ebooks save money as well as time

The price of ebooks is coming down! It is cheaper to produce and distribute ebooks than printed books and this is now being seen in the price you pay, which for most mass market publications is around half the price of a printed book.

I like the feel of my books, I will never get used to reading from a machine

A PC or Laptop, maybe. But already 1,000s of people are reading books from their PDA and have discovered great benefits such as being able to carry part of their Library in their pocket wherever they travel. In Japan Sony have just launched 'The Librie', the first ebook reader that uses 'E Ink' technology. E ink provides an electronic display that looks like and works like paper. Once the words form on the page they stay there without power until the reader 'turns over'! This technology will revolutionise the way books are read; within a decade or so paper books will become a curiosity rather than the norm!
Look how we have embraced every other kind of new technology – from simple household appliances to the cell phone. Not all gadgets succeed but that is probably more to do with the practicality of their use, there are always some silly ideas! But publishing is well established, information is one of the fastest growing business sectors and the transition from the written word to the digital word is only a matter of becoming used to a new way of reading.
Then what about the youth of today? Surely it is clear that they will embrace the convenience of this new technology with ease. Students won't need to lug suitcases full of books around with them or have to pay the high prices that text books demand!

What author would ever seek to be published this way?

Well why not? More people will have access to his books; at present most paperbacks are published for distribution in a single nation, ebooks are Global! Financially he will be just as well off too, even though ebooks are cheaper to buy - he currently receives around 10% on the sale of paperbacks, Bookselecta pays authors 30% per download on its published ebooks.

But will I be able to get such a wide range of books?

Yes, there will be more books, a greater variety. This perhaps, is the single greatest benefit of e-publishing!!

Over recent years the breadth of publishing has shrunk. Many specialist publishers have gone out of business, and because of the high risk and costs associated with traditional book production as well as the need of 21^st century businesses to satisfy lenders and investors, main stream publishers have tended to take fewer and fewer risks. This means that they rely on obtaining the bulk of their revenue from ‘fast sellers’ and reduce marketing costs through publishing books that give them a guaranteed return. New authors hardly get a look in, it is much safer to publish another book by a writer with a track record or a celebrity whose fame alone will guarantee volume sales.

But e-publishing has changed all this – up front costs, overheads & risk have all been dramatically reduced, an e-publisher can afford to launch a new author or publish a specialist book that will only sell a few copies a year.

But will e-published books be any good?

Of course they are, you can now buy best sellers from many leading authors in ebook format.
But books, unlike most products, are very diverse and should be. Not only in terms of content but in the style in which they are written. Readers too have greatly varying tastes; some like a good thriller while another prefers a biography. Because of the wide range of ebooks available at Bookselecta, every reader will find something for them, and we don't mind how long you take to look around! Its much more comfortable than standing in a busy shop.

Can I get my favourite author's books as ebooks?

Yes! It's been a while coming but now you can find many ebooks by top selling authors, and now the transition has begun there will be no stopping it.

So is that the end of Hardcover and Paperback Books?

Not at All! Today you can buy many books in both paperback and ebook format. As technology moves forward and affordable e-Readers become common place, ebooks will take a greater share of the market. But there will be a place for hardcopy books, although they may eventually supplement instead of being the major source of information and published material.

I suppose ebooks help conservation, you don’t need any paper?

Yes. Sadly our rapidly increasing population seems hell bent on destroying the very source of life, our planet. Politicians and businesses seem to have little interest in the future, the American Government in particular quite happy to condemn tomorrow's children to a dying planet rather than upsetting an electorate by restricting consumption and reducing greenhouse emissions. It is therefore satisfying to see an industry emerge that will dramatically reduce at least one area in which the planet’s resources are under siege. After all books are made of paper, and paper comes from trees – and although some people point out that not all of book paper comes from tree pulp, this is really irrelevant, paper is paper and other use of tree pulp can be eliminated in its stead.

How do I buy ebooks? Are they available at my local bookstore?

Some bookstores are beginning to stock ebooks but the best way to find an ebook is to search the web, either at home, at a library, or in a cyber-café. Start at Bookselecta and you will probably find you will never need another bookshop.

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