valarltd | On Ebooks

A phrase I see over an over on publishers' sites, as a reason why they don't do print, is "Ebooks are the future."

Ebooks are not the future.

Ebooks are the here and now.

And they are damnably hard to sell to a newly converted fan who is standing an your dealer's table and really, really wants to read your stuff. Like right NOW, instead of when they get home from the convention, look you up, plow through your publisher's site and manage to download it.

Ebooks are terrific for online sales, shoppers who are already savvy in the ways of the market. But someone like my mother, who doesn't even have a computer? Good luck.

A lot of houses are never going or stopping their print production because the recession gave themn such a shellacking. I understand this. But say it. Don't wibble about "ebooks are the future." Yeah, flying cars were the future too and I can't think of any invention I would less want to see!

Print is the past, present and future of reading. It will never truly go out of style. It's easy to sell. It's easy to skim and check out before you buy. The format never changes. I can read stuff printed 600 years ago as easily as I can read stuff printed yesterday. Try reading a computer file from 20 years ago, if you can find a machine to read your 5 1/2" floppy.

Ebooks are a nicely portable addition to the way we read, just as paperbacks were. But they are not the be-all and end-all of future reading. They aren't even a significant fraction of it after 10 years.