e-reading

The Society of AuthorsThe British authors’ organization, with a membership of over 7,000 writers. Membership is open to those who have had a book published, or who have an offer to publish (without subsidy by the author). Offers individual specialist advice and a range of publications to its members. Has also campaigned successfully on behalf of authors in general for improved terms and established a minimum terms agreement with many publishers. Recently campaigned to get the Public Lending Right fund increased from £5 million to £7 million for the year 2002/2003. Regularly uses input from members to produce comparative surveys of publishers’ royalty payment systems. http://www.societyofauthors.org/ (SoA) has called on Amazon to cut its e-books returns window to 48 hours, after the online retailer was criticised in an online petition signed by more than 33,000 people for offering refunds on e-books to customers who have finished reading.

Perhaps you've noticed that ebooks are awful. I hate them, but I don't know why I hate them. Maybe it's snobbery. Perhaps, despite my long career in technology and media, I'm a secret Luddite. Maybe I can't stand the idea of looking at books as computers after a long day of looking at computers as computers. I don't know, except for knowing that ebooks are awful.

This year, however, has seen a breathing space, a "year of print" (Bookseller), in which the end of the world was postponed yet again. For a nail-biting decade it was said that e-reading would spell death to the traditional book. Actually, the reverse has been true. A body of evidence now suggests that ebooks have actually stimulated the market for hardbacks.  Read more