Monday, March 30, 2009

10 Popular Myths About Ebooks (essay by Michael Pastore)



[Author's Note: Many of the ideas and passages in this essay are taken from the new book (and ebook): 50 Benefits of Ebooks. — MP ]

Paper books: I love them, and I hope that they are never replaced completely by their electronic progeny. Nevertheless, every day, ebooks are growing in use, in sales, and in significance.

To promote the growth of this young industry — and to nourish the aspects of the digital reading revolution that can make us a nation of readers again — publishers and authors need to educate the reading public about the brave new worlds of ebooks and electronic publishing.

Here are ten myths about ebooks that would be better placed in Bullfinch than in Britannica. First, the 10 myths are listed; and then — myth by myth — the opposite point of view is humbly explained.


  • Myth # 1.
    The only way to read ebooks is to read them on a dedicated ebook reading device.

  • Myth # 2.
    There are not very many ebooks available to read.

  • Myth # 3.
    Buying ebooks instead of paper books does not really help the environment.

  • Myth # 4.
    DRM (Digital Rights Management) is used by many major ebook sellers, so DRM must be good for ebook buyers.

  • Myth # 5.
    There is no end in sight to the ebook format wars.

  • Myth # 6.
    Ebooks have short lifespans, because it's so easy to delete an ebook.

  • Myth # 7.
    If I publish my book in ebook format, it will be stolen by ebook pirates.

  • Myth # 8.
    Books published as ebooks are books that are not good enough to be published in paperback.

  • Myth # 9.
    Ebooks, and electronic publishing, are killing the print publishing industry.

  • Myth # 10.
    Ebooks are not ready for prime time: the digital reading revolution is years away.


Myth # 1.
The only way to read ebooks is to read them on a dedicated ebook reading device.

Not at all. Ebooks can be read on your desktop or laptop computer; or online, using a nice interface such as BookWorm; or on your mobile device such as a BlackBerry, an iPhone or iPod, and many more.

Myth # 2.
There are not very many ebooks available to read.

There are more than 1.5 million public-domain ebooks — free, as in absolutely free — available through sites such as Project Gutenberg; Internet Archive; Feedbooks, Manybooks.net, and Google Book Search. And many more ebooks are available from online ebook bookstores.

Myth # 3.
Buying ebooks instead of paper books does not really help the environment.

To quote Mr. Dickens: "You are wonderfully mistaken!" ...

Ebooks save trees. Ebooks eliminate the need for filling up landfills with old books. Ebooks save energy, and transportation costs, and reduce the pollution associated with driving and flying books across the country and around the world.

Ebooks eliminate the problem of "unsold books", which are often shredded. In the Netherlands alone, more than one million books are shredded every year, and transformed into toilet paper. ( A smart step, but still a waste of energy and resources.)

Electronic publishing saves paper. How many trees are used to produce one week’s worth of paper in a Sunday New York Times newspaper? … One weekly issue of the New York Times consumes 75,000 trees. … One year of Sunday papers produced by the New York Times is responsible for the destruction and consumption of more than 3,900,000 trees.


Myth # 4.
DRM (Digital Rights Management) is used by many major ebook sellers, so DRM must be good for ebook buyers.

Said Cervantes: "You are a million miles from the truth."
DRM (Digital Rights Management) refers to a method of protecting digital content that a
publisher can apply to videos, music files, images and ebooks. Adding DRM has three drawbacks. Always, DRM makes your digital products cost more. Sometimes, the DRM does
funny things to your computer. And often, DRM limits what you can do with your own
purchase. For example, many DRM-afflicted ebooks do not allow you to print the files.

Ebooks were never meant to be hidden like the lost city of Atlantis, buried like the treasures of Monte Cristo, or guarded like the gold in Fort Knox.

Myth # 5.
There is no end in sight to the ebook format wars.

There is ePub.
It seems as if literature and alcohol always go hand in hand. The ancient Chinese poets, gazing at the bright moon, composed their verse with a writing tool in one hand, and a cup of drink in the other. Gutenberg — Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, who lived between 1398 and 1468 — made the first printing press around 1450, using materials from a press that crushed grapes for making wine. And now we have the leading ebook format, ePub — which sounds like a website for buying beer.

EPub, in fact, is a superb solution for ending the ebook format wars. The standard was
created, and is currently managed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF),
located at http://www.idpf.org. The ePub format has many benefits and
useful features.

Myth # 6.
Ebooks have short lifespans, because it's so easy to delete an ebook.

On the contrary: ebooks preserve books. You make copies of your ebooks; and you can store them "in the clouds" for safekeeping. It is paper books that are more likely to be destroyed by water, fire, theft, carelessness, and old age.

