Amazon, ebooks, and Gutenberg

Here is an interesting post expanding on something I’ve thought for a while. Namely, that ebooks and low-cost ereaders are as big a revolution in literacy and the written word as Gutenberg and his printing press once were.

It’s remarkable how the production and distribution of books has become democratized (for lack of a better word). It used to take a team of experts and specialists to produce a book that people would actually buy. You needed an expensive printing press and people to do the layout of the book and to operate the press. You needed warehouses to store the books, trucks to ship the books places, and stores which would sell your books.

Now, for my most recent book, GHOST IN THE STORM, I wrote on a computer running Ubuntu 11.10, a free operating system. I used LibreOffice, a free office suite, to do the actual writing and editing. I turned it into an ebook file using Sigil, another free program, and converted it into the different ebook formats using Calibre, still another free application. I did the cover using the GIMP (a free image editing program) and public domain artwork (thanks, Arthur Rackham!). I then uploaded the file to the various ebook sites.

In this entire process, my expenses were:

-The computer I was using to write, a $270 netbook.

-My Internet connection, $60 a month.

-The sales percentage taken by the ebook vendors.

-My free time (which I would have wasted playing computer games anyway).

And since it came out in April 23rd, GHOST IN THE STORM has sold 125 copies in 10 days. By the end of the month, it will most probably have covered my expenses (which, I should point out, are expenses I would have had even if I had not written the book).

Long term (regardless of my personal profit), I think this is a good thing for society. It will mean an increase in literacy, a return in reading as a form of recreation, and easier exchange of information and ideas.

-JM