The other is that authors won’t bother with editing and books will stand or fall on how well they were self-edited.

Probably both will happen, with a few, savvy, professional writers involving editors, and the great bulk of writers not bothering and taking their chances. (From what I can tell, most self-published writers don’t see the difference between a well-crafted book and the opposite – otherwise they would have been too embarrassed to publish their work in the first place.)

The quality problem will be with us until new ebook review sites emerge which – probably over years – will earn sufficient respect from readers that their recommendations will make them primary shopping destinations for ebooks. (I imagine lots of these vying for the top spot in each genre.)

Like you, I can’t wait for the perfect future to arrive

I just wish the experience of shopping for e-books was a nice as being in a bookstore. I get SO BORED drilling down through a less-than-brilliant user interface, waiting on regional Australia style downloads and not being able to get a sense of all the many elements that go into the purchase decision for me.

The fact that it’s now so easy for an author to self-publish is FABULOUS for writers; and of course has the downside that it’s much harder for readers to sift the good stuff, especially when it comes to free titles. OMG, I am taking on a belief that free equals crappy – and I certainly don’t want that!

I can’t wait for the day when formats are sorted, business models settle down and e-books explore the real creativity possible with digital publishing. I would LOVE to have had links to the various locations embedded in TimeSplash!! It will all happen, and probably sooner than we think. Onward and upward!

Kate’s right, although it’s not exactly widespread yet. Most big city libraries are loaning ebooks (and letting you download audio books) and I expect it to spread to smaller centres throughout this year. The selection isn’t huge yet. Effectively ebooks are a new collection for these libraries.

I can’t see library loans of ebooks having any greater effect than loans of print books. On the whole, I see it as a very positive thing. How many new writers have you discovered through your library that you have then gone on to buy? I know I do it all the time.

I will attempt to read an ebook though, now let me see, I have this one called TimeSplash I wonder if it is any good…

Or maybe I could go and have a look at the free ebooks on the sight you have plugged (I wouldn’t do that).

Kate Eltham was on the ABC radio the other day talking about libraries already loaning ebooks. What effect do you reckon that will have on ebook sales in the future?

I suspect that, in the end, it will be ebooks which finally change the game. Companies like Smashwords, which have the software to help you assemble and present a book, manage all the commercial stuff and take a 15% cut on sales, look to me like the biggest challenge to current publishing.

This set-up does not solve the quality control problem but I see that coming from independent book review sites which will do, post hoc, what the agents and editors are now doing before the fact. These reviewers will build up strong reputations in each genre and will become the go-to guys for finding a good read.

Since publishing will be, effectively, free, there will no point in writers handing their work to third parties to publish. Every writer will just publish everything they write and let the market sort out what it wants to read and what it doesn’t. Power will then be in the hands of the reviewers and the smart review sites will probably crowd-source their end of the business. They will also, out of convenience, become the new book retailers.

Using the supermarket analogy you used – is the answer some sort of “local writing/publishing” movement, like the “local food” movement? What an interesting problem.

Must mull this for a while. But it would be interesting to hear what sort of ideas you have.

You’re right, by the way, that TimeSplash isn’t the first novel I’ve written – more like the sixth – just the first to be published.

I really hope you enjoy the rest of the book. Thanks, again.