Technology: Rise of the e-book : Nature : Nature Publishing Group
Traditional publishers may have their flaws, but they also know how to distribute and publicize books. If writers want to self-publish, they have to take on all the things that publishers do. And today, mastering the art of book publicity is tricky. Many newspapers are shutting down their book-review sections. Discussions about new books are migrating instead to blogs and social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
The format of the e-book itself should also be a cause for concern for authors. Even the most successful e-book campaign simply pushes data from one computer to another. No physical object ends up sitting on a shelf. The longevity of e-books remains uncertain, depending as it does on the technology for reading them. When I look at some of the most elaborate e-books, I hear a ghostly voice whispering, “CD-ROM”. In the early 1990s, compact discs were all the rage — you could fit an entire encyclopedia on a single disc.
For a fleeting moment, CD-ROMs were the future of books. If I had decided to abandon print books and publish my books only on CD-ROMs, I would have imprisoned them in obscurity. Sneer at printed books if you will, but you can’t deny that their operating system will never expire.
