12.05.08
Coming of age
When I was first e-published in 2000, the word on the web was “cutting edge.” To be e-published was to be the wave of the future. It was merely a matter of a couple of years and the rest of the publishing world would catch up. The same was true of print-on-demand, by which my books are also available. Soon, kiosks would appear in Barnes & Noble and Borders and customers for small press books (and out of print and hard to find) would merely make a selection and wait for the final product.
Well, half the dream is closing in on reality. With Amazon’s Kindle, the Sony e-Reader, and the proliferation of SmartPhones with ebook reading capabilites, e-publishing is finally coming into its own. The big hint was when traditional publishers, such as Harlequin, started making all their books available in the various e-reading formats. Of course, that’s still the downfall: all the formats. It’s an e-book version of Sony vs. Beta from the 80s. No one has really won out yet, nor has the price of the devices dropped to the below $100 mark, but just the fact that publishers and manufacturers are taking the process seriously is encouraging.
My books are available not only from my publisher, Wings ePress, but also Fictionwise, which offers many incentives to buy there, never mind that my portion of the royalty is curtailed. If reaching the e-reading public is the name of the game, then it’s a fine place to start.
As to everyone else who enjoys the pleasure of a book in hand… I’ll let you know when I see the first POD kiosk.