eBook debate

I was recently asked to share my thoughts with one of Canadas largest print book retailers... here is my response.

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You raised some very good questions and after considering them, here is my professional opinion as one of the very few eBook publishers in Canada.

The popularity of eBooks is on the rise and will continue to grow, just as it did with the CD and the DVD. There are many reasons why this trend will continue to grow and eventually replace what we call the norm today.

Environmental

They are environmentally sound. It is my personal belief that print books will become collectables in the future in the same way vinyl records have. The call to be more eco-friendly these days is finally beginning to make some positive changes in the way we do things. More and more people are seeking out eBooks on that merit alone. The actual benefits to the environment can be monumental, and it’s not just the trees and cleaner air. A lot goes into manufacturing the paper. Pulp-mills consume massive amounts of energy and create waste. Toxins and chemicals are used to bleach and treat the paper and some toxins are left behind during processing that also damage the environment. The machines consume oil, electricity and some processes are still using coal. What about the dyes, inks and glues used (chemicals)? The books have to be shipped, using more resources and polluting the environment via the transport used, not to mention the customer who drives to the store to purchase the books. Many books pile up in peoples houses and after being passed around from one person to another, the majority of these books end up in our landfills. Sure they are biodegradable, but regardless of that, the inks and glues still leave toxins to leach into the soil.

Economic

There are still a few hurdles to contend with, but in the end it’s the consumer who finds them economical and this is drawing new readers to the eBook industry. The costs are lower to produce the product, and therefore the consumer is able to benefit by paying less. There is a very damaging idea floating around that eBooks have low quality when it comes to the skill of the Authors. That may be true for those who are self-publishing without going through the rigorous editing process with a professional publisher, but this is not so with a reputable eBook publisher. If this myth about sub-standard quality were really true, eBooks would have never gone further than a short fad. All of the eBook publishers I have met and networked with that have a standing in the industry, all have full a staff.

Example: My publishing company, Eternal Press, has in its employ an acquisitions editor, a senior editor, eight editors, four copyeditors, three cover artists and a handful of other people who take care of administrative tasks and marketing. A lot of work goes in to each book. It’s reviewed by acquisitions and is given a yes, no or a request for rewrites. Then it’s sent to the senior editor who schedules it and assigns it to an editor who is suitable considering genre and heat levels. The book will then be sent back and forth between the editor and the author, sometimes up to three or four times, until it is ready to go to the copyeditor. The copyeditor reviews it and the edited manuscript receives one last review between editor and author. When that has been completed, the senior editor reviews the work and the book enters the formatting stage. Each book is formatted to be easy to read and attractive to the eye. The cover art is made months in advance for the authors to use for promotions before its release date and contains amazing artistic talent and effort.

This is a process used by larger print publishers, and just as much effort, skill and professionalism goes into each eBook. The main difference is the fact that an eBook publisher gets to skip a few steps such as manufacturing a hard copy, and distribution with hopes that what was printed will be sold and not returned. I send my eBooks direct to the consumer in an economical and environmentally sound form.

I know there are some companies out there that will publish eBooks without the vigorous editing and processing. My opinion is that these are the kinds of companies that hinder the industry. With a bit of research into each company you deal with, this lack of quality can be avoided.

How to Boost the eBook Industry

At the moment eBooks can be read on your PC or Laptop computer, PDA, cell phone, Blackberry, palm pilot, i-touch, and other small hand held devises. There are also eBook readers for those who want something larger that makes the reading easier.

One of the biggest obstacles that the eBook revolution faces is the cost and quality of these eBook readers. From what I hear from consumers, staff, various blogs and websites who talk about such matters, the customer wants a product that they can hold in their hands much like someone would a book with a screen size that is comfortable to read. That means clear defined fonts, backlighting that can be adjusted for comfort, and size adjustment for those with bad eyesight who need to zoom in. It must be light, durable and rechargeable. But the most important thing: cost. The prices of these devices are still far too expensive to make using them an economical choice for the consumer. They range in prices from $150.00 to $500.00 and up. The quality of such devices are not worth the expense when it’s believed that the product could break when dropped rendering it useless and a waste of their hard earned money. The longevity of the technology itself is often a hindrance. Why spend $300 on something that is uncomfortable to use because it is lacking all of the basic features listed before? It’s still much cheaper to buy the paper copies of books than invest in an e-reader that is not functional to a degree that makes it worth the investment. When the technology is developed to make the e-readers both functional, affordable and durable, then the e-book industry will have no limits to its potential. There is no reason why an eBook reading device needs to be above the cost of an upper end calculator. The technology just plain isn’t that complicated.

