Book promotion: is it working for you?

So how was it for you?  Promoting your last book? Marketing can be a bit of a mystery sometimes.  Especially when it comes to books.  As I may have mentioned before, one of my early titles outsells all the others several times over.  I've never promoted this book. If I knew why it sells more I could bottle the formula and use it again.  Unfortunately I've never figured it out, so I can't.

What works and what doesn't? Let's look at social media first.  Namely, Facebook. 

Likes and shares do not equal sales! 

Social Media is often hailed as a book selling tool, but it has its limitations.  One of my charity e-books, Coming Home, has lovely reviews, and every now and then, the Cats Protection, who I donate all my royalties to, give the book a shout on their Facebook page.  Each time they do, it always boosts sales and reviews, which is great, because that's more income for cats in need.  This month, their Facebook post about my book has so far garnered 1132 likes and 145 shares.  Fantastic!  Now, for anyone out there who thinks they can solely rely on Facebook to sell books, think again!  I've sold an extra 25 copies of Coming Home from this exposure.  Likes and shares do not equal sales!  Based on this example, there is roughly one sale per 6 shares, and around 2 sales per 100 likes.  It's worth doing the sums. 

"Old skool" techniques

In order to promote my other darlings, I've tried "old skool" (as I believe it may be called now - god, I'm getting old!) techniques, such as paid advertising space in an actual printed magazine.  Since I write books that are aimed at children and teens who love ponies, I chose the best selling UK magazine aimed at this market - PONY magazine.  It's perfect in so many ways, and in my excitement at trialling some promotion, I pre-booked not one, but 4 advertorials spanning from Easter 2014 to February 2015.  With such a targeted readership so closely aligned to my own target market, how could it fail?  

I've had 2 of my books featured so far.   I knew how many EXTRA books I would have to sell to cover the costs of the ad (a lot!)  So, how did it impact on sales? Disappointingly little.  Of course, the only way to be certain of the impact would be to know how many books would have sold without the ad and there's no way of doing this.  I can just go on what average sales were prior to the ad - although these can vary -  since at least with Amazon, you can track how effective any promo is on a daily basis, which is a really valuable tool.  I'm hoping the ads will be a long term investment to build my visibility with my target audience.  And that anyone who did buy the featured book as a result of the ad will then go on to buy my other titles.  But who knows.....?

Any one else out there using "old skool" methods?  And if so, how was it for you?
Oh, and if anyone has the magic formula for why some books sell better than others (or some foolproof marketing technique for authors), please share it with everyone!  Thanks. 


Related post: http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/the-further-mysteries-of-author.html

E-book Sales: Growing!

"Show me any other area of publishing that has seen 43% revenue growth year on year. In fact, show me any area of any industry that has."

Check out more of this illuminating report from Sam Missingham at Futurebook on the current and future status of e-book sales.
http://futurebook.net/content/search-happy-ending

Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/adapt-and-survive.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/e-books-and-tree-books.html

The Business of Writing Part 2: The Elusive Magic Formula?

Is there a magic formula for selling books?  We all hope so, and many articles and how to books might claim there is.  But, deep down, we know it isn't true.

Publishing is full of surprises - what sells, what doesn't - and despite following certain "rules" that make perfect sense, as writers, we are at the mercy of a reader's personal tastes.  There is no magic formula – either for writing or promoting books - that will work for everyone.

However, statistics can at least inform our marketing decisions.

I'm grateful to fellow writer and blogger Deborah Jay http://deborahjay.wordpress.com/about/ for responding to one of my recent posts called Readers: Does size matter? by sending me the link to the results of a recent Smashwords survey which analysed the common characteristics of bestselling (and poor-selling) Smashwords ebooks.  Some of the questions they posed were:

• Do frequent price changes help authors sell more books?
• Do longer or shorter books sell better?
• What's the average word count for the 60 bestselling Smashwords romance books?
• What does the sales distribution curve look like, and how many books sell well?
• How many words are the bestselling authors selling for a penny?

These are all questions I've recently been wrestling with and blogging about and after reading this, I have had a major overhaul of my e-book pricing structure, curious to see how this might affect sales.

