Having recently bought my daughter a Kindle e-reader for her birthday, I
was thinking how things have changed.
I can remember, as a child, being really excited when I got a book for
my birthday, particularly if it was one I had been waiting to read. E Nesbit
was one of my favourite authors when I was younger. The Railway Children and
Five Children and It being two of my favourites. I moved on to Jane Austin, and
eventually Nora Roberts, all romances and all proper books. Although most of
the classics got sampled at some point in time, I hated Dickens, loved Shakespeare
and gave up if a book made me cry, like Black Beauty.
I still like paper books, but my little Kindle is so much easier to take
on holiday, or slip in my bag to read on the train, and my granddaughter can
read a full-length novel on her phone.
I write romantic suspense, and I like writing full-length novels, but it
is getting harder and harder to get a 90,000 word book accepted by a publisher
unless, of course, you are a big name already. My novellas, the ones already
published by D.C.Thomson, are all on Amazon, but I’m rubbish at publicising
myself, so they don’t sell as well as I would like – and I don’t write all that
fast so I can’t produce four or five books a year, even novellas. So what do I
do next?
I have a horrible feeling that by the time I decide what to do next, everything
will have changed again.
Cherry Ames and the Enid Blyton books were always anticipated at Christmas and birthdays many years ago. But, as you say, things do change. School no doubt had a lasting influence on love/hate relationships with authors: Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, Spenser and so on. In our opinion nothing beats a spanking new paper book, but we are getting addicted to our Kindles.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a kindle yet but am swithering as to whether I should ask for one for my next birthday - I still love a real book to hold and read. I have all my mother's childhood books - and some of them were her mother's - eg the Little Women series, leather bound with tracing paper over the colour pictures, really lovely. You can't pass down that history with a Kindle.
ReplyDeleteFay - your other point about not being able to write fast enough or think what to write next - echoes my post from last week and I can empathise one hundred percent. I am terrible at self promotion and my one EBook has not sold well at all because I never really publicised it and neither did the Publisher!
I think if you are a writer these days you probably need some sort of e-reader to keep up with the times. I, too, still love paper books and have a new hardback all ready to take on holiday in a couple of weeks, but my Kindle will also have some new books downloaded. I can carry as many of those as I like.
ReplyDeleteDitto Carol, I haven't publicised my published e-books enough, I simply don't have the time to do that and write as well. One of these days I shall publicise more and then hopefully I will have a decent backlist to make it more worthwhile spending time saying 'hey look at me' sigh.... Fay you are right about the speed with which things are changing. It's incredibly daunting. I still love a paper book, nothing replaces it!
ReplyDeleteI love real books too. I recently took my Kindle away on holiday because it had more books loaded onto it and I didn't read it once. I know if I had taken 'proper' books I would have read them. Isn't it strange? I wonder if it's a generation thing. Will today's youngsters love their kindles more than paper books?
ReplyDeleteWhile we were away on holiday we visited a toy museum and there were lovely dolls, train sets etc. My husband said he wondered if in years to come the exhibits would be hand held devices and computer screens. Just a thought.
I've had a Kindle for a couple years but it is not my favourite reading option of choice. I read on my Kindle in bed at night or occasionally on a car trip or holidays. But I still far prefer holding a book, snuggling into a chair with a cuppa or lunch and clocking off from the world for an hour.
ReplyDeleteAll my backlist is available in ebook but the Apple apps [iphones, ipads etc.] through Smashwords epublishing far outsell anything I have up also on Amazon for Kindle. Go figure?? Other than mention of new books and sales on my website and blog, I do no promotion. Social networking these days is a lot of hype and a distraction IMHO. :) I'd rather be writing another book.