Dr. Gary S. Goodman and I have been connected on LinkedIn for some time now. His comments on my various blog posts have always been insightful and on point. Recently he sent me a link to an article he had written regarding e-Books and I thought it shed some new light on the question of to e-Book or not to e-Book? I enjoyed his perspective so much that I asked his permission to republish it on this blog.  –Bill Ruesch

Best-Selling Author Asks: How Do You Autograph An E-Book?

Author: Dr. Gary S. Goodman

At one of my most memorable book signings, I had just finished speaking to a group of 450 managers. Each had been provided a copy of one of my books, and it took me a good half-hour to inscribe autographs to those that patiently stood in line.

That happy scene came to mind I was just reflecting on some advice I gave to an aspiring author.

I suggested she start the journey into print and prestige by publishing an e-book. Build a track record with one of those, and then pitch a bricks-mortar-and-paper publisher on transforming the piece into something tangible.

Separately, I mentioned she should tell publishers that she performs before “live” audiences, which would make avid book buyers in the foyers of various venues.

Then it hit me. You can’t AUTOGRAPH an e-book, can you?

This is one of the medium’s major drawbacks. As an author of hard-copy volumes, some of which have reached best-seller status, I can tell you much of the allure of purchasing a speaker’s tome is that it is a memento.

You can pull it off a shelf, or even display it in a neat tabletop bracket, so your friends and colleagues can be impressed that you got up close and personal with someone at least moderately prominent.

There’s the signature to prove it, and the personal dedication, to YOU!

You can pass that volume down to your grandkids, and beyond, and it may gain significance and even extrinsic value with the passing decades.

An e-book will in all likelihood never be prized as a “first edition.” Nor can it really become a “rare” book, either, as long as it can be preserved in electronic storage systems, which become ever cheaper.

We can’t tout an e-book as being in “excellent condition,” either. Indeed, most of the characteristics that lend books an aura or prestige and uniqueness tend to vanish when they become digital, only.

E-books will be with us for a long time to come. Yet, will they ever serve as reminders of special events or meaningful encounters the way conventional books do?

Authors aren’t the only people to inscribe dedications in books. We do the same thing for friends and loved ones when we give them as gifts.

The fact that we cannot autograph e-books doesn’t necessarily consign them to failure. It just makes conventional volumes that much more valuable and admirable, by comparison.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ebooks-articles/bestselling-author-asks-how-do-you-autograph-an-ebook-2090439.html

About the Author

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top-ranked sales speaker, negotiation speaker, and customer service speaker at Google, and a distinguished, sought-after telemarketing speaker, motivational speaker, and attorney. President of Customersatisfaction.com, he is a frequent TV and radio commentator and the best-selling author of 12 books and more than 1,700 articles that appear in 25,000 publications. President of Customersatisfaction.com, Gary conducts seminars and speaks at convention programs around the world. His new audio program is Nightingale-Conant’s “Crystal Clear Communication: How to Explain Anything Clearly in Speech & Writing,” which you can try for only one dollar at: http://www.nightingale.com/prod_detail.aspx?product=Crystal_Clear_Communication&promo=INTAF416. Professional speaking, seminar, and consulting invitations can be addressed to:gary@customersatisfaction.com.

breathe in the ancient wisdom

I stirred up a lot of conversation with my blog post titled, “How Can You Call an eBook a Real Book?” Most of the chatter was on LinkedIn through the writing and publishing groups I belong to. I was very surprised to read comments from  self-confessed, dyed-in-the-wool printed book advocates who are becoming wobbly on the issue. Don’t throw in the towel yet.

eBooks have already seized our minds and our imaginations. The possibilities are incredible, all except one. Yesterday I tried to pull up a document on my computer. A dialogue box popped up that said the file had become corrupted. It suggested some ways to fix the file–none of them worked–so, I’m left with reconstructing the document. If I can.