Click on the link to read the full list of questions and survey findings.
http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/05/new-smashwords-survey-helps-authors.html

Related posts
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-business-of-writing-part-1.html
http://janefriedman.com/2013/04/21/how-to-publish-an-ebook/

Readers: Does Size Matter?

I’ve just had another Amazon review of Beware of the Horse. The reader rated the story “very good” and liked my writing style, which makes me happy.  But her basis for giving it only 3 stars was that the book was much too short.  In fact she described it as a short story.

I’m not sure how you would define a short story but for me, 67 pages and nearly 18,000 words is not a short story.  More of a novella (according to a publisher definition this will be between 15,000-20,000 words).  The book is aimed at pre-teens and teens, and I’ve been told can be especially enjoyed by reluctant readers.  (I’ve previously had stories published in collections for reluctant readers, and most of my novels for teens are around 26,000 words).  Other reviewers have said they read Beware of the Horse quickly and commented on the length so I have revised the description to make it clear who it is aimed at and now describe it as a novella.  I don’t want my readers to be disappointed or to feel cheated. But it got me thinking.

Do readers value a book by its size?  How big it is, how thick the width, how heavy the weight, how many pages?  Of course, with e-books you don’t have this tangible aspect of book buying.  (My recent post Reading Bigger Books refers to this). Pages aren’t numbered in e-books, so how can you tell how many there are? If it’s 800 pages do you expect more than if was 200 pages? Quantity equals quality? Would you expect a book priced higher to be better than a cheap one?  You get what you pay for?  Or does that not apply to books?

It is easy with e-books to have our expectations manipulated when there are so many books for free or less than £1. Recently, the bestseller Life of Pi by Yann Martel was on special promotion for 20p (now back to £2.84).  The large publisher behind it could afford to fund this but how can smaller publishers and indie authors compete?  By lowering their prices even more?  This kind of pricing strategy will eventually devalue books completely and the wonderful opportunities offered to indie writers by the digital revolution will turn round and bite us on the bum, so to speak.    

My e-books are priced between £1.95 - £2.98. Many e-books cost just 99p.  They could have taken 6 months or several years of work to produce.  What else can you get for £1.95?  Not even a cappuccino.

So what is my time worth?  If no-one pays me, is my time worthless?  If my book is available free, is it worthless? And how much does size really matter?

Related posts:

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/is-book-simply-commodity-should-you-be.html

http://creatabot.co.uk/2013/05/12/twenty-dollars-worth-of-art-please-by-jane-ayres/

http://www.janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/reading-bigger-books.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/lessons-in-indie-publishing-free-books.html

Reading Bigger Books at Digital Book Today

Thrilled that my recent post Reading Bigger Books appears on the wonderful Digital Book Today.  Do pop over and check out the site - and I'd love any comments on my piece!

http://digitalbooktoday.com/2013/05/11/reading-bigger-books/

Is a book simply a commodity? Should you be able to get a refund on a book if you didn't enjoy it?

“The Kindle Store will provide refunds for up to 7 days for customers unsatisfied with their ebook purchases.”  Amazon.

As a writer, I have made my books available for free, as many authors do, and that is my choice.  I have donated royalties to charity. My choice. Similarly, like most writers, I have worked for free, and again this has been a personal decision. I have also downloaded ebooks that were on free promotion on occasion (although I generally pay for the ebooks I read). Whether or not authors should/shouldn’t offer their work for free is another topic for debate. 

But getting a refund for a book after you have read it?  That’s a different matter.  Yes, I agree if a book has been badly formatted or is full of typos there is cause for dissatisfaction (although hopefully this should have come to light when you checked out the sample pages of the book before buying).  And sometimes you might click the Buy button twice by mistake. 

However, is it possible to abuse the system?  Amazon say that they can check for serial returners and they would certainly have the data to do this.  After all, it isn’t good business for them (or the writers, of course).  Like many authors, when I read my sales reports there are occasions when a reader has returned one of my titles for a refund.  It would be really helpful as a writer to have some feedback on why this is.  In researching this topic, one author mentioned an average figure of 2% returns. More data would certainly be useful.  

