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Downtown Writers Network is a resource for independent writers in central
Ohio. |
A Writer's Guide to E-PublishingPart 2 -- The OutlookSome Good News, and Some Dangers
How bright, then, is the future for writers? On balance, e-publishing will definitely benefit us, meaning that it will offer more advantages than liabilities (though there will be a share of those). From the internet to the e-book, writers have already acquired options for distributing their work and new markets that weren't available even a decade ago. With more options comes more autonomy for writers, and more competition for their words. The heralded "Information Economy" may even someday create a bidding war for writers who've proven themselves in the new media.
There are other dangers, as well. The legal rights of writers also aren't as clear in e-publishing as they are in conventional print media (where they're often still murky enough). Copyright infringement is rampant on the internet. The electronic copyright safeguards that have been designed for e-books are largely untested. And, as always, charlatans are devising new ways to trick and defraud writers in the electronic world, just as they always have in the print world. Despite these perils, writers have a right to feel cautiously optimistic about the electronic future. Will e-publishing result in a paradigm shift? Probably not, but opportunities will be good for writers who remain alert to the changes, open to the possibilities, and cautious about believing too many promises. -- Douglas Gray For a printer friendly version of this article, click here. Contents of this
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The past decade has seen major corporate mergers in all
communications and entertainment industries, including publishing. Today, the
print industry is dominated by a few giant corporations, a situation that
certainly doesn't favor writers. But new technologies tend to create market
opportunities and new companies to serve them, which may counterbalance this
consolidation trend. E-publishing will probably make industry more diverse than
it is today. Innovations tend to level the playing field, at least initially,
enabling smaller companies to compete one-on-one with the corporate giants, and
occasionally win. New publishers will emerge to challenge the established ones
on turf that doesn't even exist yet, and each time that happens it will be good
news for writers. 
E-publishing technology has also given writers tools for
self-publishing their work with a small capital investment. The software for
producing e-books is widely available, and some of it is free to download. The
software to format print-on-demand texts is expensive, but less costly than
ordering an initial run of 500 books that may never sell. Self-publishing is
another option that writers now have easier access to. But there is a real
danger of its being misused and flooding the market with millions of pulp
e-books that should never have been published.