Okay, so now we know where the e-book is going. Ever upward.
To have predicted that twelve years ago, when I had all my novels reversed from major publishers and launched all my writings in e-books and print-on-demand, was a no-brainer. People thought I was mad. No brownie points required. It was a slam-dunk. Publishers, authors, retailers, the whole kit and caboodle of the book industry were asleep at the switch.
Read more: The Coming Battle of E-Readers
Don’t believe all that hype about government interference that is designed to foster an Amazon monopoly of the ebook business. What the six major publishers were alleged to have done was collude in fixing prices that, if true, was a desperate act that they must have known would fall afoul of anti-trust laws.
The new ploy by book publishers is to characterize Amazon as a monopoly poised to take over and dictate terms and run rampant over those who create ebook content. That is like saying Starbucks is a monopoly because it currently dominates the coffee retail business.
Read more: Don’t Believe the E-Book Monopoly Ploy
So, Amazon is to become the official publisher of its own books. It was, of course, bound to happen, too tempting to resist. After all, it does represent a large chunk of the retail book business and does operate its own production and distribution facilities both through its Kindle and print sites.
In effect, it now competes not only with its suppliers (meaning other publishers), large and small, but also with other authors, both traditionally published and a giant wave of self-published authors.
Read more: The Publishing Civil War
It was completely predictable that the e-book phenomenon would spawn various enhancements like video and music designed, according to their creators, to “enrich” the reading experience.
I suppose there are some readers who will welcome having their e-books enhanced by such accompaniments. Indeed, I have known many writers who compose their books while listening to music.
Read more: The E-Book Intrusion
It should now be obvious to anyone who reads books on a regular basis that digitized versions of books will dominate the marketplace for dedicated readers far sooner than anyone had predicted.
Having made the entry into digital publishing of my own works of fiction ten years ago, I have never lost faith in the idea that content was king no matter how it was delivered. Admittedly, the early days were a rocky road indeed. Many visionaries who believed in this technology in those early days have fallen by the wayside.
Read more: The Dedicated Reader is Alive and Well
One of the joys and curses of being an obsessive and compulsive writer of long form works of the imagination, meaning the novel, is the inability to cut off the flow. In other words the greedy muse must be served.
Most of my work is stand alone non-genre stories although I have among my published books written a six book mystery series about a female detective in Washington D.C. My stories are character and theme driven and deal with human conflict in mostly contemporary settings in some ways similar to The War of the Roses, and Random Hearts, which have been made into movies, and The Sunset Gang which became a trilogy on PBS.
Read more: Why I Released Five Novels Exclusively and Simultaneously on Kindle and Amazon
SEATTLE, Dec. 13, 2010 – Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that bestselling author Warren Adler has made five e-books, none of which have been previously published in any format, available in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). These books, all of which draw from Adler’s skill as a novelist and his keen insight into the nature of intimate human relationships, will also be available in print editions through CreateSpace. All five books in the series – “The David Embrace,” “Flanagan’s Dolls,” “The Womanizer,” “Residue” and “Empty Treasures”—are available for sale today for $7.95 with the e-books exclusive to the Kindle Store for two years.
New Kindle Exclusive: Bestselling Author Warren Adler Releases Five New E-Books Exclusively in the Kindle Store
New books by the author of “The War of the Roses” and “Random Hearts” available for Kindle and Kindle app customers in less than 60 seconds
SEATTLE, Dec. 13, 2010 – Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that bestselling author Warren Adler has made five e-books, none of which have been previously published in any format, available in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). These books, all of which draw from Adler’s skill as a novelist and his keen insight into the nature of intimate human relationships, will also be available in print editions through CreateSpace. All five books in the series – “The David Embrace,” “Flanagan’s Dolls,” “The Womanizer,” “Residue” and “Empty Treasures”—are available for sale today for $7.95 with the e-books exclusive to the Kindle Store for two years.…
This will probably be the last good Christmas for the big box bookstores like Barnes and Noble and Borders and many of the book chains that one encounters in major airports.
I say this with a sincere sense of regret and sadness. The love of books, both as a writer, a reader and a collector has dominated my life. As a young man my greatest joy was to browse through bookstores, especially those second hand bookstores that once lined the streets not far from New York University, my alma mater, where I now teach novel writing.
Read more: The Last Good Christmas
People’s Choice Voting is Closed.
Winners Get Published on Kindle and Amazon and Win Cash Prizes.
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Read more: 6th Annual Warren Adler Short Story Contest
