A Ceredigion based publishing company is hoping e-book technology can help breathe new life into Welsh language literature. Y Lolfa is launching the first ever Welsh language eBook.Managing director Garmon Gruffudd said the technology, which enables works to be published without printing costs, could enable Welsh works to be distributed widely across the world.
He said: “Production costs for e-books are far less than for printed books. You don’t have to take paper, ink and glue into account. Nor do you have to worry about delivery costs or warehouse storage. It means we can sell Welsh language books to readers all over the world without the great expense of distribution and postage.”
The first work to be published as an e-book by the long established Talybont based company will be a murder mystery novel Y Llwybr (The Path) by Geraint Evans, a former lecturer at Aberystwyth University. The cost of downloading an electric EPUB file of the book is a pound cheaper than the paper version. Y Lolfa hopes that this book will be the first of many eBooks in both Welsh and English that will be available on its website www.ylolfa.com. Garmon Gruffudd added,
“The problem at the moment is that the e-reading devices are quite expensive, however as with music, in the long run, technology will improve and prices will come down. As a forward looking company we want to be prepared.”
It's great that Y Lolfa is so forward thinking. THe British Nation as a whole is lagging way behind the States. I'm published with an American small press and all their titles are released electronically, with only the longer ones being released in print as well.
ReplyDeleteAmazon's 'Kindle' reader is horrifically expensive but the Sony E-reader is much cheaper although still pricy. As Mr Greufydd states, the prices must surely come down, books may well go the same way as the music industry, but publishers are likely to be more prepared, giv en the lessons already learnt. Congratulations Y Lolfa. Let's hope the rest of the UK follow suite before too long.
Excuse me but to say the British nation is lagging behind the states because we choose to print our books in ink rather than digitally is a rather narrow minded point of view in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has read books since an early age I cannot imagine what it would be like to read a Sony E-reader for any length of time and frankly I wouldn't want to. Can you imagine sitting in front of a fire with your Sony E-reader the idea is ridiculous. Who wants to be spending any more time in front of a computer than is really necessary?
Sure the idea of being able to read articles I find on the internet is appealing but to replace books with this format would be a great loss.
Absolutely!....I prefer papyri myself although for ceremonial purposes nothing beats a good stone tablet.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness tho I doubt that ereading machines will catch on unless the viewing area remains approximately the same size as the average printed page. Scrolling just doesnt cut it.