I am making an assumption that the returns rules apply because of the consumer protection law for distance selling. After all, the Amazon policy also applies to paper books, in which a reader has up to 30 days to make a return, so this is not really an issue about ebooks. However, what concerns me is the basis for returning a book. What if it is formatted correctly and well-written but you don’t like it?  Has anyone ever taken a book back to a bookshop on the basis that they didn’t enjoy it? 

Is a book simply a commodity? Can we apply the same argument to other “creative” items.  If we don’t like a piece of music we get a refund on the download or cd?  If we’ve been to the cinema and we thought the film ended badly, do we insist on a ticket refund? What does this mean for creative producers like writers and composers? Is it right or fair?

If you are a writer, reader or a creative producer, what do you think?    

For a range of viewpoints check out:

http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-kindle-e-book-return-policy-stop-allowing-refunds-on-e-books-after-e-books-have-been-read

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/04/03/theres-no-need-to-change-amazons-kindle-ebook-return-policy/

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/607956-amazon-returns----we-need-to-take-a-stand

Related posts:
http://creatabot.co.uk/2013/05/12/twenty-dollars-worth-of-art-please-by-jane-ayres/
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/lessons-in-indie-publishing-free-books.html

Beware of the Horse cover design award!

Since I started indie publishing last year, I have submitted all my indie cover designs to the wonderful e-Book Cover Design Awards and this month I am so pleased that we got great feedback and that the design by Klaus Hartleben for Beware of the Horse got a coveted gold star!

"Although there is only winner in each category, other covers that were considered for the award or which stood out in some exemplary way, are indicated with a gold star: ★"

Scroll down the link to see the comments and all the other fabulous designs!
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/04/e-book-cover-design-awards-march-2013/

If you are an indie publisher I'd urge you to check out this monthly award, which provides a showcase of cover designs and a source of excellent advice and inspiration.

Related post:

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/matty-cover-designs-on-book-designer.html

Matty and the Moonlight Horse FREE until Sunday!

My e-book Matty and the Moonlight Horse will be FREE to download from Amazon from today until Sunday - please share with other horse lovers!

Click here to download:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Matty-Moonlight-Horse-Adventures-ebook/dp/B00942U36G/

http://www.amazon.com/Matty-Moonlight-Horse-Adventures-ebook/dp/B00942U36G/

Are chapter titles an under-used marketing tool for writers?

Are descriptive chapter titles an under-used marketing tool for writers?  I've been considering this recently in relation to indie published titles.  Smart writers need to use every marketing tool available to them and I haven't seen much written about this, so wonder if I am in the minority?

I recently read a great piece by the wonderful Joanna Penn called
How EBook Readers Shop And The Importance Of Sampling about marketing and free samples and how we chose to buy books.  The link is here http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/02/02/sampling/ and there is an interesting discussion in the comments about whether or not chapter headings add any value to the Table of Contents in an e-book.  It got me thinking.  I'm a big fan of reading a sample from a book before I buy it, whether browsing in a bookshop or via Amazon.   I thought about everything the potential reader considers before making a purchase and wondered how, or if, having a list of actual chapter headings would make any difference. 

Most of my books simply list the chapters, ie Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. Yawn. However, my most recent indie-pubbed backlist title, Beware of the Horse, was originally written with Chapter titles, each of which suggested action or emotion, and I decided to keep these in. I know it might be old fashioned now, but it means the reader can skim down and see if they like the sound of what they might encounter.

Bizarrely, this book is selling a lot quicker than any of my previous titles and I wonder if giving these "teasers" has contributed to that? I don't know the answer, but I wonder if chapter titles are an under-used marketing tool for writers?  To test it, I am going to use this technique again and see what happens. I know I write books for teens and pre-teens, so maybe it is more acceptable to use such descriptive labels in this genre.  But, as a reader, would I feel assisted or patronised if there were chapter titles in books for adults?  What do you think?

Related post:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/lessons-in-indie-publishing-free-books.html

Lessons in Indie Publishing: Free books and the mystery of Amazon rankings

Six months ago I indie published my first backlist series (Matty Horse and Pony Adventures) and worked very hard indeed to promote the titles, especially since I donate all the royalties from this series to Redwings Horse Sanctuary.  I took part in the Amazon free promotions to gain attention for the books and encourage reviews.  I'm not sure how successful this was, but after months of work the books are selling steadily in the UK,with few sales in the US and other territories.  When the books were on free promo I contacted the various sites that will highlight this and listed the books.

