E-publishing carries pros and cons for authors

In the February 8 issue of “The Weekly Standard,” author James Gardner pointed out the up side of electronic publishing: access to the sum total of written knowledge available instantly no matter where you are (as long as you have an internet connection).

In addition to all the books he pointed out that are available for free (if published prior to 1923 when modern copyright law was enacted), a wide variety of new publications are available as e-books or pdf versions for a much lower price than hardcover or softcover editions.

To a writer, this may seem like bad news. How can we make a living in an already competitive publishing market when prices for e-books are dropping? Where will we find work? Will our job disappear?

To these concerns, I say a world of opportunities have opened for writers, editors, and even publishers. We can make a living with lower prices because the volume of sales for e-books on the internet is potentially exponential. Rather than a small market of those who browse bookstores or Amazon, you have the opportunity to reach the entire internet public – for decades.

We will find work because there will always be a market for current fiction and non-fiction. Those who read fiction want new stories and new characters – especially if it’s an interesting series. Non-fiction continues to be a growing market, and everyone is interested in learning something new about an area of special interest to them, such as history, biography, or self-help.

For publishers, the world of e-books solves a problem that has been around since Gutenberg printed the first Bible: the budget has only so much room for launching new books every year. However, in a world of online publishing, the budget can be stretched because of savings on paper, ink, and shipping (just to name a few expenses).

Most importantly, to me, is that research is vital for writers, especially in the area of non-fiction. Imagine the amount of research you can conduct when the world’s great libraries and books are open to you at the touch of a button. It is like finding a way to walk the universe.

Links to like:

• Project Gutenberg
• Online Libraries
• Bibliothica Alexandrina (the reincarnated Library of Alexandria)
• iPhone App: Free Books (small fee for app but books are free to download to phone or computer)

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Cecilia Sepp is an association management consultant and writer based in Silver Spring, MD. She is currently in her third year on the AIW Board of Directors as Immediate Past President and chair of the Member Engagement Committee. She blogs at Association Puzzle.

If you write books, or ever considered writing a book, you have probably followed the stories about the dispute between Macmillan Publishers and Amazon.com. To quote President Kennedy, “I want to say this about that.”

The dispute primarily concerns the price that Amazon wanted to apply to ebooks, which exist in cyberspace and are downloaded by purchasers for reading on one of the various electronic devices now on the market. Macmillan felt Amazon was setting the prices too low, which would result in lost revenues for everyone concerned – authors, agents, editors and, of course, publishers.

Everyone, that is, except Amazon.

This may strike you, as it did me, as resembling a scene out of “Jurassic Park:” a struggle between Tyrannosauruses (Tyranosauri?), while all the lesser creatures scurry for cover. But there are serious ramifications here for all us “content providers,” a term I once heard a technogeek apply to writers.

I want to give you my take on the matter:

My wife and I are planning a trip to Boston in a couple of weeks, to visit my daughter and son-in-law. If we don’t want to drive the distance (and my wife is adamant on that subject) we have two options: Jet Blue to Logan International Airport or Southwest to Manchester Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire.

My daughter and son-in-law live in the far western suburbs. Our decision required us to weigh the price of airline tickets, the relative proximity of Dulles International Airport (Jet Blue) or BWI Thurgood (Southwest), and the cost of ground transportation from whichever airport we chose to our daughter’s home in the western burbs.

I won’t go into the decision we finally made because the important point here is the process we went through. It took some time, as you might imagine.

To most people, books – like travel – are a discretionary purchase. When people consider buying something that they don’t have to buy, they inevitably go through a process rather similar to the process we went through in planning our Boston trip. And with discretionary purchases, price is most definitely a factor.

Price isn’t always the deciding factor, but often it is. We ignore this at our peril.

I’m in favor of everyone getting a decent-size slice of the pie – especially authors – but there’s more than one way to reach that end.

Which brings me back to Southwest and Jet Blue, both of which make their fortunes by underpricing the big guys in the industry, in order to develop new travel markets that may not have existed before. It seems to work: when other airlines were hemorrhaging money every year, Southwest perked along with a profit. They paid their employees, operated on time, and turned some previously moribund airports – think of BWI – into behemoths – and Jet Blue into an airline.

Maybe it isn’t possible, but as an author I’d like a slice of that. Could it be that the real problem with the book business is that we’re pricing ourselves out of the market?

I submit it for your consideration.

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Clyde T. Linsley has been a full-time freelance writer since 1986. He served two terms as president of WIW during the nineties. He is the author of four published mystery novels.