Could have sworn I posted something on ebooks here...specifically about the Baen site.... Or I could be just going senile. Or maybe I just thought about posting something, then saw something shiney and wandered off after it.
I can see the heartburn about poorly edited works reflecting poorly on the writer community, or a genre, but frankly, a lot of the harshing on ebooks appears, to me anyway, to be a mix of elitism and publisher appeasement. Kind of like Sony getting all lathered up about Protecting The Sanctity of Music from self-recorded & indie bands getting their stuff out there "Without doing the hard work involved in getting on a major label" I view an authors aptitude and quality as based on their work, rather than what hoops they have successfully navigated. I understand the irritation one feels when The New Generation does something without all the work and heartbreak required in the past...hell, I remember when games where made out of wood, and we weeeeeeeeere GRATEFUL. No, really. Lincoln Logs where as high tech as it got when I was growing up. "Pong" was the absolute miracle of the gods ... and kids these days complain if there system has less than a terrabyte of hardrive and a keyboard that has a wire ....
But think of the opportunity ebooks can present, to authors with offbeat or niche work that an established publisher isn't interested because the focus group says that yet another My Mommy Was Mean Tell All will bring in more bucks. There's great opportunity here for new and old writers alike.
As long as the author is cool with it, in regards to his own work, I don't see the problem. I'd have a big problem with a publisher strongarming an author into providing samples, however. As for them hurting sales, I've purchased a pile of books by authors who had posted an ebook or even just a good sized sample as a freebie...it let me try out the flavor of the writing without risking 8 or 9 bucks. Many, many books. I get cards from bookstore managers thanking me for helping them make their bonus for the month... And then I books by authors the first author likes to collaborate with, then She Who Must Be Obeyed gives me this certain look, and I hide.
But ebooks being a "threat to literature"? Quality will win out...people willing to read trash will still read trash, there will always be somebody out to pander to the lowest common denominator (like reality TV, but in text files) ..... but it's not like trash ebooks will squeeze the good stuff off the shelves.
Text in data format takes up small spaces, and doesn't even need airholes. *shrug*
And then there's the one fellow's bit about ebook writers being "webscabs". That's a big Whiskey Tango Foxtrot right there. I don't see how, say, David Drake's ebooks hurt the sales or insult the integrety of other authors, or the sanctity of "The Book" as a concept. If somebody's mad that the guy who gives out samples gets more sales, that's just kind of silly.
That being said, I personally prefer paper books to ebooks, they don't get corrupted unless I spill something on them, they still work when the power out, don't need to be plugged in and recharged. Plus I like how books smell. Unless they've been stored in a damp basement. Paper texts are personally more satisfying to me. And, perversly, on the occassions where I have purchased an ebook, or downloaded a legit "Free sample" ebook (no piracy for me), I've usually ended up buying hardcopy if it's still in print, or can't be ordered used. I think we'll see more ebooks as time progresses, and as paper becomes more expensive...but I do hope that paper texts never go the away, that would be a true nightmare world for me.
I'm also in the lot who would be very interested in hearing JB's opinion on the matter, but I know there are things like publisher constraints, and the wisdom of not walking into the middle of a peeing contest, particularly when one's livelyhood is involved.
