No, this isn’t a rant against ebooks. Actually, the more I read them, the more I like them. And I must admit that the convenience of immediately owning the book once you’ve had the impulse to buy it, is terrific from both a consumer’s and a publisher’s point of view. After all, book purchases do seem to be impulse purchases these days, don’t they?
BUT
I arrived home from my summer holidays last night and there in my apartment was a box of fresh new copies of the 2nd edition of Dreams of May. I wrote about the wonder of republishing that first book of mine here, but I can tell you that holding it in my hand, turning it over and over to check out the covers, thumbing through the pages to see the layout and that wonderful dark, black Palatino print — ooh, ahh, my oh my — nothing can replace that feeling. Certainly, no pixel strewn screen can.
AND SO
for this author at least, nothing will ever replace a real, physical book. Even if the future finds an industry where all books are published only in some sort of virtual form, I do hope that the authors continue to get at least one copy they can hold in their hands themselves.
It was a great way to be welcomed home.
What a beautiful cover! And how lovely to have this book again -a joy. x
Ebooks are so important to publishers as they help us finance the more expensive to produce print books, so it’s vital for ebooks to take off. They won’t stop books being printed – people will still want their signed copies at author events, their hard copies of books they want to keep, and poetry books by favourite authors they want to refer to again and again. It’s not ebooks that are killing book sales, but internet addiction. Luckily ebooks manage to tempt an internet addicted society back to reading, and once people are reading on their gadgets they seem to become addicted to books again. We can’t persuade people not to use the internet, but we can stop blaming ebooks for falling book sales and see them as a way to encourage more reading. Your book does look wonderful! It’s certainly an example of a book that works better in printed form.
I agree with you that there is nothing quite like holding an actual book in your hands BUT I love my kindle and the book downloading thing on my iPad (sorry, not had caffeine yet and can’t remember the name of it!). I love not having to carry extra things around and I love being able to buy a book at the touch of a button. In saying all that I do love owning actual books and I have found that I now read the e-book version and if I love it then I buy a physical copy (weird I know!). Don’t know if anyone else does that?
C x
Thanks, Vanessa, for being so lovely, as always. And thanks, Adele, for your usual insightfulness (is that a word?). And Carol…hurray! You are doing exactly what we “in the biz” hope and pray all readers will do….read the ebook and then, if you love it, by the print version, too. So not only are you NOT weird, but you’re the perfect reader!