Physical Books Verus Digital Copies

It will happen one day. Since as I said most authors are only setting up their books as ebooks these days. Unless you find a free publishing website like Createspace to publish your book then yes. Since most publishing companies want 1700 dollars to publish a book.

 

The overall payout is worth it though. When you think about the increasing value of books, how would you like to be remembered? As an author who will never have a valuable book? Or as an author, who will eventually pass from this world, might have a chance to leave behind something of increasing value? I completely understand why you are publishing via e-book, but I personally won't buy your books because there won't ever be any increased value in having it. I buy books to add to my collection, to get signed, to have a personal interaction with my author. I buy books so that I can have something tangible that connects me to my authors. I can go to my library and pick up a book, open the cover, and see that signature, hand written, and say, "I'm glad I got to meet that author." E-books don't have that personal connection. They won't ever have that personal connection. Even if you do get to meet your readers, you don't have anything to offer them for that personalized link. You are forever held to the digital standard which is very impersonal.

Every author that I know, loved book signings. Anne McCaffery was doing them till the day she died. Kevin Hearne loves doing them, meeting his fans and interacting with them. Brandon Sanderson (Yup met him too. Didn't have a book to get signed though. Made me feel bad), Dave Duncan, Terry Goodkind, Terry Brooks, even A.C. Crispen, all of them love having that personal link with their fans by signing books. If you're an E-book author, you'll never get that. And your fans will never get it either. Publishing solely by E-book makes you seem closed off, distanced, as if you don't want to be close to your readers.

 

Do you not read? I said I sell books in both digital format and paperback.
So yes I can sign a book. @Miss Elegent Serenity has my book and a signed copy.

 

But obviously you are missing my point. You complain about having to pay out for publishing when it eventually pays off and you get the interaction with your fans. I completely understand that you do both. But, the way you make it sound, it's as if you wish to go pure digital, which will rob you of the pleasures that you would otherwise have with physical books.

On a side note, insulting me in such a way is quite childish. While my arguments may seem like they are directed at assaulting your choice to publish e-books, I am trying to be persuasive. I have no intention to drag you down. I applaud your creative instinct to write and writing is good. I just don't want you to forget that there are people out there, like myself, who will only buy physical books.

To conclude, I would like it said that, if you end up taking the path of writing only e-books, that ultimately you would end up suffering overall. As I have stated in my previous arguments, being an exclusive e-book writer keeps one from enjoying the interaction with their fans. I hope you don't decide to take this rout. Needless to say, I would buy your book if it fits the genres that I am interested in.

 

You know, basically, there are gonna be those who will continue to read physical books over digital ones, no matter if they collect them for value or just to read. Yes, for a collector, the value of a signed book is the main thing, as well to read. For a couple of reasons: 1) As a reminder to those future generations to know what a physical book is. 2) To be handed down, and kept safe while the overall value increases. If you can think of other reasons to collect physical books, feel free to post them. As for digital books, yes, again, an e-reader can store a multitude of them in its memory, reduce clutter, etc, but will never increase
in value, which means an author may make some money on it, a collector won't, and can't get a copy signed to make it worth more, and to interact with the author, like @Rayden413 mentioned earlier. The point of the topic was to find out which an individual prefers. Each one of you has strong beliefs on the subject, but let's not make this a full blown argument about this.

 

I'd have to say physical copies in my case. Just for those times that the electricity goes out (during real bad storms and such) or if I get extremely bored. I know they're worth more as the material to make books is paper itself and cuts down trees (but I'm not going to go any further than that). As for digital copies, they're good but the thing is, what if your ereader or whatever you use runs out of battery and you forgot your charger and you're forced to comply with the real world and be bored. (I sound like a weeb for saying that, but meh.) That's my take on physical vs digital.

 

Interesting topic.

It is true we live in the digital age, with E-readers everywhere and the ability to read on phones and tablets etc. It is simply that extra convince to hit that 1 click button, get your book download and read instead of having to wait that extra day or few days for that book to read. I have a ton of physical copies of Manga, but A- there is only so much room you can have, in a perfect world I would have a whole separate house dedicated to manga. But in reality where the physical can get damaged where as the digital cannot. Over the years I would have to say the convenience of having a digital copy and the fact you can take that copy anywhere with out fear of damage is simply easier. Yes you can damage your device that you read it on, but that's still not damaging that actual digital copy.

As much as I have always liked holding a physical copy of a manga or a good book in my hand, technology gives us that extra convenience . Plus for the people who state " Screens make you stay awake" That did use to be the case but now with newer devices and software the blue light that emits from your screen, causing the brain activity in your brain to change into a more active state, well that can be solved.Certain overlays and built in device screen functionality now prevents all that extra blue light disrupting neural activity.

Thus as the end of the day, in my opinion as much as I would like to always have a physical copy, Digital copy's cannot break, they cost less and of course you can get them instantly. Also again in a perfect world, it would be nice that if you bought a physical copy you also get the digital version free or a combination cost but again, not a perfect world.

