Others have talked about electronic readers, some with
enthusiasm and some without. I was slow
warming up to the concept, but eventually I could see where one would be an
advantage in some situations. Then my
husband gave me a Kindle for Christmas.
The tiny keyboard drives me nuts and I'm much too slow looking up
references I can flip to in seconds in a paper book. From a reader's point of view, I'll admit I
prefer holding a real book in my hands, but I've learned to love my Kindle.
It's definitely nice to slip my e-reader into my purse
before a trip to the doctor's office, my hairdresser, or any of those places
where I may be stuck with an indeterminate wait. No more leafing through boring old magazines!
I think I've been a judge in some category for the Whitneys
since the awards academy was started. It was nice this year to be able to read
so many of the nominees on my small light-weight e-reader in an easy chair with
my feet up instead of being trapped at my computer to read the electronic
submissions.
Our family has a favorite vacation spot high in the
mountains in Idaho. Unfortunately the
only wifi connection is in the ranch house and I dislike hauling around a stack
of books along with all of our vacation gear---but I like to read while on
vacation. This year I'll take along my
Kindle, all preloaded with books, to read wherever I like.
As a writer, I was leery of having my books posted on an
e-reader site. Because books are
generally cheaper there, I worried my royalties would drop. Not so.
I've found my royalties are just fine.
It's true my publisher gets a larger cut than I do for my books they
post, but my share is comparable to my print royalties. For my oldest books, which I'm posting myself
since they're no longer in print and my publisher has returned the rights to
me, my royalties are wonderful. Without
the e-reader market, I'd be earning nothing on these older, out-of-print books.
One of the nicest bonuses for readers and writers with the
proliferation of e-readers is the availability of books which are not carried
in local bookstores. The difficulty of
members of the LDS Church, who live outside of the areas served by LDS
bookstores, finding affordable LDS books has long been a problem. Now with e-readers these people, whether they
live in Maine or Hong Kong, have access to the new LDS books as fast as those
who live along the Wasatch front without paying horrendous postage costs.
I'm not an all or nothing person when it comes to e-readers
versus print. I'll cheerfully take both.
1 comment:
I agree, Jennie--I'm glad we have both ebooks and print books. And I love how I can buy LDS fiction with the click of a button, even though I don't live near an LDS bookstore.
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