Paperbacks go digital

Technology gives choices in publishing

By Michelle Rupe Eubanks,

Staff Writer

Jim Hannon/TimesDaily

Debra Glass, author of haunted histories of the Shoals and the South, is taking on the next horizon in publishing: electronic books.

Debra Glass' commute to work each morning is as simple as taking her coffee mug from the breakfast table to the computer desk where she sits writing her latest novel.

As the author of six published books, all of which involve the haunted histories of the Shoals and the South, Glass is taking on the next horizon in publishing: electronic books. The first in her series with Ellora's Cave, "Gatekeeper," hit the downloadable market in May.

For the writer, tackling an e-book is no different from one that must be written and researched for a paper publication, said Glass, who lives in Florence. But this new method of delivery is something altogether different for the reader as well as the publishing industry - one that has the potential to change the way books are consumed now as well as by generations to come.

"In my experience, the e-book has been a bigger opportunity than the print format," Glass said, and her genre, paranormal romance, has become a big hit amongreaders.

It's a coincidence that put the author at the right place at the right time to carve a career out of what had previously been a hobby.

There are questions, however, about how to protect the digital format of these books - a situation that smacks of the turn-of-the-century debate about downloadable music in the form of MP3s and how to prevent piracy of the copyrighted works, one that lingers today and gives rise to a sort of Medusa effect on Web sites that cater to these consumers. As one shuts down, others pop up undetected, providing the same pseudo-legal service.

Andrea Fleck, a spokeswoman at Workman Publishing in New York City, said most authors are like Glass, "enthusiastic that their books can be made in alternative, digital formats," but cautious about protecting their material.

Workman, which owns Algonquin Books in Chapel Hill, N.C., has just entered the digital publishing realm, but there are other, larger houses, including Random House, Riverhead Books and Penguin Putnam, that have led the charge with their big-name authors on board, not the least of whom are New York Times best-selling writers, Ken Follett and Michael Crichton.

Although the technology that enables a consumer to download a book to a laptop is nothing new, devices that make that technology hand-held are and include the Kindle from amazon.com and Sony's e-reader.

Fleck said the Kindle has "revolutionized the marketplace, not so much because of the device itself, but because it has made e-books easily accessible to the consumer. Amazon has created an incredibly easy way for its powerful customer base to purchase and consume e-books without ever having to manually download content."

Amazon spent years researching and developing the Kindle, hoping to achieve the No. 1 design goal: that it disappear.

"That's the most important feature of a book," said Andrew Herdener, spokesman for amazon.com. "When you read a book, the book itself is just the container; it's 500-year-old technology. And, like a book, it weighs similar to what a paperback book weighs, about 10.3 ounces."

With the technology comes a price, and for some consumers, it's one that's too hefty to add to the monthly budget when gas is $4 a gallon.

The Kindle retails for $359, while Sony's e-reader is around $310. These gadgets come with all the bells and whistles, including screens that are legible in direct sunlight and long battery life.

They're also equipped with dictionaries, allow users to take notes, leave bookmarks and read the headlines in The New York Times - things Herdener said paper books can't do.

But the purchases don't end with the device; e-books retail for about $10, and there are gaps in what's available, especially among the classics, such as Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" or Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre."

"Our goal is to have every book ever printed available for download," Herdener said, adding that almost all new releases and best-sellers come in a digital format. "We launched (Kindle in November) with 90,000 books, and we're already up to 125,000."

Consumers such as GalleyCat.com editor Ron Hogan said the allure of having this first-generation technology is not enough to justify a large purchase.

"It's out of my price point right now, but I'm certainly watching the price and listening to what others are saying about it," he said. "It's very beautiful, but I'm in no position to afford to be an early adopter of new technology. I'll probably wait until the second or third wave."

The price, too, will likewise keep printed book sales high, Hogan said.

"Books are always going to survive in their printed form," he said. "Some people will always prefer the sheer aesthetic quality of being able to hold the object and to be able to have a presence more effective than an electronic display."

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@timesdaily.com.