# E-Book Question: Changes By Author?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-book-question-changes-by-author/604437>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 29, 2011, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-book-question-changes-by-author/604437 "2011-11-29T09:28:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-book-question-changes-by-author/604437/1 "2011-11-29T09:28:38Z")

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Say a book is released as an e-book only. Can the author access his words and make changes/updates/corrections?

Thanks

Quasi

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**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/e-book-question-changes-by-author/604437/2 "2011-11-29T11:49:07Z")

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This depends enormously on what technology is used for the e-book.

If the author creates an e-book file himself and either posts it on his website for download or emails it to people who send him a payment, then he can make changes at any time, but anybody who has the old, uncorrected e-book won’t see the changes unless they receive a new copy of the file by the same method and load it onto their e-book reader.

At the other extreme, ebookstore services like Amazon or B&N might make it difficult for authors to update changes, but theoretically at least, they could push the new version out directly to the e-readers of anybody who has purchased. I don’t know too much about the practicalities of that side, though, so someone who does may have further details.

I hope that this helps.