Monday, January 31, 2011

Ebooks vs. Print Books

Recently Amazon stated that they sold more Ebooks than print books last year. With the plethora of e-readers out there now, this may come as no surprise.Then, why do most people still put authors into two categories: "Real authors" and "Other".

I've heard some very uneducated people say that unless your book is published by one of the big six (Simon & Schuster, Random House, etc.) and available in print. Everyone else (especially authors with small presses and whose books are available in the ebook format only) falls under other or even "not a real author".

As an author with smaller presses and books in ebook and print, I find this offensive, but I also realize that this is the thinking that people have because they just don't understand that the world of publishing is changing.So rather than get upset or show disdain, I choose to educate and let these people know that I go through the same editing process as someone with the big six. I also show them that at the end of the day, the books all look the same with e-ink technology.

The point is, the world is changing and so are the trends, today epubbed authors may be listed in the "other" column, tomorrow we won't be. Some people are just slow to catch on.

1 comment:

Sara-Jayne Townsend said...

I can relate, Ashley. I still think that those of us on the e-book wave will one day be glad we were there at the start, but sometimes that is hard to remember.

Sara