e-Book Update

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There has been a great deal of discussion, blogs, news reports about digital publishing and e-book appliances, plus the books to fill them. In fact, it seems to me over the past 2 -- 3 months, information and availability has exploded. The traditional publishing world is in turmoil -- one day you read a good news report, the next something all doom and gloom.

What's my take?

For personal use, I've decided to convert my favourite fiction books to digital, and will only purchase new fiction as e-books. Reference and non-fiction is better, I think to see and touch and read in the old fashioned way. Mr. Gutenberg would approve, I think.
For publishing; the digital process has been a boon and a great encouragement for me. I now have a couple of short stories published through Smashwords, which you can read for free, either online, or downloaded to your favourite e-book format. I have an application intoCISS so that I can now obtain ISBN's for my publications, and a renewed sense of ambition to work on a re-vamped story.
If you want to visit a few sites that discuss the e-book revolution, digital publishing, the traditional route or just expand your reading horizons, here's a few sites I read regularly:

• http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/
• http://kriswrites.com/
• http://bigthink.com/blogs/book-think
• http://www.sfsignal.com/
• http://www.demonmuse.com/
• http://www.pottermore.com/

I think the digital revolution has also impacted the type and way stories are written. For example, flash fiction is popular, short stories are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, and even long fiction -- novels -- are becoming shortened, and/or serialized.
Hopefully, globalization of digital books, auto-translators and online book shopping will impact literacy throughout the world, as well as open up new horizons for both readers and authors alike.

Related articles

• Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Bookish Websites (thereadingdate.com)
• Digital publishing: book as artifact; author as ringleader (erikhansen.com)
• J.K. Rowling's Next Chapter: A Transfiguration Spell on the Publishing Industry (readwriteweb.com)
• The Easiest, Cheapest, Fastest Way to Self-Publish Your Book (pbs.org)

** published simultaneously at my web site (riotthill.com)