Is the eBook Coming of Age

 

Caffeine Nights Publishing is pleased to announce the publication of its first eBook. Tripping is now available in electronic format and available to download from www.cnpublishing.co.uk and a number of Internet bookstores.
 

Caffeine Nights Publishing have used the latest page turning software for their eBooks to give the reader as real an experience as they can have while reading from a screen.
 

The publication in this format follows the Kent based company's announcement last year that their books will be available later this year to download direct to mobile phones.
 

Darren E Laws, author of Tripping, is excited with the prospect of these digital editions. "I am pleased that we are being innovative with our books and looking at new delivery platforms. It does seem that 2009 might well be the year eBooks finally come of age and be accepted in the mainstream. More and more people know of devices such as the Kindle from Amazon and Sony's eReader, and the technology available now to make eBooks is definitely bringing another level of experience to readers everywhere. Multimedia aspects such as video and audio/mp3 files will broaden the whole book reading experience."
 

One of the key benefits eBooks brings is also an environmental bonus with trees being spared the axe and thousands of road miles of transportation being removed from the equation. eBooks also bring a price benefit and in these times of economic worry readers can still subscribe to their favourite authors at a fraction of the price as many eBook are up to 50% cheaper than their paper equivalent. Many publishers are also offering parts of the books for free as tasters.
 

Tripping is now available for only £3.99 with the first 30 pages free
 

 

Murder in the High Street…Is this the end of the Bookstore?

By Darren E Laws

Sad news reaches me today that one of the UK’s leading independent bookstores Murder One in Charing Cross Road, London has become the latest victim of the economic downturn.  Murder One, only months away from its 21st year in business, succumbed to the pressures of the crunch as owner, Maxim Jakubowski, failed to find a buyer for the store. Jakubowski whose planned retirement at the end of the year has been brought forward by the failure to find a buyer threw the towel in rather than dragging out a painful and lingering death for the world famous crime bookstore specialist.

Murder One has long been a friend to independent publishers and were kind enough to stock our crime fiction title ‘Turtle Island’.  The fact that a specialist in the heart of book land in London’s West end can disappear without a buyer coming forward is a sad day for publishers everywhere.  As an independent publisher it is difficult enough persuading bookstores to stock titles from a new author so it is doubly depressing when an outlet such as Murder One ceases trading.  I cannot imagine another specialist crime book store filling the void too quickly, especially with the current economic conditions prevailing. 

As this year evolves we will see other shocks that reverberate and impact on the world of publishing.  There will be more pressure than ever before on retailers and the Internet will play an important and increasing part providing a platform for niche publications as often the only source to find certain titles.

To Mr Jakubowski and all the staff, Murder One will be sorely missed and leave a void in Charing Cross Road and for readers and writers of crime fiction everywhere.

Happy New Year

By Darren E Laws

Though it is hard to see the positives in the current economic cycle these are exciting times.  There is a huge element of the unknown but in the world of publishing publishers are at last beginning to see the benefits of digital technology.  Whether this is because other doors are closing or there had been a conversion on the road to Damascus who knows?  But the upshot is that various platforms and media delivery systems are converging and now only the foolish publisher or author is going to ignore them.

The world is changing and the way we are doing business has to adapt and develop if we are not to wither on the vine.  Our books are going to be available to download to mobile phones late this year and we have finally found a a system that delivers eBooks with an element of style, quality and security that controls the digital rights management for our authors.  In the past eBooks have invariably either looked bad or offered no way of controlling sales.  Many sites still offer eBooks as no more than PDF versions of a word file.  In this day and age of page turning software it is no longer justifiable or aesthetically pleasing to do this and it gives eBooks a bad name.

The Kindle, eReader and Iliad will add further scope to publishers as we get to grips with the technology and the hardware becomes more commonplace, and lets not forget that print on demand (POD) is constantly evolving.  Hopefully 2009 will see the Espresso Book Machine rolling out into the commercial and retail sectors, opening up a whole new digital library to readers who will be able to see their books being printed and bound before their eyes.  One thing is for sure is that as a publisher and an author I am going to ensure that out titles are available in as many formats and markets as possible in 2009.

Here’s wishing you a Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year with all the success you deserve.