E-books and Editing

Sometimes I feel like I'm on a one-woman crusade to champion the cause for e-books. But there's a lot of prejudice out there against them. One misconception is if you've got an e-book, you've PDF'd it yourself and stuck it up on Amazon.

It's true there are a lot of self-published e-books. There are a lot of self-published print books also, but I guess e-books are easier and cheaper to produce if you're going down the self-published route. Self publishing has always had bad press in the industry. Just because a book is self-published doesn't necessarily mean it's bad - although I have read some that have made me understand where that assumption comes from.

The fact remains, though, that more and more small publishers are specialising in e-books only. This doesn't mean they scrimp on quality. There's still a rigorous editing process. SUFFER THE CHILDREN went through no less than seven rounds of editing, not including the pre-edit. DEATH SCENE is still in the process, but there's already been three rounds with more to come.

With the nature of publishing changing the way it is, I think we're going to see more and more independent publishers setting up as e-publishers. Sadly, much of the industry still has to come to grips with the fact that just because a book is an e-book only and has no print version doesn't mean it's not a 'proper' book.

I'm on a personal crusade to disabuse people of this notion at every opportunity. In fact most people who know me are bored of me banging on about this now. The publishing industry is changing. Those of us who are e-book converts just have to wait for everyone else to catch up.