Ligotti kindle editions

[NealJansons]

If it weren't for ebooks, I couldn't afford to read most of what I want to read. One thing I have fallen in love with is the massive amount of classic literature that people have been good enough to edit and put together as ebooks. I own all of Byron, all of Shelley, and so on, books that are seldom collected in print anymore because people don't read the classics. Without the free ebook editions, I would be unable to seek out the older works I love, nor would I be able to house all of the books I would like to own.

Both my wife and I are disabled, and I never expect my writing to become a lucrative venture. Without ebooks, I would have the choice of reading or eating; a poor choice in my opinion.

And I don't see the point of snobbery about it...every change in literary technology has had some of this response. People freaked out about printing presses, too. Some of the oldest pieces of recovered writing on earth includes someone complaining about how anyone can write a book nowadays...this worry and snobbery seems to be one of the constants of humanity.

[Corman]

[QUOTE=hopfrog;76666] Nothing can ever replace a beautifully published book, the feel of my own book in my hand, the weight of its pages, the smell of its ink; but there are people, in this economy, who cannot afford my expensive hardcover editions, or who have great difficulty buying my trade pbs./QUOTE]

I am one of these aforementioned people. My finances have been severely limited over the past year, and the digital editions Tartarus, Ash-Tree, and Chomu (among others) offer are great. I read them on my iPad. I agree ebooks offer the potential to give weird fiction a much wider audience than those who can afford beautiful, but prohibitively expensive, limited-run hardcovers. It might even help the secondary market, since the wider exposure could lead to more demand for weird authors' work.

One thing which annoys me about Kindle is the lack of page numbers. I've always enjoyed being able to mark my progress in a book, and "Section 1709 of 8000" is much less satisfying to look at than a simple number in the right-hand corner.

[Dave Brzeski]

Quote Originally Posted by hopfrog

but there are people, in this economy, who cannot afford my expensive hardcover editions, or who have great difficulty buying my trade pbs. I want those people to be able to read my fiction. Thus I have come to embrace the idea of ebooks, and am happy that some few of my own titles will be released as such this year.

I've missed a good few of your books over the years too, so that's very good news for me.

I'm never going to stop buying real books, but ebooks will allow me two advantages. I can buy the nice limited editions that I decide I can afford, while not having to worry about finding space on the shelves between all the other books. More importantly, very few of us in any economy can afford ALL the nice limited editions produced by writers & publishers that we love. ebook versions will allow us all to at least read the books, but will not in any way affect the collectabillity of the paper editions.

For us fanatics who collect the work, rather than the editions, anything that helps reduce the strain on our living spaces is a good thing! I have genuinely bought ebook copies of old books I already have, because the ammount of work that would be involved in accessing the paper edition is just too much.

Plus, I can't tell you what a boon ebooks are to a regular book reviewer, even though it means I tend to lose the traditional reviewers perk of receiving freebie hardcovers through the mail. Add to that the amount of money saved by a small press publisher in not having to mail out expensive review copies...

[starrysothoth]

I can see the ebook matter from both sides, and I can certainly respect TL's opinion if it comes from a matter of principle. However, I feel like a lot of authors are passing up a serious opportunity if they aren't into electronic publishing.

Kindle, Nook, and other venues are excellent opportunities to raise a little revenue, possibly more in some instances than writers might find selling copies of their books through small presses. I don't think anyone can compete with the 65% or 70% royalty figures and international markets offered by Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Ebooks are one instance where self-publishing really makes sense. For putting in a little time to learn the formatting required (or outsourcing it to someone who knows how to do it) and hiring your own cover artist, you can come out with a decent looking product that's easily on par with what a publisher would be able to put together in the electronic medium.

I've seen first hand how much money is being earned from certain non-fiction and fiction niches in ebooks, and it is surprising, especially for established authors willing to go the self-publishing route. I don't see any reason why weird fiction authors would not enjoy some degree of success by self-publishing electronically either.

