Gretta Curran Browne's Blog
January 1, 2014
HAPPY 2014 EVERYONE
And a great one to all my lovely readers!
So here we are again, at the end of another year, looking back and wondering what we would have done differently ... and certain we will be doing the same things all over again in 2014.
But who knows? Life has a trick of occasionally surprising us when we find ourselves moving in a totally different direction to the one we started the new year on, so whatever it is you want in 2014, don't give up hope, don't lose your nerve, keep going.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said: "God never gives you a desire He does not mean to fulfil, whether it be tomorrow or next year, one day that desire will be fulfilled."
And in my own experience, it always happens when we least expect it.
So all good wishes for 2014.
Gretta
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
So here we are again, at the end of another year, looking back and wondering what we would have done differently ... and certain we will be doing the same things all over again in 2014.
But who knows? Life has a trick of occasionally surprising us when we find ourselves moving in a totally different direction to the one we started the new year on, so whatever it is you want in 2014, don't give up hope, don't lose your nerve, keep going.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said: "God never gives you a desire He does not mean to fulfil, whether it be tomorrow or next year, one day that desire will be fulfilled."
And in my own experience, it always happens when we least expect it.
So all good wishes for 2014.
Gretta
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
October 2, 2013
THE WAYWARD SON
THE WAYWARD SON - JUST PUBLISHED
A “stand-alone” novel in its own right, THE WAYWARD SON is the fourth and final book in “The Macquarie Series.”
*
Set on the beautiful Island of Mull, on the estate of ‘Jarvisfield’ owned by Lachlan Macquarie Junior – a young man deeply unhappy with his lot in life.
In love with Beth Jarvis – the young girl of mixed blood whom he believed would not be accepted in Scotland’s high society, leading him to marry someone else, now much to his regret.
Beth – who has love for no other man but John Dewar, the young naval officer who loved her and left her.
John Dewar – tied to his duty in the slave prevention squadron in West Africa – finally returning to Scotland.
A beautifully told dramatic and moving story of a young couple in love, and a young couple in hate, and the people around them who observe it all.
Based on the true story of the three families of Macquarie, Jarvis and Dewar, The Wayward Son is filled with wry humour and stirring drama as it tells their story, leading to a tragedy that results in an unexpected and heartbreaking loss.
A “stand-alone” novel in its own right, THE WAYWARD SON is the fourth and final book in “The Macquarie Series.”
*
Set on the beautiful Island of Mull, on the estate of ‘Jarvisfield’ owned by Lachlan Macquarie Junior – a young man deeply unhappy with his lot in life.
In love with Beth Jarvis – the young girl of mixed blood whom he believed would not be accepted in Scotland’s high society, leading him to marry someone else, now much to his regret.
Beth – who has love for no other man but John Dewar, the young naval officer who loved her and left her.
John Dewar – tied to his duty in the slave prevention squadron in West Africa – finally returning to Scotland.
A beautifully told dramatic and moving story of a young couple in love, and a young couple in hate, and the people around them who observe it all.
Based on the true story of the three families of Macquarie, Jarvis and Dewar, The Wayward Son is filled with wry humour and stirring drama as it tells their story, leading to a tragedy that results in an unexpected and heartbreaking loss.
June 10, 2013
SPECIAL ONE WEEK PROMOTION
SPECIAL EBOOK PROMOTION for
TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS
An Epic Novel From Ireland’s Past (Robert Emmet’s Story)
“We were taught nothing about Ireland or its history in school, and when I did later learn of the part we played in that struggle, I felt shame. The world should know about young men like Tone and Robert Emmet.”
Oscar-winning actor COLIN FIRTH (Sunday Times Magazine 2012)
FROM JUNE 9th to 17th - US $1.99 – GBP £1.49
http://www.amazon.com/TREAD-SOFTLY-ON...
TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS
An Epic Novel From Ireland’s Past (Robert Emmet’s Story)
“We were taught nothing about Ireland or its history in school, and when I did later learn of the part we played in that struggle, I felt shame. The world should know about young men like Tone and Robert Emmet.”
Oscar-winning actor COLIN FIRTH (Sunday Times Magazine 2012)
FROM JUNE 9th to 17th - US $1.99 – GBP £1.49
http://www.amazon.com/TREAD-SOFTLY-ON...
SPECIAL ONE WEEK PROMOTION
SPECIAL EBOOK PROMOTION for
TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS
An Epic Novel From Ireland’s Past (Robert Emmet’s Story)
“We were taught nothing about Ireland or its history in school, and when I did later learn of the part we played in that struggle, I felt shame. The world should know about young men like Tone and Robert Emmet.”
