The change in technology has added many pros and cons to the way the publishing industry works. Now you can buy a book anywhere and just start reading. Now you can publish yourself and not worry about publishing companies. Now you have to worry about charging your book, but at the same time it can do so much more.

Here are a few things you may want to consider if you decide to self publish.

The Pros to E-books

• You can buy your book anywhere and at anytime. No more needed to go to the bookstore because the bookstore is on your phone, computer, etc.
• You can save a bunch of physical space by having hundreds of books on one device or in the cloud.
• You can publish yourself and not worry about the cost of printing or about having your rights managed by others (there are print-on-demand choices as well, but the e-book option is more popular).
• You can search through your e-book much more easily. This is really good for researchers who have to read through thick resource books. Searching for keywords makes indexing so much easier.
• You can use Text-to-Speech, making it much easier to multitask, or for anyone with trouble reading to enjoy books.
• You can (theoretically) get cheaper books. Many publishers do jack up their prices, but there are still many books out there that are below $5.
• You can hide what you read so people on the subway don't know you're reading "50 Shades of Gray" or "Harry Potter" or whatever.

The Cons to E-books

• You have to charge your phone, e-reader, computer, etc. Now you need electricity (and sometimes internet access) to access and read your books.
• Bookstores are going out of business, largely due to online stores (this isn't just due to e-books. Online stores are often cheaper with physical copies as well).
• You can run into issues with copy-right infringement. DRM isn't as secure as most of us like to believe, allowing for pirated copies to be made.
• Some books are hard to read on a tiny screen. It is hard to flip through a book on an e-reader (in my own personal experience).
• Not all e-readers are color so you have to be careful of color choices in your photos and cover for the e-reader.
• Not all e-books are reasonably priced. Some publishers set the e-book at the same price or higher than the physical book price.
• You can't lend a book to a friend. Although, some limited groups will allow you to share between people who have the same device. E.g. Nook and Kindle.

What all this means

E-books are here to stay. That is my opinion and if we look at the way the CDs and DVDs are dying out, books are also going to follow this trend. The problem is that a lot of publishers don't really want to face this fact so they price-fix their books. Most of the anti-trust cases have since been dealt with, but you still see high prices. When you buy and e-book you are not paying for the ink or paper, you are paying for the rights to own a single copy of the book. Often times, you can't even lend your book to a friend. This means that more copies have to be bought. I'm not sure if the publishers are slow to adapt to e-books or if they are hoping to get even more money out of us. It may even be a combination of the two.

I realize this turned into a rant against publishers. All the more reason for me, personally, to like self-publishing. There are always pros and cons to every issue, you just have to weigh them to see which is better. For me, I will continue publishing e-books, mainly because my work so far is really too short to justify printing. That being said, I have had a lot of friends who prefer a physical copy and ask if my book will get printed. Right now, the e-book is the option for me and in the future, I may wish to expand to both e-book and book, just to keep my options open.