Advantages and Disadvantages of Ebook Publishing
Like any other form of publishing, ebook creation has its own advantages and disadvantages.
You will need to bear in mind each advantage and disadvantage, and its potential meaning for you, when trying to decide if ebooks are actually a viable option for getting your written work published, noticed, distributed and read.
Advantages of Ebook Publishing
Ebooks have very low production costs. The concept of ebooks means that publishing can literally be achieved at your own desk. There are a number of specialist ebook writing applications being hawked around the internet, but by far the most favoured option, and the most compatible with the internet, is PDF (Portable Document Format - using Adobe Acrobat or similar). In general, all that is required in this case, is an electronic source document or manuscript, usually formatted, proofread and edited, with some form of front page artwork included. This could easily be in MS Word form which is then converted to the pdf ebook format. Your ebook is now ready to be sold and distributed.
Ebooks have little or no distribution costs. If you are using online marketing and selling your ebook via the internet, you will undoubtedly be delivering the ebook file via e-mail, for free. Contrast this with the costs of warehousing, packing and postage for traditional printed books and you can easily see where savings are to be made.
Ebooks can also be stored economically. Since you are storing only electronic files, and not large pallets of pre-printed matter, cheap electronic storage media can be used either in the form of secure server storage or even CD or DVD for the most basic of archiving methods.
Sophisticated content management or document management systems do exist and can easily be implemented cost effectively. These are generally only of real benefit when the configuration or version control of the document is vital or when you are trying to store large quantities of ebooks.
Disadvantages of Ebook Publishing
Most people prefer to have paper-based printed books rather than an intangible electronic file on their computer or PDA. Ebooks don't offer the same buying experience for readers as buying a printed book in a shop. Equally, many authors prefer to have their work published in traditional book format. Self-published ebooks don't carry the same prestige as a paper novel on the shelf.
Many people do not like reading their books on screen. This might mean that your fiction book is not be entirely suitable for publishing as an ebook. In general, ebooks are shorter than the average novel. Ebooks may therefore be more suited to non-fiction, reference or informational books such as an encyclopaedia or a guidebook.
There are many different ebook formats in circulation. This gives compatibility issues for readers who have more than one format to deal with or who have specific hardware on which they read their ebooks. As time goes on, ebooks will need to be preserved for the future. The pace of change in technology means that a method of ensuring that ebooks being produced today can still be read in 50, 70 or 100 years from now will have to be found. Contrast this with the many millions of antiquarian books held in libraries and homes around the world that have survived for hundreds of years.
A more in-depth discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of ebooks in comparison to traditional printed books, can be found in Wikipedia.
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