Smarten Up About eBooks

It's time for newspapers and magazines to smarten up about ebooks. They won't review them.

Why?

Because (and this comes from a newspaper that called one of my print books the work of a writer with "enormous talent") they don't want to open the gates to a flood of poor quality "self-published writers."

So they reviewed the paperback version of my novel Team Player, but refused to review my ebook version of Smoke Break because, apparently, my writing since the novel was published had deteriorated to poor quality and, even though the ebook was published by a reputable press, if was self-published because it was an ebook.

Granted, the first ebooks were awful. That first rush of publication on the Internet years ago created a tidal wave of bad writing. People could self-publish on their web sites or they could pay money to have their unedited words packaged for sale through publishers who didn't give a damn what was in the books as long as the authors paid their money.

But things have changed since then. Sure, you can still self-publish or pay to have your books published, but there are many reputable publishers producing well-edited and well-written ebooks. And many of those books are written by authors who have more talent than many of the writers churning out bestsellers through the tradition print presses.

Why?

Because e-publishers have lower overheads. They don't bear the costs of paper and glue, nor do they pay massive distribution costs and have to pay back on returns. It's not free to publish an ebook. You still need graphics, editing, formatting, a web site, and a least a minimum amount of marketing, but the costs per book are tremendously lower.

That means that e-publishers can take more chances. They can publish writers who, though their works may be brilliant, may not have immediate popular appeal in the reading public. This in turn, has helped the ebook industry to produce a barrage of new writers whose works are notably different from the styles of the big 10 or so writers who dominate the traditional presses. These new writers speak in original voices, offer new insights, and push the written word in directions that the profit-conscious traditional presses would never allow.

But newspapers and magazines (even the online versions) ignore them, call them self-published and question their quality. It's time for the editors of magazines and newspapers to smarten the hell up, equip their reviewers with PDAs and explore a new world of originality and fine writing.