In 48 B.C., the Library of Alexandria (with its 500,000 to one million volumes), was burned to ashes when Alexandria was attacked by Julius Caesar. To delay Caesar’s invasion, Achillas – the Alexandrian leader – employed an ill-considered strategy: he burned his own ships. The fire spread to the docks, then destroyed the great Library of Alexandria.
¤
The original manuscript of Carlyle’s The French Revolution was lost when a friend’s
servant accidentally tossed it into the fire.
¤
Richard Burton’s wife, after his death and against his wishes, destroyed his magnum opus, a risque translation of The Perfumed Garden, a book he had been working on for ten years.
¤
In May 1933, Nazi supporters burned more than 25,000 “un-German” books.

Ebooks are ageless: they do not burn, mildew, crumble, rot, or fall apart. Ebooks
ensure that literature will endure.

Myth # 7.
If I publish my book in ebook format, it will be stolen by ebook pirates.

If you publish your book in paperback, it can be stolen by e-pirates, just as easily. The cutting-edge ebook blog, TeleRead, recently reported a quote from an article in Times Online:
“Publishers and agents representing the authors J. K. Rowling and Ken Follett were battling last night to get free copies of their novels removed from [Scribd] a Californian website that claims to be the most popular literary site in the world.”

The Times Online article states that Follett's publisher, Macmillan, was unaware that the book had been posted there -- for 5 months.
Epiracy is a problem equally challenging for publishers of ebooks and of paper books.

Myth # 8.
Books published as ebooks are books that are not good enough to be published in paperback.

That notion is so old it has whiskers. In the very beginnings of electronic publishing, authors were publishing books in "e" formats when they could not find a major publisher. Now, everything is different. Many major publishers are publishing in paper and in the ebook format. Some University presses are shifting completely to ebooks. And many authors and independent publishers are bypassing New York, and choosing to publish independently. Not because their books are poorly written — but because they see little advantage and less sense in giving most of their profits away to publishers and online booksellers.

Myth # 9.
Ebooks, and electronic publishing, are killing the print publishing industry.

Scapegoating is rarely useful. To say that ebooks are the cause of print's demise is like saying that the oil industry is in danger due to renewable energy. Print publishing is struggling for many reasons. The print publishers who survive will need to embrace electronic publishing, transform their business models, and renew the original vision of publishing, where books are published not for profit only, but to enrich and renew our culture.

Myth # 10.
Ebooks are not ready for prime time: the digital reading revolution is years away.

When Benjamin Franklin first visited the Queen of France, the bright Queen asked him:
"Mr. Franklin, you are famous for discovering that 'Lighting is electricity.' But what use is your discovery?"
Mr. Franklin coolly replied:
"My dear Queen. What use is a newborn baby?"

Ebooks and electronic publishing are young. But ebook sales this year will surpass 100 million dollars. (And this does not account for rapidly-increasing influx of "free culture" works: more than two million ebooks and electronic publications that are available at no cost.) That 100 million dollars is still a small part of total print publishing sales. Yet ebooks are by far the fastest growing segment of this otherwise-troubled industry.

The digital reading revolution is here right now.

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Michael Pastore is a novelist and a non-fiction writer who lives in Ithaca, New York. His latest book is
50 Benefits of Ebooks:
A Thinking Person's Introduction to the Digital Reading Revolution.

The book is available as a 320-page paperback for $ 20, or as an ebook (in PDF or ePub) for one dollar.
For more information about the new book and ebook, visit www.EpublishersWeekly.net.

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Copyright (c) 2009 by Michael Pastore. This essay, and no part of this essay, may be included in a print or electronic publication that will be sold or re-sold. In not-for-profit publications, you may quote up to 500 words from this essay, without permission. To include more than 500 words, or the entire essay, in a print or electronic publication, or a blog or website, please contact us at by email: epubster AT gmail.com.

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Solomon Scandals by David Rothman (book review)

cover of Solomon Scandals

The Solomon Scandals
a novel by David Rothman
Published by Twilight Times Books
January 2009
ISBN: 978-1-60619-042-5
Paperback, 252 pages, $ 16.95
Ebook: $ 5.95
Sample chapters at: www.SolomonScandals.com

Reviewed by Michael Pastore

Just for fun, go to Google and type into the search box: "scandals Washington D.C." In a fraction of one second, more than 3.7 million results appear. Whereas other East Coast cities are notorious for a unique genre of scandal — Boston for stranglers, New York for Wall Street, and Philadelphia (the City of Muggerly Love) for mundane street crime — Washington D.C. is unique for the variety, inventiveness, and chutzpah of its offenses. The city ennobled by George Washington, Thom Jefferson and Abe Lincoln has a checkered past encompassing Watergate, the Plame outing, missing persons, missing emails, briberies, conspiracies, frauds, tax evasions, spying, lying, and the D.C. Madam, whose client list included more than 10,000 customers.

