Tuesday, January 26, 2010

E-Books and Old Children's Books

Will e-books replace ink-and-paper books? Personally, I have enough gadgets. I hate having to change batteries. Furthermore, I like the tactile experience of holding a book and reading it, of being able to toss it into a bag, take it to the beach or to the park, without having to worry about it breaking or having to recharge the batteries. Having to deal with a cell phone is enough of a hassle. However, e-books are allowing authors more leverage in bargaining with publishers, which is good. Furthermore, Amazon is encouraging authors to self-publish with them and keep 70% of the royalties.

I must say that I have found publishing The Night's Dark Shade through Lulu.com to be one of the best decisions I ever made. The quality and service is excellent and the author has complete control of the creative process. Lulu authors keep 80% of the royalties of direct sales, and the profits made through retail sales (through sites like Amazon) are also better than with a traditional publisher. I will never go to a traditional publisher again, unless it were a major publisher who could make it worth my while. No more small Catholic publishers. Every author has to promote their own work anyway; why let the publisher keep the bulk of the royalties? The good thing about using a large traditional publisher is that they get your book into bookstores everywhere. But then, more and more people are buying online. It will be interesting to see where it all goes....

Meanwhile, there is a market for old copies of traditional children's books. (Via Hermes.) Share

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your experiences with publishing, Elena.

On e-books: I, too, like to hold a book, but maybe that will change in the future.

elena maria vidal said...

Well, Susan, I never thought that I would be in front of a keyboard for hours at a time but here I am.....

Anonymous said...

I'm very interested to see where e-books will go, too. I'm not as "afraid" of them as I once was, because I now see them as simply a different format, and an author can have good sales both ways.

But, like you, I'm tactile and am tired of a keyboard and screen and buttons at the end of the day. I know the e-readers are intended to "feel" more like a book, but I haven't been utterly convinced yet. :) Maybe one day...

elena maria vidal said...

Yes, Christine, it will be interesting to see where all of this goes. I have no doubt that I'll be toting around an e-reader someday....

Enbrethiliel said...

+JMJ+

For years, I've been fascinated by Marshall McLuhan's idea that "the medium is the message," and the way new media has been dramatically changing people's values seems to support his thesis.

I'm not too crazy about eBooks, though I admit that they're wonderfully convenient. Perhaps some day I will carry around an eReader as well, but I don't think anything will beat the experience of reading a book with a physical "medium" as rich and wonderful as its message.