A Case for the Writer - The E-book Issue

I know most of you are aware I try my best to stay out of politics. I am an agent who is in this for the writer and want to see high quality writing out there for people to read. That is the literacy specialist in me. I do want to bring up something that a few people have touched on but I think needs to be brought a little more to the forefront.

As most of us have heard all weekend, Amazon adn Macmillan have been battling over the price of electronic books. Time and time again, I have seen people on the net screaming about the money the publishers or Amazon would be making, but we again seem to forget the author out there.

Hey, I am all in favor of advancing technology and moving into a digital age, however, we have to bring the author back into the equation. Writers have fought long and hard to see an increase in advances and royalties. For a new author, spending those hours sweating, crying and laughing over a book, should be worth something. Decreasing the cost of a book has a trickle down effect to the author who finally ends up with little.

Now before any of you jump in on this, I am not talking about those mega-authors here - the ones who have been around for a while - I'm talking about the average, mid-lister.

Sure, the same process of editing and marketing goes into an e-book. A book is a book. But the cost cutting comes in the form of printing. In essence. the e-book becomes a Print-on-Demand book without the paper. For a publisher, storing a ton of books on their hard-drives costs little to nothing, compared to the warehouse space and all of the other stuff that comes with print books. But, just because the book is cheaper to print, does not and should not mean the advances to an author should be any less.

Look, I understand this is all competition out there as book sellers attempt to show who can sell books the best. And yes, I know as readers, we always look for a great deal when buying a book. But with that said, let's again remember that someone, at least a year ago, spent time and energy writing those words that you are holding in your hand, or just downloaded to your computer or e-reader.

Scott