So, apparently there’s another controversy in RWA land (is there ever one not going on?).  This is over to epub or not to epub…only that is not the question.  It’s more like where’s the money, dude?

Or maybe the recognition…I’m not clear on that one.

Honestly, the gossip always gets to me last — this has been my life since high school when the first awareness that such a thing as back channel chatter filtered through my horse-crazy phase (the one I never out-grew).  Anyway, the tempest of the day is this epub thing, and head over to Google if you want the full set of opinions.

Myself…I don’t know.  I have nothing against e-books, but then I have nothing for them, either.  When a good reading device comes along I suspect I’ll make the jump, but I’d still rather buy a book and read it, not download it and read it.  Or maybe it’s that the right book hasn’t come out only on epub to grab me.  On the other hand, saving trees, good stuff, less paper around, even better.  But then, transporting bytes still takes power, so we’re still into the grid and still warming the planet, and you can offset your books with donations to Tree People.  So…no decision in that round.

As to its viability as a publishing business–sure, heck, why not.  But if you look at the epub best seller lists, more sex seems to sell more (as in, duh).  So it’s probably like any other publishing business in that some titles do better than others, so it works for some, not so much for others.  Meaning some folks will be happy there, others not.  But then I wonder why epublished authors also seek out traditional houses, too.  The ones who write for both–well, why not.  It’s about the money there, too, I’m sure.  And making money.  And still no decision.

So what’s the real deal here?  Is it about fame more than money?  The desperate need none of us have ever outgrown–the desire to be “in the club” to be so hip slick and cool?  I think only MJ Rose has made her name into a almost household one, and that was with a jump from epub to print, so it may be that epub still has the glamour of the gizmo stuck to it.  There’s no Stevie King yet for the epub–but that’s coming.  (Well, actually, it’s here, but King’s books still come out first in hard cover, which really shows where the big money is.)

So it’ll be nice when we can get back more to the content, not the format.  When print or bytes are a second thought, and maybe you can only get this great book by download (on a reader with a decent cost and display, please) and we’re back to talking about the words and how well they fit.