eBooks v paper books?

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(49 posts) (25 voices)

Started 2 years ago by MsDasha
Latest reply from terriok
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Zora
Member

Science fiction author John Scalzi wrote a funny little play about why publishers are necessary:

<http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/03/why-in-fact-publishing-will-not-go-away-anytime-soon-a-deeply-slanted-play-in-three-acts/>

I'm not arguing for much of the publishing industry, which is full of bloated behemoths ten years behind the times, but for publishers as they could be. Some of them do get it ... like Baen. (Too bad that Baen's specialty is military science fiction, which is not exactly my cup of tea.)

The publisher is your filter. I'm a freelance editor and I am sometimes asked to serve as an acquisitions editor. I read a cookbook and opine on how it would sell and how much work it would take to clean it up. Many of the books I've critiqued are utterly wretched. I keep them from being published. YOU don't have to read the slush pile, because I do.

Posted 2 years ago #
HappyDogs
Member

@zora I'm unsure. I recognize that publishers and editors are valuable filters, but then I think about Yahoo 15 years ago. Yahoo reviewed websites and if they were acceptable in quality, they added them to their index. That sounds so quaint now that we have search engines, peer review in the form of the vast public, and hit stats/popularity calculations. I suspect that in addition to websites, other media will have not only professional, paid reviews, but review by the public at large as well. I guess what I am saying is, like Yahoo, the public consensus (however that comes about and is promulgated) will in the future become more important than the professional.

I don't know if that is good or bad. But hey, back in 1994 I told my boss that Yahoo's site would eventually succumb to a decent search program. He scoffed.

Posted 2 years ago #
klutzgrrl
Member

"YOU don't have to read the slush pile, because I do. " Thank you Zora. I mean that. As a 'wannabe' author, I stopped 'critting' other people's work because it was just so darn bad. I need to crit a self-published novel that was sent me, and I'm struggling as there are so many subtle issues with pacing and voice.

I do have some issues with the publishing model that we currently have that means 50% of books are returned - flooding the market with books in the hope that they will sell is so wasteful.

Happydogs, as an internet user, I frequently turn to 'indexed' sites such as About.com (well they mostly have their own content but they still do links as well) because there is so much well-optimized rubbish on the internet. Trying to find decent scholarly articles is difficult, trying to find technical advice more so: you have to plough through all the semi-literate and semi-informed opinion on forums.

Jarrod, I'm not into 'latest and greatest' either. But then, my old phone won't connect to the current network - even though it was only a couple of years old. My computer won't run current software anymore - Apple ditched the PowerPc. It's getting painfully slow, and the word processing program it runs is no longer being updated. Which in theory is fine, until someone sends me a document in the current format that I need to read.

So in four or five years time, if your Kindle is still functioning, and Amazon has installed the latest and greatest operating system on it's current product and no longer supports yours, you'll have no choice but to buy a new one.

Posted 2 years ago #
Jarrod
Member

And I disagree. I always have a choice :) If Amazon pulls such a stunt, then let us say I will get my books off the device and decrypted, and simply will view them as plaintext documents on a computer. I certainly wouldn't go with another Amazon product.

I'm not anti-consumerism, but I'm pretty darn close. :) If someone does that type of thing to me, I don't intend to remain their customer.

Posted 2 years ago #
VitaReid
Member

Having spent well over two months downsizing my collection of 700 books, I absolutely positively will maintain the lion's share of my collection on either the ipad, Kindle or my iTouch or iPhone. I totally embrace the concept of toting my entire book collection in my back pocket ... I love my mp3 player and all the gadgets ... and all the books ... Besides I won't even read them all in my lifetime. http://vitalynne.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/what-am-i-going-to-do-with-all-these-books/

My place was so cluttered I completely forgot the carpet was grey. The amount of valuable time I have devoted to minimizing my library is astounding and I'm still not done yet. Six boxes of books will be making their way today to the book swapper around the corner.

And now that a considerable portion of my collection is gone, I favor hands down an electronic library. This is one of the many benefits of a minimalist lifestyle. http://vitalynne.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/top-15-benefits-of-minimalism/

Each time I look at all the books I've accumulated, I vowed never to own this much stuff ever ever again.

Vita Reid - The One Minute Minimalist

Posted 2 years ago #
HappyDogs
Member

I guess that I consider the Kindle and any device like it to be my way of controlling book clutter. I fully recognize it is no more a lifetime device than my cell phone is. I recognize I'll be replacing it about as often as I do my computer. In the interest of having less stuff, I think it's a great bargain.

I also love the portability. After all, do you have the entire works of Shakespeare, Dumas, Poe, Austin, Burns, and three kinda-trashy modern novels in your purse? (And my beloved sci-fi!) I do, and I think it's cool. No matter what my mood, I have just the thing.

As far as the proprietary format: DRM issues simply do not concern me. Most of the books cluttering my office I read once, then tried to give away but no one wanted them. Sure they are are DRM-free, but if no one wants them, does that matter?

Okay, that's pretty much all I will ever have to say, other than to each his own. If you don't like my Kindle, that's okay, 'cause I am not sharing it with you. Oh no I am not! :)

Posted 2 years ago #
klutzgrrl
Member

I think it's important to remember that it's 'what works for you'. We tend to get a bit defensive about our particular passions, but there's really no one-size-fits-all solution.

For me the ideal solution is easy access to both - I would love to buy a paper copy of a book that comes with a PDF ebook - that would be perfect! If I had a good quality e-reader I'd use it, but I'll always have a hard-copy collection. I think it relates to the way I handle and use books - as I mentioned before, the physicality of them, and the ease of flicking back and forth.

Regarding DRM, the issue there for me is that I have several computers and often change operating systems, so DRM can be a real issue. It's about keeping my own library accessible, not sharing.

Posted 2 years ago #
chacha1
Member

@HappyDogs, I wouldn't be sharing either. I even quit lending "real" books - if there's something I've read that I want to keep but I think a friend would love, I buy a copy for her!

I am looking forward to, one day, buying a Kindle or equivalent. There is a whole lot of literature that I have given away over the years, due to space constraints, that I would like back - without the burden of hauling books. I have a lot of paperback fiction that I re-read constantly, as well, and I'd be happy to re-purchase in e-form at some point to clear those out.

That said ... after five years of progressively culling my library I still have at least 105 linear feet of books. (Yikes.) And at least half of them will stay with me till death do us part.

Posted 2 years ago #
terriok
Member

Real books! I am a vociferous reader yet I have never read all of a ebook. Not once. It is rather hard to curl up with a computer.

Books are very recyclable.

Ebooks should be cheaper. But from what I have seen of them, the current ones certainly are not. Corporate America does not miss a trick. Where is their overhead?

There is one thing I just do not get. "Dead trees". Trees are plants and a very renewable resource. Do you get on yourself for consuming dead lettuce, carrots and tomatoes? I suppose they are biodegradable but most trees are not exactly on any endangered plants lists that I know of! ;o)

I am hardly advocating wasting paper. On the contrary.

But why feel guilty about using paper? Now plastic, as in cheap plastic bags that fall apart as soon as you get outside the grocery store are an incredible waste and will be in landfills for a very long time to come.

I encountered some idiot who tried to tell her captive audience to only use three sheets of TP. Enough is enough! LOL. MYOB, lady!

Posted 2 years ago #

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