Oscar-winning actor COLIN FIRTH (Sunday Times Magazine 2012)
FROM JUNE 9th to 17th - US $1.99 – GBP £1.49
http://www.amazon.com/TREAD-SOFTLY-ON...
TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS
An Epic Novel From Ireland’s Past (Robert Emmet’s Story)
“We were taught nothing about Ireland or its history in school, and when I did later learn of the part we played in that struggle, I felt shame. The world should know about young men like Tone and Robert Emmet.”
Oscar-winning actor COLIN FIRTH (Sunday Times Magazine 2012)
FROM JUNE 9th to 17th - US $1.99 – GBP £1.49
http://www.amazon.com/TREAD-SOFTLY-ON...
SPECIAL ONE WEEK PROMOTION
SPECIAL EBOOK PROMOTION for
TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS
An Epic Novel From Ireland’s Past (Robert Emmet’s Story)
“We were taught nothing about Ireland or its history in school, and when I did later learn of the part we played in that struggle, I felt shame. The world should know about young men like Tone and Robert Emmet.”
Oscar-winning actor COLIN FIRTH (Sunday Times Magazine 2012)
FROM JUNE 9th to 17th - US $1.99 – GBP £1.49
http://www.amazon.com/TREAD-SOFTLY-ON...
TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS
An Epic Novel From Ireland’s Past (Robert Emmet’s Story)
“We were taught nothing about Ireland or its history in school, and when I did later learn of the part we played in that struggle, I felt shame. The world should know about young men like Tone and Robert Emmet.”
Oscar-winning actor COLIN FIRTH (Sunday Times Magazine 2012)
FROM JUNE 9th to 17th - US $1.99 – GBP £1.49
http://www.amazon.com/TREAD-SOFTLY-ON...
April 25, 2013
THIS BLOGGING THING
A lot of people have been saying to me of late, "So why do you never do a blog or do any touting when one of your books is being promoted or offered free for a period so readers can sample your books?"
Well, truth is, I guess I'm not a "touting" kind of person, so it never occurred to me. I still get a hard time from some for not blogging regularly, only now and then, and I still have a hard time thinking of what to say to those who read my blog in the first place.
Who are they? Because none ever comment. I know a lot of them are in America and quite a few in Australia, and then there are the silent majority here in the UK. I know they read my books, because they keep buying them and leaving good reviews on Amazon, so my true feeling is that there really is no point in talking to unknown people out there in cyberspace.
The only blog I enjoyed writing, and did it on impulse in one sitting, was my tribute to Muhammad Ali - because I like writing about GREAT men. Didn't even have to pause and think about that one, out it came, fast and true, and I didn't give a damn if anyone read it or not.
No one commented on that either - but I was knocked out by the number of guys who emailed me through my website to say how much they loved it, or were very moved by it, and I have a suspicion a lot of those guys grew up in Kentucky, same as Ali - it doesn't matter if you don't know anything about boxing, Ali is a legend of past greatness in every city in the world.
Robert Emmet is still a legend in Ireland, songs about him are still sung and are numerous, yet few knew he was a Protestant, and his story of patriotism and unrequited love is one of the greatest in Ireland's history.
Lachlan Macquarie is a legend in Australia , most of the buildings in Sydney are named after him, yet few Australians knew he was Scottish, just that he was British. Few knew anything about his personal life as a young redcoat in India, or that his own personal love story in India was one he never forgot up to his dying day.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald, that great author of The Great Gatsby once said, "Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy".
Most of my books seem to be about heroes - real heroes too - not made up ones - heroes reclaimed from the past and their stories told again, because there is always something to learn from a story that is true. I love writing about the past because it makes me appreciate the present and the great world we live in today.
People often say to me, "Why do you always choose such tough subjects?"
I suppose because they are the only ones that really interest me.
When "Tread Softly On My Dreams" was first published, my publishers (Headline) lost patience with me because I refused to do any publicity for the book. It was something I learned later that publicity was something I HAD to do, but always by force, and never happily.
When I DID agree to do publicity a few years later when it was republished by a second publisher it went straight into the bestsellers in Ireland - North and South - because readers couldn't tell if it was written by a Protestant or a Catholic, because the disembodied voice telling the story was totally unbiased, as all writers of true stories should be.
But one reason I will always love that book "Tread Softly On My Dreams" is because it was specially purchased by The Princess Grace Irish in the Palace of Monaco, as well as the University of Notre Dame in the USA. Those were two pieces of news that brought tears to my eyes, and affected me much more than any bestseller list. Not bad for a kid brought up in an Irish orphange, eh?
