The Amazon Kindle is very expensive but selling well, apparently.

I was shown one recently and despite my love for books I couldn’t help liking the lil’ thing. It’s a cute gadget, smaller than I expected and the “electronic paper” is agreeable; not at all like a computer screen. It works like paper anyway; one reads the letters by reflected light, not transmitted: no glare, well placed buttons “turn” the pages: not all that different from a book bound in paper (and the pages won’t begin falling out as they do in our copy of Lord of the Rings among other recent books we’ve bought, here).

It isn’t the only reader of course, Wikepedia lists all these:

• Polymer Vision (2008)

• Astak Mentor (2008)

• GeR2 by Ganaxa (2007)

• Kindle by Amazon (2007)

• Cybook Gen3 by Bookeen (2007)

• FLEPia by Fujitsu (2007)

• Hanlin eReader by Jinke (distributed as Lbook eReader in Ukraine) (2007)

• Sony Reader by Sony (2006)

• ILiad by iRex (2006)

• Librié by Sony (2004)

None of this is new. To me, the only unexpected thing is that there are that many - although, come to think of it, there could be many more (some of those on the list are pretty obscure)

But what is astonishing is the discussion that’s going on about them. Publishers are on the way out? Good bye editors? Unlikely.

That the publishing industry is changing is probably true, we are seeing that from the writer’s side. As a beginner I have learned that my chances of getting published with a small press are very much better than they’d be with a large concern. Print on demand, where the book is made up and shipped only after it’s purchased must be taking over, and it surely will even with the big guys.

These are just the gadgets, the medium - and the medium is not the message, not in this case anyway. Yet much of the debate seems to center on the demise of publishing as we know it. Between the writer’s first glimmer of an idea for a story, and the reader actually getting one there is a huge amount of work. From the author’s personal “act of creation” whatever that is, through the draughts, revisions, critiques queries, submissions (through agents or not) , publisher’s front door, editors desks and tentative acceptance, more work with he writer, revisions - throw in a few rejections and start the cycle all over again or continue - to art work, and then (and only here) the printing, marketing, purchase and delivery and into the readers hands … between the writer and the reader there is a lot more than just printing so whether it’s done on mashed up trees or solid state screens, the process of printing a worthwhile book is the final product of a much longer gestation.
Sony

That much is obvious. Mr Bezos at Amazon announced that they would feature the POD books done with their own BookSurge company only (they acquired BookSurge in 2005, and at that time they also bought the European Mobipocket.com from which the Kindle technology is derived), but far less is said of the announcement by Penguin Books Ltd. , that they would issue all their new books electronic form as well as paper. Amazon is a retailer. Penguin is a publisher. Whether Amazon’s purpose is an attempt to grab the market, or to keep vanity publications off their inventory, or both, or neither or something completely different is irrelevant - and if it does hurt honest small publishers it’s despicable and worthy of discussion, but elsewhere.

HanLin Chinese/Ukraine?

The traditional editing process is a gatekeeper, hopefully ensuring that the reader is getting only the best efforts, from the better writers. I don’t think that it will disappear overnight. It may change, it may offer many more choices to potential readers (and thereby, more opportunities for us as writers). It is conceivable that something else may take its place or complement it. The new millennium is marked as the age of bewildering choices. We have so much set before us, all Glittering, New and Wonderful (admen and copywriters take note) that out task has changed from seeking out what we want to filtering out what we don’t.

In the long run e-readers will stay and take over. Us older folk, we get to keep our beloved books but they will become older and mustier. We can use the forests for something else (no we do not want to do Form WIMP-2548-ZING/b in re-quadruplicate , either). Vanity presses will also find life easier and there will be far more stuff on offer with no more than the authors own assurance, hope and prayer … but overall, we need the old fashioned editor, whatever form she or he takes.

And just imagine that one of these e-reader gadgets is offered to you right now for about $10 or £ 5 or a like amount of € …? Unlikely? Remember what we paid for an Apple II, or a Commodore 64, or a TI 99 (mine was about $3000 I think). Would you lay down ten bucks to get all the books in the world at your disposal. I think I would. Not taking up copy writing yet, in case you wondered.
Here is a link to a well-informed blog on the Amazon Kindle (not Amazon!)
Kindleville

Your comments of course, most welcome!

Q