Doing It the Digital Way
It’s a common misconception that a paper book is superior to an e-book. The truth, however, is that e-books have some significant benefits over their paper counterparts. For example, they don’t succumb to damage or humidity and can be read on any device - even in the dark with the light of your phone. But what is it exactly that makes an e-book so appealing?
First of all, these digital texts are cheaper to print than a traditional hardback book. They are also easier to personalize: there are more options when designing an font face and things like page color and size can be changed without having to change the actual design of the front cover and pages themselves. Finally, they’re environmentally-friendly: as long as the e-book has been made possible by a digital means, then it can be printed on greener paper and recycled after use.
But what does this mean for authors? At first glance, it would seem like ebooks are a win for the author and his or her publisher. They’re cheaper to produce, easier to print and there’s less embodied carbon in the paper that has been used to produce the book. Because e-books can be copied thousands of times and saved indefinitely they also act as a way of spreading ideas and educating people. With the ability to get rid of shipping costs and the fact that there is no limit to the number of copies of a digital book can be printed, e-books are a great way for authors to lower their production costs.
In recent years, many publishers have been making moves into new markets such as India and China. E-books make it easier for them to access consumers who have limited resources and a lack of hard cash. There’s also the issue of translation- an traditionally printed book is very expensive to translate since it often involves typesetting again from scratch. With e-books, however, there’s no need to translate anything since they are already in digital format.
So what’s the downside? Well, there are some issues which sometimes end up affecting the author. For example, e-books often have long load times and can take a long time to download. Even if you’re an online reader who has a decent connection and regularly downloads books, it can still be a problem if they happen to be big or heavy ones. And although e-books are environmentally-friendly, they can have a massive carbon footprint associated with them.
E-books are cheaper to print and easier to translate, but they can’t be held in the hands of a reader. The physical book has to be bought, which means that some people will never have access to it unless they use technology or go out of their way. This is a problem with digital books: if you don’t have the internet or a device that is compatible, e-books are of no use to you whatsoever. In addition, it can be confusing scanning the text without pages and without an easily identifiable structure.
Although e-books seem to be the better option, it is important to recognize their limitations. Although they are cheaper and can be reused and redistributed at will, they can be difficult to deal with especially if you don’t have access to the technology required. E-books are definitely more efficient for publishers and for authors who want to distribute their work in regions where there is limited access to print culture, but there’s no denying that paper books still have a place in the publishing industry.
Written by Ross Titley for The Digital Way written on Feb 7th 2013
Link: http://www.thedigitalway.com/a-blog/digital-version-books/
Licence: http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en_GB
Title: Ebook Sales Are On The Rise, But Print Is Far From Dead
Author: Matthew Shear, for TechMediaNetwork on Oct 23rd 2012
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/20121003/S00005352.1.html?s=se
Licence: Some rights reserved, application/pdf
The e-book market will grow by 50 percent in 2012, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCooper. The report projects that ebooks will account for nearly one-third of all book sales in 2012 and continue growing at an annual rate of more than 30 percent between 2011 and 2015.
In 2005, e-book sales made up less than 1 percent of all physical book sales in the U.S. By 2011, they accounted for roughly 4 percent. By the end of 2012, that figure will be above 10 percent. By the end of 2015, the IAB predicts that e-book sales will account for about 25 percent of all physical book sales.
"We're finally seeing ebook growth numbers that are starting to level out in a very positive way," Scott Levine, a partner at PwC who led the research study, tells Mashable . "There is still a ways to go (in terms of) making them more popular and more convenient for consumers."
So what's driving this growth? There are several factors at work here, including the continued development of dedicated reading devices.
Conclusion
In the U.S. in 2012, the projected sales of ebooks is expected to be well over $1 billion compared to just over $100 million for printed books. The growth is due primarily to the growing popularity of e-readers that include the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader and the Android powered Google Nexus 7.
PricewaterhouseCooper's report also speculates on the potential for greater international adoption of e-books through digital storefronts such as Overdrive or Kindle's global retailer platform.