David Rothman's new novel, The Solomon Scandals, depicts a Washington D.C. tainted with corruption on a grand scale. There's no small stuff sweated here: these are Madoffian white-collar crimes that pay splendidly, and involve some of the city's most respected kingpins. The novel tells the story of a ballsy Jewish reporter, Jonathan Stone, who investigates a rich, powerful pillar of the Jewish community, Seymour Solomon. Stone's efforts are hindered by an ethically-challenged editor hoping to hush the inconvenient truths; and helped by a grad student who shares her bathtub and her bed. Politicians are exposed and the media skewered in this comic-tragic tale of Washington D.C. laid bare.

Three things about this novel impressed me. Real settings (D.C. by someone who knows it intimately), and real events -- for example, the collapse of the Ronan Point housing project -- are skillfully interweaved with the fictional characters and plot. The book's women are especially likable: they radiate that screwball-comedy pizzazz ala Roz Russell's Hildy Johnson in the film His Girl Friday. And humor: though the theme could hardly be more serious -- and the book's conclusion comes as a sad but inevitable shock -- this is often a subtly funny book. Stone getting grilled by his meddling parents, and the first meeting between the honest reporter and his sleazy subject are two scenes that made me laugh out loud.

There is a fine thread that connects good fiction to genuine reality. This novel makes us stop and wonder: Is this story an exaggeration only, or is real-world politics equally depraved? ... With a new American president in the White House, we hope and believe that the clouds of deception have blown away, and a sunny ethic of honesty now pervades our nation's political heart. In as much as the news media can reflect this kind of seismic shift, this year's news has been shockingly mild. Already, it seems, many people miss the pre-Obama frenzy: the flood of outrageous D.C. revelations that characterized life under our former emperor.

Fortunately, all the corruption we could ever desire — artistically rendered and skillfully told — is tucked inside the pages of The Solomon Scandals. Financial rip-offs and large-scale shady deals may always be with us. But they are far more fun to read between the covers of a well-written novel, than on the front pages of our troubled newspapers and magazines.

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Sunday, March 08, 2009

New Ebook -50 Benefits of Ebooks- Published March 8

cover of book 50 Benefits of Ebooks

Important Note:
A new edition of this ebook — updated and expanded — is now available. For the latest editions, visit the book's companion blog: http://www.EpublishersWeekly.net


50 Benefits of Ebooks:

A Thinking Person's Introduction to the Digital Reading Revolution, Where Ebooks Are Low-Cost or Free.


Happy "Read an Ebook Week!" ... Celebrate by reading a new ebook about ebooks! ...
The book was published today, on March 8. The paperback will be released on April 8 -- for $ 20. You can get the ebook for $ 1 (one) dollar.

You can buy the PDF version from our storefront on Lulu, here:

Visit Our Page on Lulu to
Buy the New PDF Ebook for $ 1


You can buy the ePub version of the ebook, from our Lulu store, here:

Visit Our Page on Lulu to
Buy the New ePub Ebook for $ 1


About The New Ebook

50 Benefits of Ebooks is a lively introduction to the brave new worlds of ebooks and electronic publishing. The book makes no attempt to be comprehensive. Instead, the work focuses on 3 areas:
1) the new, useful and most interesting aspects of the ebook experience;
2) the free (and approaching low-cost) ebooks that might inspire a genuine publishing
revolution; and
3) how reading good books (whether made of paper or of bytes) might transform our culture and our personal lives.

The Ebook Version is 1/20th the Price of the Paperback

This book is being published in paperback, and as an ebook, in the formats PDF and ePub.
The book’s companion blog and website, (EpublishersWeekly.net) – urges readers NOT to buy the pocket-sized 320-page paperback, which costs $ 20. The ebook version costs one dollar, saves trees, and contains all the same content as the paperback – except the paper!

Read It As Loudly As You Like

And here’s a bonus: You, and all the reading devices in the world, are perfectly welcome to read this work aloud.

21 Chapters :: 5 Sections :: 40,000 Words

The book's 21 chapters are divided into five sections:
A. Benefits of Ebooks and Paper Books
B. Reading Ebooks
C. Ebooks for Authors and Publishers
D. The Value of Reading
E. The Education of an Ebooklover

Ebook newcomers will find the basics here. Scholars and mothers, concerned about the dumbing effects of technology, will be gripped by the essay “The Monster Reads!”. And ebook professionals can debate and debunk the author's wild predictions for the rosy and thorny future of ebooks, by devouring the essay: “Publishing Ebooks – Ten Tremendous Trends in 2009 .”

Author Michael Pastore writes:
"I love paper books, and I hope that they are never completely replaced by their electronic progeny. Nevertheless, every day, ebooks are growing in use, in sales, and in significance. After years of sputtering, the Digital Reading Revolution has at last arrived. 50 Benefits of Ebooks is your friendly and reliable guide."

Visit Our Lulu page to buy the book, for $ 1, here:

edition PDF
Visit Our Page on Lulu to
Buy the New Ebook for $ 1


edition ePub:
Visit Our Page on Lulu to
Buy the New ePub Ebook for $ 1







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