Glimpse of what might be...

A couple of weeks back, my writing friend Val and I were talking in chat. For once it wasn't about abusing characters and all the evil deeds that I plague upon them. Noooo, this time we were chatting about the publicity, marketing and what might be in store for publishing. Boring stuff but important.

One point that came up was the future of eBooks. My thoughts on this, I believe this is where publishing is heading. Not completely. (Even with the invasion of ipods and mp3 players, there are still CDs being sold.) But I think the time is coming quicker than expected. Days past, folks might've gotten a good chuckle at that or ridiculed writers who took an offer from an epublisher. Laugh all you want but now big houses like HarperCollins, Harlequin and others are formatting books for electronic format.

Granted, if you're looking for major deals--like brand new hardcover releases for five dollars--you'll be disappointed. Authors, agents, editors, copy editors and publicists all seem to like eating and keeping a roof over their heads. But still...I think the prices would come down some. Along with the portable eReaders like Kindle, Sony and Bookwise. Who wants to be trapped at their desk all day? Not me.

Anyway, these were just my private musings with a friend on Yahoo but imagine my surprise when I spotted several links about eBook trends this week. The one I found interesting: Barnes and Noble buying Fictionwise.

http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-im-optimistic-about-future-of-books.html

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6641877.html?nid=2286&source=title&rid=

http://www.ebookwise.com/ebookwise/ebookwise1150.htm

http://www.fictionwise.com/bn.htm