In order to create a boom in the eBook industry, someone needs to manufacture an eBook reader that is between $50.00 and $75.00, that will read and store up to 2Gs of information, can plug into a computer or USB port and have a few options allowing change in the text size, lighting and bookmarks. It should be made with a durable shock resistant interior and exterior that will not harm the product if dropped. If someone were to offer such a product, I could guarantee a major boost in the industry; the growth would be phenomenal and eBook sales would expand exponentially.

Retail

At the moment eBooks are available almost exclusively online, with the exception of those authors who have put their eBooks on CDs to sell and sign for readers/fans at book signings. Publishers and authors are beginning to offer downloads at their individual booths at writer’s conventions and book festivals etc.

Online publishers offer their products directly from their websites. They also use other online retailers who specialise in selling eBooks and software. Fictionwise, Books on Board, All Romance eBooks, eReader.com and Content Reserve all market, sell and distribute the eBooks to consumers in many different e-Formats. Fictionwise alone increased my sales at Eternal Press by 5 times. Amazon climbed on the bandwagon and sells over 1,000,000 different eBooks in many e-Formats and have their own reader (Kindle) which, if offered at a better price, would make more consumers permanent eBook readers.

At the moment as long as you have a PayPal account or a credit card, you can purchase eBooks from your cell phone and any other wireless device used to read them. But for those who have no wireless technology, they’ll need to go to a website and download the eBooks they want to their computers, or in some cases directly onto their e-reader device.

Most large book stores have computers available to the consumer to help them search for the titles they want by author, genre etc. Even then, there is no guarantee it will be available, and often items have to be ordered. This inconveniences the consumer, many of which are likely to give up and buy something else that’s more readily available. So why is it that there is no kiosk at the checkout where a consumer can purchase the book they want and plug in their device to download the eBooks they purchased? For those who only use cash (not credit) this route gives them the ability to buy eBooks which otherwise is completely unavailable to them. Why can’t there be eBook kiosks in airport terminals, bus depots and hotel lobbies where a consumer can purchase and download directly? What about hospitals? Instead of renting out TVs and passing around old used books with limited selections, how about renting e-readers and offering millions of selections so a patient can chose anything they want to read, literally bringing the library to them?

How many publishers are kicking their behinds because they turned down J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books because they believed kids don’t read books, that they would rather be playing video games? Why is Canada’s largest book retailer ignoring this growing industry that will one day be the norm? Are you willing to go bankrupt as the industry grows around because you refuse to adapt to change? Also I would like to add something my senior editor said to me. She is a Canadian living in Australia and as my senior editor I asked her to copyedit this letter for me. Lauren said in a comment... Quote “You may also want to add something about availability and cost of books in smaller foreign countries. I’ve mentioned to you before how expensive books are here, and how often times, the books I want are simply not available here. They have to be ordered from Amazon at my personal expense instead of the book store. I’d love to have a functioning, affordable e-reader and download a book from on-line instead of waiting six weeks to have it shipped using surface mail from the US...at a very high cost to me!

I have my eBooks on all of the eBook retailers mentioned above and I’m slowly making them available to more and more web retailers. I am a very proud Canadian and I want to offer Canadians a way to buy Canadian products in Canada. There are not many eBook publishers in Canada and I am very happy to know that I can take advantage of the Canadian market, which at the moment is largely unaware of the growing movement. I hope that Eternal Press will one day be known as one of the Canadian publishers who took an active, positive role in the growing trend and stuck it out to help make a successful shift in how all Canadians read books in the future.

