E Reader's effect on authors

[robertcathey]

I'm curious what Stephen King thinks about books being switched to ebooks. I think books will still be around for awhile, but it's likely they'll be phased out like VHS. I've been pursuing a career as a writer. Working really really hard at it (SK said in "On Writing" to dedicate 4-6 hours a day to reading and writing if you want to be a writer, and I do that diligently) but I worry that this will make it harder for starting writers to make money. I wondered if the huge cut in consumer price would cut down drastically on the author's profit. Of course, I am not only in it for the money, I love to write, but that doesn't mean I don't want to make a living at it. I will write whether I make money at it or not.

Now, I'm sure that SK has enough money to not really worry about the profit shift, so I'm not asking if he's freaking out about it. I would just like to know if he has ever had an opinion about what kind of changes it probably has in store for the writing industry. Also, what will happen to the publishing companies? Will it change agent's jobs drastically as well?

Overall, anybody post whatever changes they think eReaders will have on writing.

p.s. I'm not saying that eReaders should be banished or anything crazy like that. I believe in progress and capitalism. I also really really want one, but can't afford it yet.

[GNTLGNT]

I just pray that they don't eventually signal the end of printed books...if that were so, I would be inconsolable...

[King fan from trinidad]

Books have been on paper for a LONG time and i really don't want it to change. Ebooks should just be an alternative such as paperback is an alternative to hardcovers!

[Mojo*mofo]

Here's why I don't think books will ever be phased out; you know when you want to read something, but you don't know exactly what? So you wander over to the bookshelf/stack on the floor/cardboard box, and you browse. I can't imagine getting any satisfaction from browsing on a kindle...

[bobledrew]

Well, keep in mind that King was one of the first, if not THE first, to work in the e-book format, with "Riding the Bullet" in 2002. And he has continued to work on original works for the e-reader format.

Here he was in 2009:

" “I just have to say that there is a fundamental difference between books and iPods and CDs and MP3 downloads. People, when they want music, they have a tendency to be selective. And they can be [when it comes to music]. You can take a song likeDire Straits’ “Money For Nothing”, and pull it out of that album by downloading just that song. It’s 8-and-a-half minutes long and costs you 99 cents. Maybe you don’t want anything else on that album. I might want “Walk of Life” [another song on the band’s Brothers In Arms album], but that’s just me. Or take The Police—there’s only two songs in their entire catalog that I might want, because I don’t really like them. But I can enjoy the parts that I do like. But when you talk about a book, you have to have the whole thing. So it seems to me that there’s a more level playing field. Yes, MP3s and iTunes destroyed the CD industry. Nobody’s going to buy the whole if you can just buy a slice. But that doesn’t apply to books."

And here's an interview from 2010.

"The Wall Street Journal: Do we get the same reading experience with e-books?

Stephen King: I don't know. I think it changes the reading experience, that it's a little more ephemeral. And it's tougher if you misplace a character. But I downloaded one 700-page book onto my Kindle that I was using for research. It didn't have an index, but I was able to search by key words. And that's something no physical book can do.

What about people who love physical books?

I'm one of them. I have thousands of books in my house. In a weird way, it's embarrassing. I recently downloaded Ken Follett's "Fall of Giants," but I also bought a copy to put on the shelf. I want books as objects. It's crazy, but there are people who collect stamps, too.

Is the future of publishing all digital?

It's a hard subject to get a handle on. People like myself who grew up with books have a prejudice towards them. I think a lot of critics would argue that the Kindle is the right place for a lot of books that are disposable, books that are read on the plane. That might include my own books, if not all, then some."

[robertcathey]

Well, keep in mind that King was one of the first, if not THE first, to work in the e-book format, with "Riding the Bullet" in 2002. And he has continued to work on original works for the e-reader format.

Here he was in 2009:

" “I just have to say that there is a fundamental difference between books and iPods and CDs and MP3 downloads. People, when they want music, they have a tendency to be selective. And they can be [when it comes to music]. You can take a song likeDire Straits’ “Money For Nothing”, and pull it out of that album by downloading just that song. It’s 8-and-a-half minutes long and costs you 99 cents. Maybe you don’t want anything else on that album. I might want “Walk of Life” [another song on the band’s Brothers In Arms album], but that’s just me. Or take The Police—there’s only two songs in their entire catalog that I might want, because I don’t really like them. But I can enjoy the parts that I do like. But when you talk about a book, you have to have the whole thing. So it seems to me that there’s a more level playing field. Yes, MP3s and iTunes destroyed the CD industry. Nobody’s going to buy the whole if you can just buy a slice. But that doesn’t apply to books."

And here's an interview from 2010.

"The Wall Street Journal: Do we get the same reading experience with e-books?

Stephen King: I don't know. I think it changes the reading experience, that it's a little more ephemeral. And it's tougher if you misplace a character. But I downloaded one 700-page book onto my Kindle that I was using for research. It didn't have an index, but I was able to search by key words. And that's something no physical book can do.

What about people who love physical books?

I'm one of them. I have thousands of books in my house. In a weird way, it's embarrassing. I recently downloaded Ken Follett's "Fall of Giants," but I also bought a copy to put on the shelf. I want books as objects. It's crazy, but there are people who collect stamps, too.

Is the future of publishing all digital?

It's a hard subject to get a handle on. People like myself who grew up with books have a prejudice towards them. I think a lot of critics would argue that the Kindle is the right place for a lot of books that are disposable, books that are read on the plane. That might include my own books, if not all, then some."

Thanks. This was very helpful. And the first interview is a good point.
I feel the same way too about having the actual books. I like holding them when I read, I like having the collections. But, I still want an eReader, but mainly because I'm poor as hell and 3$ books are damn convenient.