Authors look to e-book format

Before this summer, local author Amy Kaufman Burk had never had a book published.

Breaking into the publishing business as an unknown author, writing a book was difficult, she said. The roadblocks she encountered in trying to get a hard copy of her book published led her to look into online formats.

Burk self-published her first novel, “Hollywood High: Achieve the Honorable” on July 2 — as an e-book.

“When you self-publish, it’s a challenge to get people to know the book is even there and to get people to read it,” she said.

“Hollywood High: Achieve the Honorable” is a fictionalized account of her high school experiences with witnessing violence against LGBT students, Burk said.

“The indifference from a lot of the students to that violence killed me, but I promised myself to write about my experiences,” she said. “If my book can make one person take that first step to becoming an (LGBT) ally, I think that will be a success.”

Burk is among the growing field of first-time authors taking advantage of the accessibility of the e-book format.

“I couldn’t call myself an expert on the publishing industry, but I definitely think that e-books seem to be selling more and more,” Burk said.

But Stacie Smith, the manager of the Bull’s Head Bookshop in UNC’s Student Stores, disagrees.

“From a personal standpoint, I think that the popularity of e-books has been exaggerated a little,” she said.

The Bull’s Head does not currently sell e-books.

Linnie Greene, marketing coordinator of Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, said she believes that e-books and the print book can coexist and will continue to do so in the future.

She said e-books are very practical for traveling and for whoever requires large print, but that personally, she views books as a holistic product.

And at Flyleaf Books, costumers can purchase both e-books through their website as well as hard copy books, which she said she thinks is important to keeping an independent brick and mortar bookshop such as Flyleaf afloat.

Although the purchase of e-books is online only, customers can buy e-reader devices from Flyleaf through a service called Kobo.

“Kobo partners with independent booksellers so that when they sell a device, books purchased directly on the device or through our website give the (independent book seller) a percentage of that profit,” Greene said.

Greene also said she thinks people feel they don’t have to be ashamed enjoying e-books when buying them from a small, independent bookstore rather than from a corporation online.

As for local authors, Greene said she thought it would be helpful for those trying to publish for the first time to partner with a local bookstore, saying that an e-book is a way to disperse your product at a low cost.

Greene said she thinks the rise of the popularity of e-books does not mean the end of print publishing.

“I think that a lot of people are very doom and gloom about the fate of the print book — I, on the other hand, am not.”

arts@dailytarheel.com