Why Michael Chabon, new Nebula winner, should love e-books—even if his Alaska book isn’t even out in E yet
Congratulations to Michael Chabon, author of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, for nominations for the Edgar, Hugo and Nebula within relevant categories. In fact, as noted in Media Bistro’s Galley Cat blog, he’s already a Nebula winner.
Now here’s the e-book angle. TYPU fits not just within the mystery genre (the Edgar) but also the SF-and-fantasy area (the Hugo and Nubla). It is, after all, alternate history. During World War II, the U.S. donates land for a temporary Jewish settlement in the then-territory of Alaska; and within the settlement, a murder takes place. Couldn’t e-help, since it’s a lot easier to juggle around electrons than the atoms of a multi-genre book?
E-stores vs. p-stores
At an old-fashioned paper bookstore or library, just where do you put TYPU? On the mystery shelf? The SF-and-fantasy-one? Perhaps both, but then you’re taking away space from other books.
But at an online e-book store? TYPU can show up in a number of categories without this problem. Of course, there might be less space for other titles on the Web pages for most-featured titles, but the hassles are fewer—you would not be reducing the number of titles carried. Same for e-libraries.
The medium for hyphenated books
E-books, in fact, as shown by the abundance of vampire-romances, SF-thrillers and so on, are the medium to think about for hyphenated genres.
HarperCollins, Chabon’s publisher, should be making hay with E, right?
Now the kicker–no e-book of TYPU, apparently.
And now the kicker: So far I can’t find an e-book edition of TYPU, not even in the Kindle format. Am I missing something? What’s taking HarperCollins so long? Is Chabon or his agent resisting, or the problem in-house? Strange. Isn’t HarperCollins supposed to be open to experimentation? In fact, timely releases of e-books at this point are hardly just an experiment at many publishers. Come on, HarperCollins. Get with it or at least explain the apparent delay in releasing Chabon’s TYPU in E.
A reminder: Nothing against old-fashioned p-stores. Or p-libraries. But the cross-genre area is one place where E shines.
Related: Chabon’s Minimal Presence Web site (plus earlier version), Google news roundup on Cabon, Technoratti blog roundup, and the Nebula home page. The Nebula ceremony happened on Saturday.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:45 am
David says:
“So far I can’t find an e-book edition of TYPU, not even in the Kindle format. Am I missing something?”
According to amazon the paperback edition is not officially released until tomorrow, April 29th. I have found on a few occasions that some titles don’t show up as a Kindle title until the actual day of release. So you might check back in a day or two.
On the other hand, I noticed that the hardback version came out over a year ago so perhaps they do not intend to release a Kindle version.
I don’t know why amazon does that and I find that very annoying. I’d like to be able to pre-order books in Kindle format and just have them show up on my Kindle on release day. So far I have not found that option to be available for Kindle books.
I’ve basically stopped pre-ordering most books because I can’t be sure if there is going to be a Kindle version or not until release day.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
HeavyG, thanks for the details. Let us know if/when you run across a Kindle version of the Chabon book–I invite others to do the same. Here’s hoping that TYPU will show up in the K format as well as others! David
April 28th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I don’t think Amazon does Kindle versions unless the publisher lets them. Electronic rights are not automatic. Possibly Charbon retained electronic rights. Anyway, I also noticed this is a book without ‘E.’ Too bad.
Michael–if you held onto the electronic rights and you’re looking for a good electronics publisher, shoot me a query–I’ll get it published in no time. I enjoyed the story a lot–even though I had to read it in paper.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com