The Life of a Book

Can digital books stand the test of time?

 

With the steady move over from physical books to digital we often concentrate on the good side the e-book, how much less expensive it is to publish compared to that of a paper based version, how easy it is to edit and the ability to advertise all your works at the click of a button. But I want to know what we are losing? What are the bad sides of the digital versus the physical?

How do we find new authors? Not new as in have just started out, but more new to us, someone whom we have never read from before, recommendation is one way, 'here borrow this book, you'll enjoy it?' Charity shops, I long for the day I find one of my books nuzzled in next to the Grisham's and the Cussler's for 50p, obviously not alphabetically, someone has just bunged them on the shelf anywhere in my fantasy but I digress, this is a great place where authors are continually discovered but with a digital copy rather than the physical it is unlikely that the books will be able to be handed over that way.


 'I long for the day I find one of my books nuzzled in next to the Grisham's and the Cussler's'


1st editions, leather bound, hardback, paperback, book smell and multiple editions, will all become victims of the digital age of books. When I release paper based books now I concentrate solely on paperback due to cost and convenience, price per copy comes down and size wise it can fit more easily in a handbag, still not as small or light as a Kindle, but something that is still accessible.

 

In the Hollywood movie 'Definitely Maybe' Isla Fishers character collects second hand copies of Jane Eyre looking for the one with her fathers inscription inside. I gave the first copy of my children's book Izzy Explores to my daughter with an inscription inside the cover, with digital books we cannot inscribe, we lose that token of sentimentality.


'1st editions, leather bound, hardback, paperback, book smell and multiple editions, will all become victims of the digital age of books'


I have recently started in the conquest to read all of Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt books, but to make it affordable I have went after them all as used books, as the cost of buying 24 books brand new whether paperback or on e-book was prohibitive to me. This leads me to think with my future releases where I am planning to follow a character through multiple books, if I choose to make them digital only releases will that stop future versions of myself being able to do what I have done with Clive.

I am the biggest advocate around for e-books from a self-publishing point of view, but I do wonder about what will happen to the stories we tell when they are only available online and not in a nice and cheap second hand store.

Do you have any thoughts on Digital vs Physical? What are your experiences? Comments below as usual.

Written by Martin Wallace