In conclusion, eBooks are here to stay; eBooks are growing steadily in popularity and eBooks will one day oversell print books, changing the industry forever. I’m proud to be a part of that.

You asked me how I became an eBook publisher. Well it’s a long story, but ultimately I bought a drowning company and gave it fresh air and a vision.

Sincerely,
Ally Robertson

BLOG ACTION DAY

Before I go off on my thoughts and ramblings about how much I love the environment, I want to stress first what is important. Never more than now does Reduce, Reuse and Recycle carry more meaning. Please write those companies that you see who over package their goods or just plain boycott them and don’t buy it. Reuse what ever you can, when ever you can. Please recycle. If you think you don’t have the time then give what you don’t recycle to someone who will, the extra money may help them. I give much of my returnables to the homeless by leaving them on top of or beside the garbage cans instead of inside them, or I leave them in a clear bag outside near a trash and in no time they are gone. Sometimes I give them to my neighbours who need the extra cash. The smell at the recycle centre makes me ill, so I’d rather give them away to someone who would be more willing to do it, I give out approx $10 to $15 per month doing this. Turn on lights only when you need them, turn them off when you don’t. Fill a cup with water when you brush your teeth instead of running the tap. By eco friendly cleaning products. Take your unwanted items to charity, keep things out of the landfills for as long as possible. There are many places now that recycle computer parts, TV’s and other appliances. Put a brick in your toilet tank to reduce the amount of water you use just to flush and no need to flush every time. I grew up with a septic tank and I understand what it’s like to only flush when there is a number 2 in the bowl, no reason why it can’t be the same when using a sewer system in the city. Do what you can, when you can and you’ve done your part. One person can make a difference and when combined, we as a whole can make an enormous difference.

As a writer I wanted to not only get my story out there in a fun, exciting way, but also in a knowledgeable way, I want my readers to learn something. In my 1st novel I described and built an environmentally friendly home, an eco dwelling. In the second novel I am working on, not only are my characters stranded in the wilds of Northern BC but I will express the need for conservation, what effects the climate change has had on the environment and how to respect what we have left.

I have always had a very deep connection with the earth. I carry her rocks everywhere with me around my neck. I probably have several hundreds of pounds of rocks, crystals and gemstones combined in my home and on my patio. My largest rock is a large chunk of quartz that I made my husband carry down a mountain for me, it’s about the size of two footballs (40 lbs) and it guards my patio door to bounce away negative energy.

I keep the air fresh in my house by keeping many plants and it livens up the atmosphere.
Oct 14th 2007 Kids water park in an undamaged area of Stanley Park.

Against my better judgement and even after being told by those who know me most not to go to Stanley Park, I ventured out today and went anyway. It was a beautiful day today, one of the last sunny ones we may have before we have rain and clouds for the rest of the winter. I had been avoiding going to my favorite park since last December. There was a terrible windstorm that swept in from the Pacific ocean, trees were downed all around the coastal cities, but nowhere was the damage felt more than in Stanley Park.
The trees in this photo are gone.

Stanley Park is a city park in Vancouver. It is 10% larger than Manhattan’s Central Park and is well known as the largest urban park on the North American continent. I loved Stanley Park. She was home to some amazingly old trees. We just lost the oldest one a few days ago in high winds and it was between 800 and 1000 years old.
This is a picture with my husband Bob in the centre and my nephew Billy to the right in 2006. All of the trees behind them are gone now.

This is whats left of them after the damage.

The damage from last winters storm far outweighed what my mind was able to comprehend or imagine. I knew that the fact that I loved the park and that I connected with the park on an empathic level, that it would make me shed some tears for her losses. I was so wrong. My daughter warned me not to go. I didn’t just shed a few tears. I sobbed, I wailed, I keened, I grieved violently. I had waited 9 months, I had hoped most of it would be cleaned up by now. I expected to see some downed trees. What I saw on the western side of the park was absolute devastation. The only way to see the water from the top of Stanley park was to go to Prospect Point or down from the seawall, not now. I had never seen it from the road due to the thick lush green forests that towered all around, but I saw the ocean today, the forest was but sticks and splinters.
West side of Prospect Point and where Dodie and I used to smoke.

