Cobb PublishingSecondary research

Advantages of self-publishing eBooksTime

The process that an author has to go through in order to publish a physical book is long and tedious. It can take a time period of over 2 years, excluding the time taken to write.

eBooks on the other hand can be instantly published by registering yourself on an online publishing service such as bookbaby.com. In the newer eBook readers such as the Kindle and the iPad, an inbuilt feature such as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing can be used to register your book immediately.

Usability

eBooks can be taken to read in transit or on holiday.

eBooks can also be taken in huge quantities without increasing the pace required.

Traditional books take up large amounts of space unlike eBooks which require only one device.

New eBooks can be purchased anywhere with an internet connection unlike a traditional book store which may not exist in the local area.

Innovation

The self-publishing facility will obviously lead to many rubbish books being uploaded by unprofessional authors.

However authors who would often not publish their great pieces of work, due to the costs, can now do so for close to nothing. This will allow better literature to be published and distributed.

Hidden talent was often overshadowed by the process and costs involved in traditional book publishing, this will be discovered through eBooks.

Questions to an avid reader and teacherQ: do you prefer to read books as soon as they’re

released or wait for them to be released in your preferred format?

A: This really depends on the book/author. There are some authors although very few who I will pre-order with Amazon and receive the book on its release date. Due to the immediacy of eBooks this has been in digital format recently although some books I view as collector’s pieces to be read again and again or referred to I prefer to buy in tangible form.

Q: Do you think purchasing a hard copy book for a higher price is worth it rather than a soft copy for less? Why?

A: Again it depends on the reasons and use. Perhaps due to my age and upbringing I still prefer to have hard copies of text book or reference material. But increasingly the novel unless unavailable is becoming a digital only purchase. The only other time would be support of a small or local publisher because (although I am not sure) I have heard that Amazon takes a sizable percentage even when self publishing through their kindle platform.

Questions to an avid reader and teacher

Q: What are the overall benefits and drawbacks you think ebooks have, as an avid reader?

A: Ease of transportation. With Amazon's whispernet world wide delivery. Lower costs. Definitions, annotations and highlighting tools already available. Built in lights to most e-readers or their cases. Privacy of reading (cannot be seen what is being read). Synchronization. Environmental. Drawbacks poor editing/formatting often still mars some digital copies. Rendering of pictures can be clumsy. Eventually they need to be recharged which is not always possible straight away. Eyesight strain if using a backlight

Questions to an avid reader and teacher

Q: The english department provides many books to the students for study purposes, would you believe that providing them with a digital copy would be a suitable option to explore? If not, why?

A: Yes. The English department is exploring this the problem is with copyrighting and usage. How can we determine the cost and usage across one school account for the number of books needed or used. Currently few systems support this. Students would also require a medium to transfer work/annotations etc to other platforms (even in hard copies, pictures/emails/photocopies can be made and shared) Most companies seek market shares and therefore do not work on open platforms or open source formats. This can lead to issues.

Questions to an avid reader and teacher

Q: Out of our school community (i.e. students, teachers) who would you recommend ebooks and whom you wouldn't?

A: Ebooks should be used as a tool to encourage learning. Like all educational tools there is no one size fits all and people must tailor their own experience to suit. Ebooks can be a fantastic tool for teacher and student alike depending on the individual.

Questions to an avid reader and teacher