come of age.

 

there is a interesting book called, "a young girls illustrated primer". It is at in a futuristic world where no one in the general populace reads. They all interact with tablet devices. Instead of reading they use images. Nothing is literature based, it's all iconic based.

 

I think one day books as we now them will be gone. Museum pieces. As each generation passes the newer generations will have a lesser and lesser connection to books.

[TravelingChris]

No, because of the types of books both my dh and I got for Christmas- ones with photographs- lots of them. Also the type of books I collect- select children picture books- from certain illustrators.

[TravelingChris]

Who edits the self published books? Anyone? Because there is no way I want to read a self published book that hasn't had an editor.

[Georgiana Daniels]

A few years ago I had huge fights with high ups in RWA about self publishing and e-publishing authors being True Authors, despite their not having gone through the gatekeepers.

 

I'm in RWA too :D

 

Yes, there has been a ton of back and forth on this issue.

[TheHomeScientist]

Who edits the self published books? Anyone? Because there is no way I want to read a self published book that hasn't had an editor.

 

Traditionally published books seldom get much, if any, editing nowadays.

[funschooler5]

Who edits the self published books? Anyone? Because there is no way I want to read a self published book that hasn't had an editor.

 

There are freelance editors available for hire, many of whom have worked for traditional publishers.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

That won't happen. You'll be able to print out your book and have it bound in the store. The machines are already available, and I haven't been keeping up with it, but I think the last snag was developing fast drying inks for covers.

 

A return to a centuries old publishing model.

 

Printer gets several sheets of a book ready or custom prints a book for the individual. They then take it to a bindery and have it done as fancy or cheap as they like.

 

Now if only I could afford all those neatly matched leather bindings you see in the "Great Houses" of Europe.:001_smile:

[justamouse]

I'm in RWA too :D

 

Yes, there has been a ton of back and forth on this issue.

I forgot the back loop-ORG? Anyway, if you were on there a few years ago, you might remember two huge authors and me, under my real name, getting muddy. :D That was back when e authors wanted PAN status and they were taking the votes at national.

 

I'm out, now. Pffft. Now that people like Marsha Canham are self pubbing backlists and writing ebooks? My work there is done. :-D

Edited December 31, 2011 by justamouse