That being said, my reply was based on casual reading, for example all my To aru kagku no railgun manga will always be a physical copy as that's my absolute favorite anime / manga so in-terms of how big of a fan you are on what you are going to buy, of course it will most likely be physical and or both!

 

I can't read when the lights are out.

Also readers all have batteries lasting upwards of five hours, so power breaks aren't an issue for that.

 

Candles.

 

Mine lasts about 5-8 hours before needing to be charged. Even if a storm were to hit and knock my power out I would still have my ereader. It's been on since 7:45 and the battery is on 54%. I didn't really charge it fully last night. It was maybe 5 percent off.

 

I prefer physical copies of books if I'm going to read something due to the fact that I have a hard time reading something off of a screen (though sometimes that can't be helped). I see the value in digital books, since there are people who don't want to spend up to 20 dollars for something they will only read once or twice.

 

In reference to power going out, Here in Houston, when the power goes out, it can be out for over 8 hours at a time. In the case of a bad storm (A perfect example is Hurricane Ike) the power in Houston can be out for up to a week. At that point it becomes a hassle to deal with technology on a whole. Since Houston is also famed for having multiple rolling blackouts at the most inconvenient time, E-readers are rendered useless in our power outages. Sure, they will work for a number of hours, but when your power can be out for anywhere between 8 hours to 8 days, it can be an issue. Living on the coast like we do, Tropical Storms and Hurricanes make devices like E-Readers useless during our storms. People always are talking like power outages aren't a real problem, well you haven't lived in Houston. That argument is mute from my standpoint.

 

Well I know that feeling because we had up to 10 days without power when Sandy hit us. We had a generator on til 10 pm. So I could charge my Nook while we had power.

 

I prefer physical copies and will always buy my manga. I just like being able to own the stuff I like and just being able to complete the collection. Physical copies are just easier on the eyes to read than starring at a screen all the time even if you can fix the screen and dim the brightness and all that. Reading physical copies is just easier to me and don't get me wrong I can understand why others like it digital though and saves you house space and it's always there no matter what and that's all fine, but i'll always be a physical copy kind of guy.

I feel like I can appreciate the manga and the artwork more when I have the physical especially if i'm a big fan of the said content. I don't own an e-reader or a nook anyway I do have my phone, but I wouldn't use that for reading manga. If I ever did get anything like that I don't think it would feel quite the same to me compared to it being physical even though it's the same content yet. Maybe that vibe would go away after a while, but as I said i'll take my physical stuff every time and just order online. I've never been concerned about my stuff getting wrecked as I do know how to take care of it and keep it organized.

I'm more of a casual reader and only read at home or outside in my backyard during the summer months on random days when I feel like it so I really don't see the need for me to read anything digitally right now or go out and buy a nook or e-reader at the moment. It may be faster, but to each there own.

 

This guy gets it.

 

It still doesn't matter not every book all of you are going to want to read will be available in paper. I won't be surprised when books stop being printed altogether. Paper is getting more and more expensive.

 

I don't read very much, so that poses no problem for me whatsoever.

 

lol not every anime I want to watch gets dubbed either. Not every manga I want to read gets translated to English. Not every video game I want comes to a console I own or even gets an American release. If something I want isn't available to me, I just deal with it. Books will continue being printed for at least the next 30 years. My parents go to the local library every weekend and always check out books, they will never use an e-reader. I imagine most of their generation feels the same. Digital may take over more and more over time, but physical media isn't going away any time soon.

 

I've said it before and I will say it again.. BOOKS WILL NEVER DISAPPEAR. Do I need to explain this once again? Books have value. Because they age. Because they can be signed. Digital copies will NEVER have this value. BAR NONE. You can't even ague that FACT. Digital will NEVER have the VALUE of a hard copy. The experts have already argued this before using graphs and other shit that we aren't. They simply won't ever go away because of the value hard copies have to collectors and for the intrinsic value they represent. If you take away books, then you take away the ability to collect them and you take away their value. Digital is not safe, it is not secure, and it is not infallible. If I wanted to, I can get any book I want in regular text digital format on Pirate Bay, FOR FREE. I don't do this of course, because it's cheating and it's theft, and because I don't want to dishonor a writer like that. But if you make digital copies all that there is on the market, then that is exactly what will happen. Book Piracy will run rampant because people won't PAY for a digital copy when they can get it for free.

I hope my words finally made it home. I'm tired of stating the same damn facts all the time.

 

Physical melds well with me, but flat e-books are convenient. No way in Hell would I be able to hide all the digital manga I have, were it physical.
For an emerging author, initially, ebooks will be cheaper to do, as it takes 0 materials and resources to produce.
So generally, I shall remain mixed on the subject. I personally feel like people rely too much on tech. Internet shuts down, and suddenly, 75% of your apps or games are useless. Power goes down, everything electric shuts down eventually.
Comparing physical and digital, digital is efficient in time, and initially good for publication costs. Physical will take weeks of shipping, or a trip across town to obtain, and are more lavish in terms of money.