First of all, congratulations to Coreene Callahan on the
launch of her book, Fury of Fire, yesterday!
And congratulations to Callie Lane for the launch of Dark Abandon today.
And now on to the blog topic for the day.
I was reading an article about the rise of e-books and how
they’ve increased in sales by 124 percent to about 14 percent of all
sales. There’s been a lot of talk about
the death of the book and book sales and it occurred to me that there is an
actual historical parallel.
Before the Gutenberg press, every book had to be written and
copied by hand. The printing press
revolutionized the world of literacy, making books cheaper and more easily
available, thus encouraging more people to learn to read by making it easier
and more relevant. I’m sure there was
moaning about the death of the hand-written book and praising the uniqueness of
each copy. Since most books were written
by monks, I’m sure there was talk about the spiritual energy of a carefully
crafted volume versus a mass-produced soulless tome. And it was eventually the death of the
copyist and illuminator as a career.
Now I don’t know if you can strictly compare e-books to the
printing press but there’s no denying, e-books are cheaper to produce and, provided
you have a computer or tablet and Wi-Fi, easier to get.
But there’s the issue (for me). It’s dependent on first world
technology. If your power grid is iffy,
you won’t have electronics to run and if e-books became the exclusive publishing
medium, we exclude the vast majority of the world. Granted, when you’re in survival mode, a
light read is nowhere near being a priority for your time and resources. But we’re pushing literacy for children and
women across the globe, which should include encouraging them to actually
read. And since no one wants to read
weighty literature all the time, that should include access to lighter
material. We shouldn’t be cutting them
off.
I believe the e-book will never completely replace the
printed book. However, I could see a
printed book becoming more expensive and rare.
There’s an ecological upside to this: less waste, less dead trees. E-books are easier to take on vacation. Since I usually end up packing a dozen novels
on any trip, this is handy for me in terms of luggage space. But at home, I like my library. It currently has over two thousand
titles. It never ceases to give me a
satisfied thrill to look over crowded shelves filled with old friends and
thrilling adventures, provoking thoughts and random trivia. I don’t think looking at a screen full of
icons will ever feel completely the same.
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