Kindle is debuting it's self-publishing component, Digital Text Platform (DTP), worldwide... Authors can now publish their own content almost instantaneously.
Desire Athow, writing for ITProPortal, puts it this way:
Amazon has announced the expansion of its Kindle self publishing solution, otherwise known as Digital Text Platform, that will allow authors to push out their own content.
The scheme, which was only available in the US previously, will support English, German and French languages, but neither Mandarin or Spanish, two more popular languages. Amazon has confirmed that it will be adding more languages to the Kindle in the forthcoming months.
Published works can then be sold through Kindle store to customers across the world who can download them to their Kindle devices over the air for a fee of which Amazon will keep 65 percent (ed: that is shocking).
However, the DTP is not without flaws, as reported by Betanews' Tim Conneally, Kindle supports only Latin-1 ASCII alphabet and ignores the nine other ISO 8859 8-bit alphabet sets.
The Kindle DX e-reader is expected to be launched over the next few days in the UK and in more than 100 other countries for around £350.
Observers anticipate that DTP might lead to a significant increase in the number of litigation as right holders dispute ownership of titles across various territories.
Amazon hasn't described the details of its vetting process but it is likely to have a simple, but effective one to cope with the massive amount of publications the system is expected to receive at launch
Our Comments
This is essential if Amazon is to make a head start in big-gadget consuming markets in Asian countries. Furthermore, Apple's forthcoming tablet is likely to be very adept at supporting the more complex and intricate Asian character sets.
Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/1/16/amazon-rolls-out-kindle-self-publishing-platform-worldwide/2/#ixzz0cnpzQOaD
2 comments:
While I think that e-books are here to stay, not every self-published author should put their book into digital format. Take how-to workbooks, for example. What is the benefit of having a lot of white space on a digital book that my readers can't use? As the author of The Writer's Adventure Guide: 12 Stages to Writing Your Book [www.writersadventureguide.com], I want my readers to become writers. So, I'm holding off on the digital version of my book, until my audience actually wants it. As to the legalities of amazon's move, what's hte saying? "Act first and ask for forgiveness later..." Let the games begin!
I agree with your assessment completely. Not every self-published (or otherwise-published author) should put their book into digital format. Your example of workbooks was good & there are plenty of other examples were printed format is more functional. In fact, I don't see the "printed" format going away in the future either.
As soon as the dust settles around the newer media formats for presenting the "printed word" and people realize that they are only additions to publishing formats and not the death of existing ones, I suspect the "printed word" will take it's proper place among all media formats...Publishers (and writers) just need to work out the new cost models & logistics...
The "rights" issues across media types will also shake out & litigation will minimize greatly.
One thing is for sure... traditional publishers (many have become spoiled)are going to have to start really going to work & doing their jobs to get content creators, AND authors will enjoy bigger cuts & paychecks.
Post a Comment