No, Gretta, not bad at all.
I'm arranging to have Tread Softly On My Dreams put up on an ebook promotion in July, but right now it's BY EASTERN WINDOWS, the first book in the Macquarie Series that is up there now on a free promotion. I'm still writing the concluding book in that trilogy and hoping to have it finished by summer, but they tell me that''s no excuse for NOT writing my blog for months on end.
Personally I think it's a great excuse, because I'm not a blogger, I'm a writer.
Gretta
Well, truth is, I guess I'm not a "touting" kind of person, so it never occurred to me. I still get a hard time from some for not blogging regularly, only now and then, and I still have a hard time thinking of what to say to those who read my blog in the first place.
Who are they? Because none ever comment. I know a lot of them are in America and quite a few in Australia, and then there are the silent majority here in the UK. I know they read my books, because they keep buying them and leaving good reviews on Amazon, so my true feeling is that there really is no point in talking to unknown people out there in cyberspace.
The only blog I enjoyed writing, and did it on impulse in one sitting, was my tribute to Muhammad Ali - because I like writing about GREAT men. Didn't even have to pause and think about that one, out it came, fast and true, and I didn't give a damn if anyone read it or not.
No one commented on that either - but I was knocked out by the number of guys who emailed me through my website to say how much they loved it, or were very moved by it, and I have a suspicion a lot of those guys grew up in Kentucky, same as Ali - it doesn't matter if you don't know anything about boxing, Ali is a legend of past greatness in every city in the world.
Robert Emmet is still a legend in Ireland, songs about him are still sung and are numerous, yet few knew he was a Protestant, and his story of patriotism and unrequited love is one of the greatest in Ireland's history.
Lachlan Macquarie is a legend in Australia , most of the buildings in Sydney are named after him, yet few Australians knew he was Scottish, just that he was British. Few knew anything about his personal life as a young redcoat in India, or that his own personal love story in India was one he never forgot up to his dying day.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald, that great author of The Great Gatsby once said, "Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy".
Most of my books seem to be about heroes - real heroes too - not made up ones - heroes reclaimed from the past and their stories told again, because there is always something to learn from a story that is true. I love writing about the past because it makes me appreciate the present and the great world we live in today.
People often say to me, "Why do you always choose such tough subjects?"
I suppose because they are the only ones that really interest me.
When "Tread Softly On My Dreams" was first published, my publishers (Headline) lost patience with me because I refused to do any publicity for the book. It was something I learned later that publicity was something I HAD to do, but always by force, and never happily.
When I DID agree to do publicity a few years later when it was republished by a second publisher it went straight into the bestsellers in Ireland - North and South - because readers couldn't tell if it was written by a Protestant or a Catholic, because the disembodied voice telling the story was totally unbiased, as all writers of true stories should be.
But one reason I will always love that book "Tread Softly On My Dreams" is because it was specially purchased by The Princess Grace Irish in the Palace of Monaco, as well as the University of Notre Dame in the USA. Those were two pieces of news that brought tears to my eyes, and affected me much more than any bestseller list. Not bad for a kid brought up in an Irish orphange, eh?
No, Gretta, not bad at all.
I'm arranging to have Tread Softly On My Dreams put up on an ebook promotion in July, but right now it's BY EASTERN WINDOWS, the first book in the Macquarie Series that is up there now on a free promotion. I'm still writing the concluding book in that trilogy and hoping to have it finished by summer, but they tell me that''s no excuse for NOT writing my blog for months on end.
Personally I think it's a great excuse, because I'm not a blogger, I'm a writer.
Gretta
January 2, 2013
From BY EASTERN WINDOWS to THE FAR HORIZON
Hi everyone,
It's been a busy year with two new books being published, BY EASTERN WINDOWS and THE FAR HORIZON and the third in the trilogy (Macquarie Series) about to be started in January after the Christmas break.
My sales on Amazon have been excellent since the first Ebook in my backlist went up for sale and I want to say thankyou to all my readers, especially those who have taken the time to send me their compliments and write such good reviews about my Irish series, THE LIBERT TRILOGY.
TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS seems to have have had a major impact on a number of readers, including two separate screenwriters who have expressed interest in turning it into a film, but we will see. I'm not just accepting any offer. It's a very special story and needs a screenwriter with passion and visual vision - not just the story and dialogue lifted straight off my written pages. But I'm delighted at the response to my novel about Robert Emmet's life story, which makes me think of a statement recorded by another unique man about Robert's story, ten years after the events:
'It's such a pity it all happened so near my own time, because it would make a wonderful historical novel.' (Lord Byron)
Of course, Byron knew all the details because he was a close friend of the Irish poet Thomas Moore, one of Emmet's best friends at Trinity College.