What was here one moment is, whoosh, gone the next. I’m sure if I call my service tech at the Bomb Squad he could find it by going through the mysterious back doors. These are the places us mere mortals dare not tread. To go in there, even for a peek, could set up a chain reaction that might destroy the entire planet. It is not worth the risk. I have to weigh my options carefully, do I bring in the Bomb Squad and spend money I don’t have, or try to reconstruct the document, or let it go, like a loose kite floating endlessly and aimlessly through cyberspace?

Do you understand where I am going with this? Permanence is the question. Books whether written on stone tablets, sheepskin, papyrus, cotton paper, or wood pulp stock have passed the test of time. Doggone it–they last. They may not stay in tip-top condition, but they have longevity.

How long will your computer hold files intact until they start getting iffy, weeks, months, or years?  I expect to see eBooks purchased by the average buyer as having a comparable short shelf life. If the computer gremlins don’t get them, technology changes will. I have a book of poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson in my library which must be at least 125 years old. The paper is brittle, and the binding is weak, but I can pick it up and read it anytime I want. No dialogue box will appear in my hand saying sorry the file is corrupt. Many of my other books are older than 40 years, even the cheap paperbacks. In a world where the average computer is ancient in five years, the possibility of a file hanging around for even 20 years is ludicrous.

The bottom line is electronic books are risky. You will have to replace them regularly if you want to keep them viable, or just get used to losing much of your collection each and every year. Now you see it–now you don’t. Paper to the people!

My wife, who is more technologically inclined than I am, insisted I buy a computer for my Print Brokering business some 18 years ago. So I went to my local Office Max, and spoke with their computer expert who looked to be all of fifteen years old. He advised that I buy the latest PC with the brand-spanking-new Windows Operating System. That sounded good, so I bought it and carted it home confident that my wife, who worked on computers at her office, would be able to teach me everything I needed to know. Wrong. She was working with DOS and knew nothing about Windows. I was on my own. It was like being on Survivor without a camera crew, producers, or other participants; I was all alone.

I read tutorials, hired teachers, bought “easy to use software” before I learned that it was easy to use for the programmers who created it, but not for me. Despite my reticence I slowly I started to gain ground on this beast of convenience.

But it wasn’t long before I discovered the meanings of my C Drive crashed, my hard disks collapsed, and the computer froze. The admonition to save often made sense after losing a day’s worth of work. Then I found out about gremlins. Somewhere in the bowels of the malicious computer machine exists an intelligent life form whose only purpose is to make sure that the actions you perform today, will not work tomorrow, even if you meticulously repeat them.

This is the long road around to saying that I like many of us in the 50+ generation; have difficulty accepting anything made of electronic blips as friendly. As soon as you rely on them they erase themselves, become unintelligible, or transform into gigantic city stomping lizards. Well, maybe I went too far with the lizard thing, but you know what I mean. Heaven forbid you slip and drop them on the floor. Whether you are reading through a Kindle, an iPhone, or some other device drop it and like magic you’ll discover whether your credit card is maxed. On the other hand I can drop my printed book, pick it up and go on with my life. My credit card is untouched.

Is it inevitable?

So the question remains, is an e-Book a real book?  Somebody out there thinks so; e-Books are racking up the biggest sales numbers in the entire book market averaging an astounding 55.7% annual growth since 2003.  Compare this with all the other types of books from Adult Hardbound and Paperback, Juvenile Hardbound and Paperback, Book Clubs, Higher Education, etc. which grew a mere 1.04% annually (excluding sales for the Harry Potter series) in the same time period.

Here’s the shocker, do you know who are buying Kindle Readers by the boatload? The 50+ crowd. My peers. e-Book sales grew 183% among seniors aged 65+ and 174% among seniors aged 55-65. And here I was counting on older folks to save printed books.

Must I raise the white flag and surrender? 1.04% annual growth against 55.7% growth in e-Book sales is persuasive. Imagine fighting a war where the odds were 55 to 1. Can anyone say General Custer? My punishment for doubt is to write on the board 500 times, “e-Books are real books, e-Books are real books, e-Books are real books…”

How do you market an e-Book? Use the Internet. How do you learn how to use the Internet to sell e-Books? You can do it the hard way or the easy way. The easy way is The Author Platform. And you can test it for no money down. How’s that for an offer?

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