ebooks

It was good to see so many friends at the launch of The Dohlen Inheritance; I did appreciate people coming to it, and hope everyone who was there enjoyed the party atmosphere. West Quay Waterstone's were terrific and very supportive.
Independent publishing is all very well, but it's difficult for a writer to get his or her work into bookshops. Of course there's Amazon, but that still leaves the writer trying to steer prospective readers to the book. So is there a more accessible market place? Could ebooks be the answer?
Well, I'm a great fan of ebooks; I buy a fair amount of non-fiction as ebooks and read these right on screen. This is, perhaps, not the same thing as reading a novel that way - it's hard to curl up with a laptop!
What I particularly like about ebooks is that they are instantly downloadable and, since there are no printing costs, they're not only greener, they're potentially cheaper than the printed counterparts.
I'm sure everyone has heard of ebook readers by now; there are a number of models out there brought out by well-known names. You've probably seen the Sony Reader, stocked by John Lewis and Waterstone's, and Amazon's Kindle. I googled ebook readers and see there are others: the Hanlin V3 and the Bookeen Cybook, and several more in the pipe line. The problem with all of them is that they only read specified files; there is one - the Irex Iliad - which says it can read any file. However, it costs at least twice as much as its competitors. And then there are the Palm and Pocket PC platforms.
What I think this shows is that ebook readers have a future. I know many people say they aren't comfortable using one of these devices; they like the feel of a book.
I'm old enough to remember people saying the same about paperbacks when they first came out!
And old enough to remember people frowning at typed letters rather than handwritten ones. And who'd have thought that the typewriter would be replaced by the computer in virtually every office and even in the home?
Once these readers come down in price and combine several functions I think the young will read that way; they already use their phones to read texts and are very skilled at that.
The enormous advantage of ebooks is that a large number of titles can be put on an ebook reader; how wonderful to have so many books available in a portable form. Not only that; you can save your place automatically, you can do a search for characters or scenes you want to reread, you can make notes... Another advantage is that once you've read the book you can keep it on a portable drive, should you want to read it again. No hunting around on bookshelves, no storing in rooms already bursting with books.
It all sounds very exciting.
Of course there are disadvantages: battery charging, reading time, holding a device rather than a book. It's a question of getting used to it all.
But I'm sure it's the future; I don't think we're quite there yet, a number of issues still have to be resolved, but when I can get the time to do it I will publish my books as ebooks as well as POD.