Is The eReader Device War Relevant To Self-Publishers?

After getting some e-mail about my post concerning the battle between Amazon's Kindle and the Apple iPad and considering the differing views, I still believe the outcome of the various eReader device wars are important for self-publishing authors.

To sum up the viewpoints of the readers who contacted me, the advantage of the iPad is it can be used for multiple uses besides reading ebooks. The Kindle is a dedicated reading tool. The multifunctional capability of the iPad is a valid point.

Competing ereader devices such as the Nook or the Sony eReader are also relevant to the equation. Self-publishing authors have limited time to write their next book, market current books and handle the other countless tasks self-publishing authors have to perform.

So far the only ebook conversions I have had done of my POD books have been to convert several titles to Kindle. While I wound up paying to have the Kindle editions of my books done, I spend time trying to learn how to do the conversion myself. I ended up with a mess I would not want a customer paying for. 

The more ereader versions of each individual title means more time and potentially more money out of my limited funds for my self-publishing empire. Spreading my already limited time and funds out over several versions might not be the best use of either. 

At the moment, Kindle appears to be winning the ebook/ereader wars. Given Amazon has the biggest share of the ebook market at the moment, it makes sense to focus my current efforts on ebooks sales at the Amazon Kindle Store. Splitting my sales and time over several different ebook versions robs me of time I need to spend on current projects and marketing and promoting my current books.

I do plan to introduce an ePub version of one title for the B&N Nook. The conversion service that is going to be completing the conversion does both a Kindle and ePub version for one price so I will be taking advantage of this opportunity. If sales of the Nook version of that particular title are good I may in time convert other titles as well but have no immediate plans to do so now.

As the ebook revolution in the publishing industry continues self-publishing authors should pay close attention to which ereader devices are being used the most and earning the most sales.