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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Pros & Cons of Digital Publishing by Khurshid Alam

Pros & Cons of Digital Publishing by Khurshid Alam
As there are pros & cons of everything so are with digital publishing. However, digital publishing enjoys more good than reservations. At its advent the print publishing took it too lightly and has the grudge against it. But digital publishing expanded beyond prediction and the print publishing is now feeling in the line on competition with e-publishing.

Advantages

Easy to Publish
Digital publishing is basically a self-publishing interface where you write a book, get it edited and proofread, convert it into PDF and upload to dozens of digital publishing houses such as Amazon, Smashwords and others. E-publishing is coupled with great easy of publishing and you can go viral in no time all over the world.

Wider Marketability
The cost on digital publishing is highly affordable which makes the writers to pick it and attracts the customers as well. Its marketing area is without any boundaries. The writers have higher possibilities of selling their books to the readers from around the world. It is very easy to buy a book online and own a book of your choice on an electronic device.

No Snarky Rejection
Once you finish a book, your next goal is to get it published. In the run to get your book published you submit to the publishers but you dry out when you get rejections from the publishers. Rejections do not simply mean your story lacks or is not fit to publish but more than that. In many cases publishers look for more than an idea, they look for whether the proposed books have the masala to sell.

Digital publishing has come to rescue a large number of those aspiring writers who have the idea but do not meet the substance of print publishing industry.  Digital publishing has the power to cherish your creative dream beyond such fetters. If you want to have your story in a certain way, preserve it so. If you are not looking for money, no issues you self-publish and make your books available for free. The writers have no snarky rejection thrown on their face as does the print publishing.

Disadvantages

There are some disadvantages which though are not of digital publishing but in digital publishing.

Traditional publishers generally have their own in-house editorial team. Howsoever your books are well written, edited and proofread, they are edited thoroughly. Traditional publishers do not leave the write-up to the writers but they work very hard on the manuscript. Their goal is many fold. They convert the manuscripts to the high standard of publishing style. They do good research on the subject and themes and suggest the writers to make suitable changes, if any.  Traditional publishers do the marketing themselves. They do so to earn money from the writers, rather than elixir in the literary art.

On the other hand self-publishing suffers from bad reputation of low quality on all fronts. For self-publishing there is no guide to suggest on theme and subjects,  no compliance to writing styles, no research whether the story is original or a mere repeat of other stories etc etc. All these put the writers and their quality in the doc. For this it is very important that the writers must get their books edited and proofread by some good editors, must follow compliance in writing, get the manuscript reviewed by some writers.

Once again I would say digital publishing is coupled with more positive sides.

Forthcoming Topics
Book Formats for Digital Publishing
India’s Stand in Digital Publishing

1 comment:

  1. Khurshid,
    Thank you for opening a clear window on digital publishing.As of now, digital publishing is here to stay.This will be an exciting opening for the thousands of writers across the globe, who are being rejected by the proud traditional publishers enmasse.
    But Khurshid, still one factor always harases me at the back of my mind.Will the e-book publishers pay proper royalties to the authors and declare the true sales of their books?If they are greedy and not show the actual number of books sold and the inventory stock remaining in their warehouses, then I am afraid, even this type of publishing will lose its glamour in the long run.
    But I am optimistic and waiting...........

    Manohar Bhatia.

    ReplyDelete

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