By Julie Poe
CHAPEL HILL — In a seminar on Tuesday, North Carolina professor Trevy McDonald urged students to explore new means of self-publishing.
The seminar was held on the same day that HarperCollins, a major publishing company, unveiled a new publishing website, ushering in a fresh conversation about the future role of e-books.
“What is a book?” McDonald asked the 12 students in her seminar. “That’s not as easily defined anymore. And that’s a good thing, because it opens up the industry to so much talent that was untapped before.”
A recent study by the International Digital Publishing Forum found that e-book sales have grown tenfold since 2002. McDonald attributed this increased popularity to the low costs of online publishing, which causes e-books to be priced less than print books.
She said that companies such as Kindle publish e-books for free, while the typical cost for print self-publication ranges from $400 to $99,000. The costless production of an e-book means that authors can price their works at less than $10, which can become a more accessible price for a wider range of readers.
Another factor is the autonomy online publishing offers for new authors. Authors who self-publish are free from contractual obligations to a publishing company. This allows writers to make their own decisions on the content, cover and marketing of their books. The opportunity of greater autonomy inspired McDonald in 1999 to self-publish her first book, Time Will Tell, and found the publishing company Reyomi Global Media Group.
Since then, McDonald has found that online publishing offers a more dependable outlet for beginning authors to market their work. This dependability is also the main reason that HarperCollins cited for beginning a new website that provides a forum for authors to market their e-books to readers.
“We are excited to be able to offer an e-commerce solution to our authors, ensuring their books are always available to their fans,” chief digital officer Chantal Restivo-Alessi said in a statement on Tuesday. “As a publisher, we want to offer as many paths to the consumer as possible.”
Mainly, it is the accessibility of e-books that McDonald believes will keep them relevant in the future. She feels that the strength of e-books lies in the reader’s ability to use an e-reader to transport and access an unlimited library.
“Authors have to lead the charge into the digital age,” McDonald said. “Readers want instant access and they want to have everything at their fingertips, and e-books are simply the easiest way to do that.”