My first tear fell when we came around the bend approaching Prospect Point and I looked to the left and I saw the blue sky. The forest that stood there was gone. I had always connected that specific stand of trees as mine and Dodie’s (the daughter who warned me not to go) we had often snuck into the wooded area together to sneak away from the prying eyes of tourists to smoke a dube before we went hiking at the Hollow Tree. We had on one occasion been surrounded by racoons who thought we were there to feed them (I never feed wild animals) and we were all fried and freaked out and went running back to my Jeep. It’s all gone now, the trees, the animals and even the eagles who were roosting there. Not one tree is left standing in the specific patch of trees, it reminded me of the clear cuts I see when I go camping way out in the mountains. Going further around the bend I noticed that the whole slope was devastated. I began to sob then. My husband drove in silence, just shaking his head, even he couldn’t believe what he saw. This was one of the only times we did not park and go walk around the point and look over at the Lions Gate Bridge.
Me and the Hollow Tree Dec 2003 and The Hollow Tree 1891.

We kept going until we reached the Hollow Tree, even she did not escape damage, the top was gone once again. The Hollow Tree is a famous landmark 5.5 metres in diameter and the largest in diameter dead or alive in the whole park and the most photographed spot in the park. The main tree died long ago due to lightning strike, but its off shoots survived to grow and were themselves hundreds of years old. The tops are all gone now.
Bob and my nephew in the Hollow Tree 2006 and A picture from today.

But my main goal was within reach and the reason I braved to enter the park in the first place; my annual mushroom hunt. Yes the kind of mushroom that make you smile, and in my case make me incredibly horny too. I went to the same spot I’ve found them every year since my first year here in the city. I found them my first fall here six years ago and kept their exact whereabouts a family secret. A gift from the Mother, a gift of laughter, smiles and warm fuzzy feelings. I only pick enough for me, an odd treat to get me through the depressive days of winter when my moods crash, it’s the earths most natural antidepressant (ok hallucinogenic too,,, Ooo pretty colours). I eat three little ones now and then, and put on a not so fake smile. I froze what I brought home, enough for 6 small trips to Allyson’s wonderland in the dead of winter. Anyways...

All in all 40% of the trees where effected throughout the park and along the western edge 60% was lost with Prospect Point being the worst hit.
60% of the forests on the right hand side of both these photos are gone now.

I grieve as much for the rest of the earth and what is happening to her. Due to global warming BC is facing it’s worst outbreak of mountain pine beetle. The infestation has been devastation. I first saw the wide spread devastation on my travels to and from Alaska. It’s heart breaking to see so much death. It hasn’t been getting cold enough to kill them off enough to get them under control and the ministries practices of not allowing natural burns to take place, leaving the forests susceptible to disease. Not to mention what is happening on a global scale. I just can’t handle all of it, so I focus on the things closer to home.

I could probably go on for ages about this, but I find it too upsetting and frankly I’d rather spend more time writing about things I enjoy. So I will leave it up to the experts.

In closing I’d like to say that I have been a very fortunate person to have seen some of the most amazing sights, traveled in places few have gone and I’ve had the opportunity to spend time in some of Canada’s most beautiful spaces.
Yup That's Me!

I always respect the places I go. I often bring out more garbage than I take in and I NEVER leave even the smallest scrap of garbage behind. I leave every site either the same way I found it or in better condition. Please respect the places you go to for others to enjoy, get involved in cleaning up your communities and conserve where you can.
The view at the top of Burnaby Mountain 5 minutes from my home.

On October 15th - Blog Action Day, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on every one's mind.
In its inaugural year, Blog Action Day will be co-ordinating bloggers to tackle the issue of the environment.

Hey peeps. Get involved and show how you can do your part. Together we can all make a difference. What many people don't realized, is that just "you" can make a difference too. No action is too small as long as you act.

So come back on October 15th and see what I have to say. Comment on this blog and I will come see what you have to say too.