From Print Book to Ebook by Tara L. Masih

As a book editor, I’ve worked for several decades with paper and color pencils. I recall when Post-it notes were an amazing technological advance in editing, displacing the query flags you had to lick and stick and fold over. And red pencils turned purple, green, blue, and brown. Those were exciting times. . . .

For years, we heard about the possibility of a hand-held electronic book that would put us out of business. One was tried, and failed. We breathed a sigh of relief and went on, with smaller adjustments to our field: old linotype was being replaced by desktop publishing, and designers were learning how to create designs online instead of on paper. Our typesetting specification had to adjust, as did our measuring tools. But this was all manageable. Even online editing and proofreading can be learned in a day.

Now, that time is here, the time we were warned about. The electronic book is here to stay, and even readers who swore they would never buy one are guiltily purchasing them and requesting them as a gift. I’ve also learned that many older readers are finding that they can see better on the devices, because of dry eye and glare and the ability to resize a book’s type. Now we have color, and testing is going on in high schools and colleges of the iPad for textbooks.

As a lover of the print book, as someone who used to work in a used bookstore selling rare leatherbound books with marbleized gold leaf edges and gold tooling, I had to make a decision. Do I go to the dark side, the side which is basically putting me out of business, and put out my paperback collection as an ebook? After months of working the phones and the streets and getting few readings in bookstores, it was time to make the switch. Literary fiction is not much read in the United States. It does better in Canada and Europe, and small presses don’t have that reach. But an ebook does. Foreign readers can download a book in an instant for the same price as other readers, whereas it takes weeks and extra shipping costs to get a book from overseas.

The great shift and downfall in print publishing is being felt all over, and Borders’ announcement is just the beginning, I’m afraid. But just as people are working to reverse the trend in global warming, another humanmade problem, I think we can work to reverse the damage done by ebooks so that they will soon benefit the industry. Booksellers need to find a way in, and humans are smart enough to figure something out. Perhaps hardcovers will be a thing of the past, and the new model will be paper to ebook. The bulk of my U.S. sales have still been in print, but now a whole new foreign market has opened up, a good thing for any literary writer.

Life is about constant change, especially in our technological age, and it’s time to accept the emonster is here, and try to tame it and live with it.

About the Author

Tara Masih

Tara L. Masih received an MA in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. She is editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (a 2009 ForeWord Book of the Year), and her debut story collection, Where the Dog Star Never Glows, was an award-winning finalist in the Best Books 2010 national  awards competition, sponsored by USA Book News. Tara has published fiction, poetry, and essays in numerous anthologies and literary magazines (such as Confrontation, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Natural Bridge, New Millennium Writings, The Pedestal, Night Train, and The Caribbean Writer), and her essays have been read on NPR.

Awards for her work include first place in The Ledge Magazine’s fiction contest, second place in Jane’s Stories Flash Fiction contest, a finalist fiction grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Pushcart Prize, Best New American Voices, and Best of the Web nominations. She judges the intercultural essay prize for the annual Soul-Making Literary Contest.

Tara was the assistant editor for STORIES literary magazine, and a regular contributor to The Indian-American and Masala magazines. She now works as a freelance book editor in Andover, Massachusetts. www.taramasih.com

Angela Wilson

Angela Wilson is a multimedia producer by day and author by night. She is an avid reader who loves nothing more than to curl up with a cup of tea and a good book featuring a kick butt urban fantasy heroine. When she isn't toiling over a manuscript, she is cooking, canning and preserving, or letting her dog walk her.

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