Hello my darlings,
I made a post earlier today on my Facebook page about how some readers are responding to the rise of the ebook industry. This was all spurred forth by a series of comments following an article Anne Rice posted about how Barnes and Noble suffered a profit loss (albeit a marginal one. They are still making billions in profits). Here is the article for reference.
My problem isn’t with Barnes and Noble (I love visiting whenever I can, just as I enjoy any other bookstore or second hand book shop). And I do recognize that they are going through a hard time (especially since Amazon is doing such a nice job of making itself an eReader titan). My problem is with the people who are bashing eBooks.
To paraphrase some comments: “I would never pick up an eBook. There is nothing like the smell of a new, REAL book”. “I love my REAL books too much”. “This is pathetic, they are suffering profit losses because no one reads anymore”.
I used to be one such literature elitist until I bought my first Nook. That was when I learned a few things. Namely…
- eReaders are insanely convenient. They make my book hoarding so much tidier. I can carry 300 books in my purse and, for a voracious reader like me, that is a typical wet dream.
- eReaders give me access to hundreds, even thousands more books than I would ever be exposed to in a single bookstore. Besides that, it is the easiest way to discover new authors (since if I feel particularly industrious, I can research them in another tab). I also feel more comfortable with buying a book from a new author on an ereader.
As I started getting serious about publishing my books, I came to yet another conclusion.
- eBooks have allowed me and many other budding authors to reach more potential readers than ever before. It really is changing the business. The competition might be stiffer, but that just makes things more exciting, doesn’t it?
With all of that said, I find it extremely insulting for someone to refer to an eBook as “not a real book”. With all of the work I as an author put into formatting and publishing an ebook to optimize the reader’s enjoyment, it better damn well be treated as “real”.
Your thoughts in the comments, as always, are appreciated.
Your most adored,
C.N.F.
C.N. Faust 
Not much to add really. You hit all the points I would make. One thing about Barnes & Noble is that I don’t think they made a lot of good decisions with the Nook. I found it nearly impossible to publish on their service and only made it in through Smashwords.
I agree. I’m not sure what happened to their PubIt service? That was much easier to manipulate than what they have going on now. Plus, from what I can tell the Nook isn’t nearly as cool as the Kindle (my Nook tablet is a lot of fun, but I would readily trade it in for a Kindle Fire).
I wonder if the company was having so many financial problems that they couldn’t invest in improving that part of the company. When was the last time a new version of Nook was made?
Agreed! Given a choice, I do prefer the reading experience of a paper book, but I’m learning to enjoy my Kobo, and I’m going to be buying a Kindle soon so I can read more new authors (I wish so many weren’t Amazon exclusive!). I say the story is the important thing, and reading is reading. I’ll take my books however I can get them.
Paperbacks will forever be near and dear to my heart! However, I do not miss the occasional low-quality indie paperback I would run into on occasion when shopping around. Sloppily bound, poor quality, and oftentimes on glossy white paper with tiny font I would readily liken to ants marching across a snowbank. No, thank you! We small time authors have it so much easier these days with digital options. :p
Eew, yeah… I’ve never run into that, myself, but I’ve also only read indies on e-reader. That would drive me nuts!