Very recently, I published another backlist title called Beware of the Horse and offered it free for 2 days. I did no promotion whatsoever for this on Day 1, other than tell my partner.  To my utter astonishment, the free offer resulted in downloads in all Amazon territories (a first!).  On Day 1 the book was listed as No 22 in Amazon.com teen literature fiction e-books in Top 100 bestseller category
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Teen-Literature-Fiction-eBooks/zgbs/digital-text/6064561011/ref=zg_bs_fvp_p_f_6064561011?_encoding=UTF8&tf=1#2

and already has one review (4 star)  and in the UK, it made No 9 on the Kindle children's ebook (animals) category for Top 100 free bestsellers.  These categories are updated HOURLY.

I'm utterly baffled.  I should hasten to add that although listed in the best seller category the books have been downloaded a total of 255 in all territories, so not even in the 1000s.  But obviously I am thrilled that it made those lists because it brings the books to more people's attention when they are in those Amazon  categories.  Is it the cover design?  Chapter titles?

So what is the lesson I have learnt?  Well, when I started to write this post it was about the value of free promos - what is the point?  There is a thought-provoking blog post about this topic by Russell Blake over at http://russellblake.com/new-year-new-hurdles-opportunities/ which discusses how useful the KDP Select free program is for authors, and whether or not Amazon has changed the algorithm so free downloads count as even less towards ranking on the popularity lists.

"From what I can tell, free now has 5% or less of the impact on ranking than it originally did, meaning that if you don’t land in the Top 40, you won’t see any bump in sales. I believe this is because Amazon dislikes free as much as many authors do. It served its purpose, but now it’s hurting sales and has created an environment where a certain segment of readers no longer buy books they might have, preferring to download free books instead........On December 27, there were 43K books free. You’re reading that correctly. 40 might see a post-free bump in sales. The other 42,960 titles won’t, and the authors either wasted their time or saturated their own market and diminished their likelihood of selling anything."

This got me thinking.  Can you saturate your own market?  I believe you can.  Can offering free books harm rather than help actual sales?  I will be monitoring actual paid sales of my latest title with great interest.  So far, it's still in the top 40 for paid ebooks in its own category and the US sales to date are more than any of my 6 other ebooks combined.  I'm puzzled, but not complaining.  And I'd really like to know what has happened that has achieved this result so I can duplicate it!

Related post:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-business-of-writing-part-1.html

Beware of the Horse

I have just published my latest title, a horse story for older teens with dark undertones.  It's a novella called Beware of the Horse. Here's the blurb:

A lonely girl with a guilty secret

A troubled boy given a second chance

A dangerous horse everyone is scared of.

Well, almost everyone….

Fifteen year old Jan Bryant is haunted by memories of a tragic riding accident.  Consumed by guilt, she struggles to cope and becomes increasingly withdrawn, much to the concern of her Mum, Irene, a single parent trying to make a new life for both of them.   

Eighteen year old Richard has been in trouble with the police, but is given a second chance by his older brother, Chris.  Together, they run a livery stable and give riding lessons to pay the bills.  

When their paths cross, Richard becomes intrigued by the shy, enigmatic Jan, who has a rare gift with horses but seems determined to keep her distance. 

Both teenagers are trapped by a past that make it difficult to move on.   Like Cassius, the beautiful, damaged and dangerous bay horse that brings them together. 

On the terrible day when Jan’s world falls apart once more, Richard is injured after an impulsive act results in disaster.  Boy, girl and horse become lost.  With their futures inextricably linked, will they see each other again – and find their way out of an increasingly treacherous situation?

Once more, I love what the designer, Klaus Hartleben has produced for the cover.

If you want to check out Beware of the Horse, which is available as an e-book,  the Amazon buy links are here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beware-of-the-Horse-ebook/dp/B00BEJTDUE/

If anyone would like a free pdf review copy, do get in touch.

Do digital books make you read faster?