There will always be a demand for physical books, particularly in weird horror, but I feel like some authors are leaving a lot of money and a wider readership on the table by ignoring the ebook revolution.

[DoktorH]

Quote Originally Posted by slayn666

All that said, I don't think the above quote from Tom indicates a particular problem with ebooks so much as a problem with publishers not abiding by contracts, and that's perfectly understandable.

I agree with you there. If Ligotti's works were available as ebooks, I would buy them all. even the stuff I already own several editions of. just for the sheer joy of having Ligottian goodness on tap, so i could get a quick giggle from Death Poems or read along with mp3s of This Degenerate Little Town and I Have A Special Plan For This World.

also, if they're Nookbooks, imma lend them out to anyone i know with a nook. more fans = more ebook sales for my favorite author (and maybe more competition for those small-press pre-orders, but I don't think my friends are crazy/obsessive/fannish in that regard as I am)

[Nemonymous]

I have often talked here about 'fiction as religion'. The same *text* arguably changes actual meaning when in a book or when shown electronically. If I were a Christian (or religious in the normal sense), I wouldn't want the Bible or any other 'sacred' book to be handed to me in Court for my hand to be placed on it in oath if it were my hand upon a Kindle or any other ebook simply with the texts of those books uploadable within those devices (unless I intended to lie! But I don't see fiction as lies!). Many comments others have made above do not seem to address the sorts of considerations that I once covered here (sorry for linking to this when I said there I wouldn't do so).

Having said that, I agree with the opportunities presented above for authors and readers (I just real-time reviewed two excellent ebooks on my blog), but only if they should be used without a free-for-all gold rush or bubble.

Back to Mr Ligotti. I do not know what his intentions are. He may be just cross about a contract not being fulfilled; otherwise he is OK with his books being turned into ebooks? But when he wrote the existing texts he intended them no doubt to be printed as what I see as 'sacred' books, in the centuries-old tradition of real books. Or may be that is not an issue for him.

[NealJansons]

Quote Originally Posted by Nemonymous

I have often talked here about 'fiction as religion'. The same *text* arguably changes actual meaning when in a book or when shown electronically. If I were a Christian (or religious in the normal sense), I wouldn't want the Bible or any other 'sacred' book to be handed to me in Court for my hand to be placed on it in oath if it were my hand upon a Kindle or any other ebook simply with the texts of those books uploadable within those devices (unless I intended to lie! But I don't see fiction as lies!). Many comments others have made above do not seem to address the sorts of considerations that I once covered here (sorry for linking to this when I said there I wouldn't do so). Having said that, I agree with the opportunities presented above for authors and readers (I just real-time reviewed two excellent ebooks on my blog), but only if they should be used without a free-for-all gold rush or bubble. Back to Mr Ligotti. I do not know what his intentions are. He may be just cross about a contract not being fulfilled; otherwise he is OK with his books being turned into ebooks? But when he wrote the existing texts he intended them no doubt to be printed as what I see as 'sacred' books, in the centuries-old tradition of real books. Or may be that is not an issue for him.

Interesting thoughts on the matter. I think some of this might be a result of comfort levels with the technology itself and the associations made with it on an emotional level.

I grew up with computers, and in the extremely isolated and abusive situation I grew up in, they meant a lot to me. I could talk to people from outside my home town, and was able to connect with people at all without my psychological problems interfering. It was almost impossible to get books that weren't Bible-Thumper approved in my home-town, as well, so a lot of my reading and book hunts happened on BBSes and later on the internet. It's what gave me access to small press works and newer horror, as well, through various websites and then Amazon. I would never be able to track down the books, comics, or music I prefer, and in fact would never have been able to find out that some of those items existed in the first place, without computers and the online world. Usenet, BBSes, IRC, and eventually the actual internet are just about the only things that allowed my childhood and teens to be anything besides a living hell.

Now, as an adult, I find that the internet and social media allows me to have something like a normal social life. Between my anxiety disorder and my spinal disease, going out and actually being with people is very close to impossible.

