Digital Books:
Another Way to Publish

What are digital books?

Books that are distributed digitally. In other words e-books, electronic books, online books... books without paper, basically.

Why would you want to offer your books digitally? Won't that make it easy for someone to copy and pass on without paying you?

Both are good questions. Let's see what the pros and cons of digital publishing are.

The Upside

Digital books are just one more way to offer your novels to the world. When publishing your books, be sure to read your contract carefully to see if such alternatives are covered, even if vaguely (such as "all other media"). Address each style of publishing separately and completely so you don't lose the right to using them.

Once you've done that, distributing your novel as an e-book is another way to make more money on it. People are always "on the go" these days, and being able to bring a small "reader" along that holds 100 books is far less cumbersome than dragging those 100 books along.

To suit such preferences, ask your publisher if they offer alternative methods beyond print books. Things like audio fiction books, electronic books and printing in other countries are always good additions to traditional printing in your own country. So check them all out.

The Downside

So, you've signed a contract with your publisher that offers digital books as another way to sell your newest novel. Now you start having nightmares that everyone passes that version of your book around - without paying you for those copies!

Yes, that is a nightmare, of sorts. Why shouldn't each reader pay for their own copy? Is our world turning into one huge "free" zone? If so, how do we compensate writers, lyricists and musicians, not to mention artists and photographers for all their hard work?

Good question. We should. Stealing books is piracy, and should not be allowed. But if you read some of the articles on managing your right to be paid by every reader-listener-art-appreciator, you'll hear plenty saying it's against the reader's rights to restrict when and how he or she reads your work.

How is it not against the author's rights not to be paid for all the time it took to make the novel salable?

Okay. Done ranting. If you want to publish your novels digitally, just be aware there can be issues, and there are ways to try to keep those issues to a minimum. But they might be costly if they aren't covered by your publisher. So check out the details before you say yes to digital publishing.

The Inside and Outside

Publishing your novels as digital books is a great additional stream of income, as long as you think it through first. Just like your print books may get stolen sometimes, your e-books can be, too.

That's not a reason to avoid this media entirely. Just do your homework and be prepared to work within the limits of it.

Then enjoy the extra income!