When I was a child, I devoured books at the rate of one or two a day but as I’ve got older (much older!), my reading rate, along with everything else, it seems, has slowed down considerably.  Reading a standard novel can take weeks to finish.  Sometimes longer.

 

So I was rather surprised the other day to realise that in the space of a few hours I had read Nora Ephron’s I feel Bad About My Neck, was on Chapter 8 of Life of Pi by Yann Martel and almost finished How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months by John Locke.  Frankly, I was astonished. 

Then I looked at what was on my kindle, over 30 books, most already finished. What the hell was going on?  It got me thinking.  In my job and as a writer, I spend a good deal of my working day at a computer screen.  I’m more used to reading words on a screen than on paper now.  So I did some research (via Google of course!) and apparently the way the brain experiences a book (printed) is different to a digital book. 

In fact, if you use a specific technology often enough (or undertake any highly repetitive action) neurons in your brain fire in a certain way and make strong connections so that the action we undertake becomes second nature; effectively “rewiring” the brain and affecting our evolution.  Quite literally,mind-blowing.  

To quote a phrase from Hebb’s Law:

“Neurons that fire together, wire together.”    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_O._Hebb 

Wow!  So is that what’s happening?  My brain has, over a period of time, simply rewired so that my preferred reading platform is now digital rather than paper? 

Who knows?  What matters to me is that I feel like since getting my humble kindle ink, I have rediscovered the joys that reading brought me as a child and which I lost for a big chunk of my life.  I’m really grateful for that.

Related posts:

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-books-digital-landscape-and-bigger.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/thinking.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-books-and-reading-and-pony-books.html

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/on-ways-to-read-book.html

Eating my words

Whenever I turn on the radio and TV these days I hear commentators making judgements on ebooks which winds me up.  I think there is a certain snobbery about it at the moment - not sure why.  I admit that before I got my kindle, I was a bit anti, because I love books, but I am eating my words, so to speak!  I love my kindle and I still love books.  It really is all about the words.


Related posts: http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/adapt-and-survive.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/vision-for-readers.html

Marketing e-books for children - update

In November 2012 I wrote a post exploring the problems for writers marketing their e-books for the 8-15 age group.

This week, I feel more heartened for two reasons:

1. My e-books Matty and the Racehorse Rescue and Matty and the Moonlight Horse are respectively number 28 and 29 now in the Amazon most popular category for Horses and Ponies.  When they were first published last year you had to scroll through pages and pages to find them.  So that's progress and a demonstration of how working damn hard on marketing can pay off.  At least I hope that's what it means!  I am fully aware that this ranking changes daily and also that is totally separate from the Kindle 100 Bestseller list (you would have to sell an enormous amount of books to get listed here.)

2. Since I read the following:

The number of children who have read an e-book has almost doubled since 2010 but children still prefer reading books for fun in print, according to Scholastic Inc's Kids and Family Reading Report, 4th Edition.

So there's good news and bad news.  But mostly good, I think when we also learn that:

Forty-six per cent of children responding to the survey said they had read an e-book, up from 25% in 2010. Meanwhile, 41% of the parents had read an e-book, a big leap up from 14% in 2010. Fifty-one per cent of children who have not read an e-book are interested in doing so.

You can read the full report here:

Children and e books survey

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/children-still-prefer-reading-physical-books-finds-scholastic.html

Related post

http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/e-books-and-writing-for-children.html

Digital Books Today Guest Blog: Vision for Readers

Meant to say earlier that my post Vision for Readers has been selected as the guest blog for Digital Books Today, which means it will appear in their top 3 posts most of the day, is on their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/DigitalBookToday and shows in the RSS text feed on The Top 100 Best Free Kindle Books List.

So I am understandably thrilled!

Do check out this excellent site and if you leave comments on it I will be doubly thrilled.  Thanks.
http://digitalbooktoday.com/2013/01/10/vision-for-readers/

Vision for Readers

My partner is visually impaired to the extent that, last year, he virtually gave up trying to read the newspaper because the print was so small and difficult to see.  In an effort to help, I bought him special reading lights designed for people with sight problems, but he told me to stop buying him books, because he would never be able to read them now.  It upset me, because I love to read and couldn’t imagine how awful it would feel if that was taken away.  I tried to encourage him to think about audio books, and got him a cd of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami.  He explained that even before his sight problems, he had never really been much of a bookworm, preferring to be outdoors playing football or running. So we had a house clear out and gave more books to the charity shops. 