So for me, reading books in a digital format comes just as naturally as reading them in a book. While I enjoy the physical books as well, I just don't have the space to have the collection I want. My ebook collection has hundreds of books just from the public domain alone, without getting into what I buy from Amazon. I also have found that having physical collectibles that I need to keep in good condition triggers my anxiety...it hangs over my head. So having files on the computer, backed up regularly and with no possibility of physical damage, makes me feel less anxious and worried all the time (about that, at least).

I think that, for people like myself, the separation of content and format comes naturally, and if I had been born in an earlier time, I would not have been able to function very well. My quality of life is much higher thanks to ebooks and digital technologies.

However, I know that I am different than many people in this respect. A lot of people have gotten angry with the way some digital services work because they don't feel like they really "own" the book/album/movie/whatever. Not me. I'm not interested in owning things. I use Netflix Watch Instantly and Hulu Plus for movies and TV rather than buying them or getting cable TV. I use Spotify rather than having my own music collection. I use Gamefly rather than buying and owning video games. And, as the book market shifts, I will be one of those who pays a subscription fee to have access to all the books available on a service. I see services like this as making the whole world my collection. For me it's about access, not ownership. I don't want more stuff, I just want access to the content within the stuff. I also like being able to do things like search within what I am reading and the various other functions that ebook reader apps allow. Especially for writing articles, it is extremely useful for me to have the texts I am referencing in an electronic format. It makes what would have been a clumsy and damaging process of hunting through books, sticking post-it notes everywhere, and as the work becomes more complicated, have 20 books open all around me, into a simple and easy, organized affair.

However, all of that said, if I had the space and cash, I would love to have a physical library of my ebook collection. I do value the physical books more, in a sort of emotional, sentimental way, than I do the ebooks. However, I also feel like owning physical items has some serious costs as well. Ever since I was homeless for two years in my late teens, I have been pretty anxious about owning stuff...the more stuff I have, the more uncomfortable I feel. I'm always trying to get rid of stuff...trading in books, games, movies, and music I don't want to read/play/etc anymore at the second-hand shops, etc. Possessions make me uncomfortable.

How is it you feel that a book changes its actual meaning depending on the medium/format of its delivery? Do you mean meaning that the book has to you in the sense of affection, attachment, etc, or do you mean the actual syntactic and semantic meaning of the text in the book?

[Nemonymous]

Some very interesting food for thought, Neal.

Quote Originally Posted by NealJansons

How is it you feel that a book changes its actual meaning depending on the medium/format of its delivery? Do you mean meaning that the book has to you in the sense of affection, attachment, etc, or do you mean the actual syntactic and semantic meaning of the text in the book?

This, for me is perhaps emotional / psychological /almost spiritual in a literary sense. For example, in many of my real-time reviews of books on my blog, I have drawn attention to the feel, quality of the paper, crucial positioning of the text and its contiguities etc (which are often fluid in an ebook) etc etc - that the text synchronously refers to explicitly - or is subtly or overtly synergistic with in many ways - thus effectively, for me, changing the meaning of the text in that emotional / spiritual / psychological / literary way even though the words themselves are unchanged. (That is only one point in my armoury of points about ebooks / traditional books).

des

[Mr Loligo]

Quote Originally Posted by NealJansons

I see services like this as making the whole world my collection. For me it's about access, not ownership. I don't want more stuff, I just want access to the content within the stuff.

I hadn't thought of it from this angle and is a good way of looking at it. The idea of such accessibility and also the thought of ridding oneself of unnecessary physical "stuff" is quite a tempting proposition.
I'm not currently one of the ebook crowd, but this line of thought does tempt me...

[Evans]

A beautiful jewel should be set in a beautiful metal, a beautiful maiden clothed in a beautiful gown.

Joking aside I quite see the utilitarian value of Ebooks, particularly in the case of those who have to carry a great deal of reference material around with them. I will never buy a volume nor offer any of the books I publish as Ebooks on principle, but it’s more the Ebook mentality I have an issue with as opposed to the objects in themselves.