I confess that I had never read an E-book before I contracted my book with Wild Rose Press. There is something about holding a book in one's hand, being able to take that book to bed, to the couch, to the bathroom. Though I do not do it with library books, many of my own books have wavy pages from being dipped in bathwater. Although I'm at a point now, where I prefer showers to baths. And reading in the shower is just not the same.
But since being with Wild Rose Press, I have downloaded several E-books. I've even got my eye on one of those Sony E-readers. For about three hundred dollars, you can buy this handy device and store your downloaded books in it and read it anywhere (except the shower). Or there is Amazon's Kindle. I've heard you have to get on a waiting list even to buy one.
My husband handed over to me a book written by Ben Bova (I think in '89-written,not handed to me then). The book is called Cyberbooks. It is about this great gadget which will transform the publishing industry. People are trying to steal it. People are getting killed. There's a stripper, yadda, yadda, yadda. Not a bad read so far. It is SciFi. which isn't my preferred genre, but, as I said, not bad so far. The gadget is basically an E-reader! So funny!
Has the E-reader transformed the publishing industry? It is transforming it. Will we eventually live in a world where print books are only found in antique stores? Probably not. But I think we are moving to the E-books being more and more common. Not sure of this statistic, but I read that less than 1% of books sold are E-books. However, if Amazon can't even keep up with the demand of Kindle purchases (and at the price, whew!!) I think we will see a rise in the percentage of E-books sold. As an author whose books will be available digitally and in print, I will actually make more money on each E-book sold than each print book sold. That's because it costs more (duh) to print the book! However, I do not underestimate our culture that likes to "own" things when given the option of just borrowing or renting. Don't believe me? How many DVDs have you bought that you've only watched one time? Wouldn't it have made sense to rent it, watch it, and return it? Then that would free up some of your shelf space. But, no, I just had to buy Saw 14 so I could watch it whenever I felt like it. (A Disclaimer here. I have not ever watched any Saw movie. The ad was enough to make me say "ECK! NO!"). And owning some of the classics have completely taken the magic out of watching those movies. Remember when The Wizard of Oz came on TV just once a year? And it was an EVENT!! The next day we played Wizard of Oz on the playground at school. There was always a debate as to who got to be The Lollipop guild (an important part, true, but very minor, and it made one's toes hurt afterward). And now, when I see a commercial that it's coming on TBS, I get excited for a moment and then I think. Oh. I own that. I can watch it any time I want. But do I? No. In fact, I've even caught myself watching the old (and in my mind superior) Star Wars movies on cable all the while saying to myself, "This is ridiculous! I can watch this on the DVDs I own without the commercials!" And sometimes I go right to my movie shelf, pull the movie off, stick it in the player, and press play. Of course, every once in a while, I have to stop it to see the progress of the movie compared to the one on cable.
Does anyone else in the world do this??
Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
My point is E-books are an efficient way to read books that we will enjoy immensely, but we probably won't enjoy repeatedly. Do not get me wrong. There are certain books that are classics to me and are also paperback romance novels. And none of them are written by Jane Austin (love her heart). They are just regular books that for some reason touched me in a certain way so that every few years I pick them back up for a carefree enjoyable afternoon.
Downloading a digital book doesn't mean I don't own it. It just saves me space in those times that I deem it a classic. I can still keep it, but I keep it in my computer's memory. Or if I decide I have enjoyed it, but it's a one time kind of book, I just hit the "delete" button. No trips to the local second hand store necessary. How convenient is that? DH (I see this on other posts and think it stands for "Dear Husband" and not some other adjective that begins with "D") proclaims we will download movies and store them as we do E-books now. As the technology becomes more common, the prices for readers and viewers will go down as well. A win win situation.
Ah, but don't think I won't be buying copies of my book when that baby comes out in print. I'm trying to decide how many I should buy. Enough so that when I die, I'll still have one copy left to be placed right next to me in my pine box.
Has anyone else ever thought of packing something with them on their final journey (other than the pharaohs)?
Anyone?
Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
Best Selling Romance Author Jennifer Johnson