He seemed mildly interested when I started to rave about my kindle, and how you could alter the font size and lighting to make reading easier. He has always loved his Android phone, because the idea of having everything he needs in one convenient, small tablet, including his music, always appealed.  So when he recently bought a Kindle Fire HD,  I was rather surprised. Soon, he told me he had started to read a daily newspaper again – on his kindle.  I was really pleased that an activity he had enjoyed previously was now back on the menu.  Last week, he started to download some running books.  And the other day he revealed that he had started to read in his lunch hour at work, and, for the first time in his life, he was enjoying reading books.  Oh, and he can hardly be parted from his kindle.

When the first Harry Potter books became famous, lots of commentators asserted the series had enticed many previously reluctant or non-readers to discover books – especially boys.  I think it’s time someone did some research into how many people who had previously never read a book before have been introduced to this wonderful experience through their e-readers. I reckon they would discover that more – not less – folk are now reading books.  Whether they are ebooks or tree books,  why does that matter? A love of reading can only be a good thing.

Postscript: I’d just finished writing this post when the TV programme Room 101 came on, in which broadcaster John Craven chose digital books as the thing he wanted to ban.  Tellingly, there was a round of applause from the studio audience – I’d love to know how many of them possess an e-reader or regularly visit bookshops.   I’m glad that Frank Skinner, the host, didn’t agree with him and suggested they encourage more reading.  To paraphrase his conclusion; “It’s the words (not the platform) that matters.”

Carnival of the Indies for December

One of  my blogposts called "E-books and Writing for Children"
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/e-books-and-writing-for-children.html
has been reposted on the wonderful Self-publishing Carnival of the Indies.

There are some brilliant and hugely varied posts about indie publishing on this site, with lots of invaluable information, so do have a look.

Check it out   http://goo.gl/13Oph

Adapt and survive

There has been much recent publicity around the future of book shops and the impact of eBooks on writing, publishing and book selling. 

A friend said to me: “Writers who don't adapt to the changing environment won't survive as professional writers. If the bookshops go, the publishing houses may go. No more advances or royalty cheques, however small.”

When you indie publish, you don’t get an advance on your work.  You pay up front, either the capital costs of producing print copies of your work (not insubstantial) or the smaller costs of publishing directly to a digital format.

What if there were no more hard copies?  What if tree books became obsolete?  I don’t see this happening in the near future, though who knows where and how we will be in fifty or a hundred years’ time. 

Of course, if books were only available as e-readers, they would only be available to people with a computer/e-reader and an internet connection, which would exclude people who don’t have access to these. So it actually removes choice for many and divides and marginalises.  It only widens options when those choices are available for everyone.  

As a writer, one needs to keep on top of the constantly developing changes and developments in the world of publishing – adapt and survive. 

Related posts:
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-future-of-book-shops.html
http://janeayres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/how-do-we-hear-about-books.html

E-books and Tree Books

I'm really pleased that a piece I wrote for Creatabot is attracting comments.  It's all about e-books, digital technology and issues around permanence/impermanence.  A subject that fascinates me.

Yesterday, I came across the website of a publisher in Canada called BeWrite Books.http://www.bewrite.net/.  They refer to printed books as "treebooks" which I think is a really lovely expression.

Anyway, if you want to read my piece here's an extract....

In a previous post I quoted author Jonathan Franzen, and do so again as his views are thought provoking. Regarded as one of America’s greatest living novelists, he is not a fan of the ebook.

“The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it’s pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change.”

When I first read this quote I immediately thought, what a strange thing to say.  An ebook is forever.  Once it’s out there, it’s there until the writer takes it down.  A printed book only exists while it is in print.  And paper and ink can rot, burn, fade and be physically destroyed. Therefore lost in that way.

Then I thought some more about permanence/impermanence.........

Article in full on http://creatabot.co.uk/2012/08/09/an-ebook-is-for-life-by-jane-ayres/


CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) By alienratt