Of Why I Hate Making Ebooks

Because I work with ebooks as part of my day job as an editor at a business/academic publisher, I find the subject of ebooks to be particularly interesting. In theory, ebooks have a lot of advantages for consumers. I own a kindle and love its convenience for traveling. That's where the love stops. As an editor who is forced to produce ebooks, I find the making of them to be loathsome.

If you love ebooks, you probably want to stop reading this post now. They sell well, are great for authors, and are the wave of the future, blah blah blah. I get it and I don't care. If you want to hear why ebooks are the worst, then read on.

There has already been a lot written on why ebooks are bad for readers:

• Reading retention on screens is diminshed compared to paper
• They do not make your brain happy
• They slow down reading speed
• Enhanced ebooks don't help children learn how to read
• They have no inherent value as an object 
• They can only be read on proprietary devices
• Purchase of ebooks can be monitored or tracked

Ebooks are also obnoxious for the invisible cogs in the wheel: the editors, compositors, printers, and other behind-the-scenes people in publishing who make them or have lost business because of them.

First of all, I don't know many people who decided to work for a publisher because they were really excited about making books that you can double tap. We love books, which is why we work with books.

The external trappings of a book are just as important as the content on the inside. A lot of thought has gone into the size, shape, font, headings, cover art, etc. Ebooks obliterate all individuality of a book in favor of what the e-reader can support. We all know ebooks are ugly but it goes beyond that. Some e-readers can't display lists correctly or show emphasis through different font sizes, bolding, etc. As an editor, this is annoying because I have to shape the content to the demands of the e-reader, even though I believe the content should reign supreme. I work in business/academic publishing so it's doubly awful. Things like checklists, tables, boxes, and forms look terrible in ebooks and I feel bad for passing those on to a reader, but I can only work in the confines of the technology platform I'm given.

Also, different e-readers take different file types and things display differently on each platform. Smaller publishers often don't have the time, money, manpower, or expertise to make multiple .this or .that so they are forced to pick one and miss out on potential business because some customers decided to buy a Nook instead of an iPad.

Ebook production also disrupts the normal flow of the traditional publishing process, leading to errors. I hate errors. Lots of corrections and changes are usually made during the pageproofs stage of a book because (see list above) it's easier to read on paper than on screen. However, because it's faster to produce an ebook than a print book, those corrections are not captured in the ebook file, causing either mistakes or redundancy and inefficiency in the workflow. Maybe other publishers have figured this out, but I don't think so, given the number of errors I've seen and heard about.

Finally, it's frustrating to hear people complain that ebook pricing in the academic market is too high. Basically, the only cost that differs from ebook to print (in my company) is printing costs. Often, that's less than $5 per book, but many customers expect huge discounts in prices. The book still has to be edited, composed, and go through quality control. And if it's being sold by an online distributor, they take an extra cut. A self-published fiction book goes through a completely different process, so an author can still make a profit selling a book for $1.99. If my company sold first edition books for that price, I'd be out of a job.

So next time you get into a heated debate about ebooks (which I'm sure happens all the time), feel free to use these gripes as ammunition for why ebooks are the worst. Clearly, ebooks are here to stay but they have a long way to go in the academic market especially. I'm sure my grandchildren will read this one day on their e-readers on Mars and be amazed at how we ever survived with such primitive technology. Hey grandkids, don't forget to call me on my birthday.