I'm also over the moon about those readers in Australia who have contacted me about the first two books in the Macquarie Series. I always knew the Australian readers would be my true test of whether I had done a good job in writing - based on detailed research - my interpretation in novel form of Lachlan Macquarie's life story - a man I knew nothing about, and only discovered him when I was researching Michael Dwyer's story for the ending of FIRE ON THE HILL - strange how - the stories and people in them being true - one book just naturally seems to lead to another.
Anyhow my darlings, thank you all again, and here's wishing you all a great Christmas break and a happy and wonderful, dream-fulfilling new year of 2013.
Gretta
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
It's been a busy year with two new books being published, BY EASTERN WINDOWS and THE FAR HORIZON and the third in the trilogy (Macquarie Series) about to be started in January after the Christmas break.
My sales on Amazon have been excellent since the first Ebook in my backlist went up for sale and I want to say thankyou to all my readers, especially those who have taken the time to send me their compliments and write such good reviews about my Irish series, THE LIBERT TRILOGY.
TREAD SOFTLY ON MY DREAMS seems to have have had a major impact on a number of readers, including two separate screenwriters who have expressed interest in turning it into a film, but we will see. I'm not just accepting any offer. It's a very special story and needs a screenwriter with passion and visual vision - not just the story and dialogue lifted straight off my written pages. But I'm delighted at the response to my novel about Robert Emmet's life story, which makes me think of a statement recorded by another unique man about Robert's story, ten years after the events:
'It's such a pity it all happened so near my own time, because it would make a wonderful historical novel.' (Lord Byron)
Of course, Byron knew all the details because he was a close friend of the Irish poet Thomas Moore, one of Emmet's best friends at Trinity College.
I'm also over the moon about those readers in Australia who have contacted me about the first two books in the Macquarie Series. I always knew the Australian readers would be my true test of whether I had done a good job in writing - based on detailed research - my interpretation in novel form of Lachlan Macquarie's life story - a man I knew nothing about, and only discovered him when I was researching Michael Dwyer's story for the ending of FIRE ON THE HILL - strange how - the stories and people in them being true - one book just naturally seems to lead to another.
Anyhow my darlings, thank you all again, and here's wishing you all a great Christmas break and a happy and wonderful, dream-fulfilling new year of 2013.
Gretta
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
September 19, 2012
ARE THE SCARS ON THE HEART IRISH OR ENGLISH?
Many readers have contacted me lately to know if my own childhood experiences in an Irish orphanage were my own real back-story now written as Marian's back-story in my novel GHOSTS IN SUNLIGHT.
I've got to be honest, the answer is - hell no.
Goldenbridge, where I suffered, is now known as one of the most notorious orphanages for girls in Ireland, and now famous for its unbelievable cruelty to the children it had in its care. So much so that the Catholic Church and the Irish Government itself has now publicly and personally apologised to every one of those children, me included.
But Marian - no, her story was very different to mine. First, she was brought up in an English orphanage, Barnardos , which, I discovered in my research and also when I went down there to Barnardos in Barkingside when writing the book, to be more like a holiday camp in comparison to Goldenbridge. There has never been any complaints about cruelty in Barnardos, and it seems that although the conditions were strange and no substitute to a child for a loving family home, the people working there really did care for the children and the conditions were not bad.
Even now, Barnardos is still doing wonderful work helping homeless teenagers and those suffering with drug problems.
Marian Barnard is quintessentially English in every way, in the nice and polite way she speaks, in the very well-mannered way she behaves, but in GHOSTS IN SUNLIGHT - in the short flashbacks to her earlier life - the only similarity I wanted to convey was the innate loneliness suffered by such children - no matter their age, even the very young children, and no matter how caring their "House Mothers" -- they all know they have been abandoned to the care of strangers, some never knowing or ever finding out the reason why.
In Marian, we also see the vulnerability of these children when they become young adults, their lack of knowledge and savvy in dealing with the smart people in the world outside, and ultimately their innate sense of inferiority from the outset, which only a very lucky few manage to outgrow.
But it surprised me that so many readers were caught up in Marian's story and wanted to know how authentic is her back-story in relation to my own. Marian's story forms only the first third of the novel, so I was less surprised by those French readers who wrote to me about "Jacqueline".
The title GHOSTS IN SUNLIGHT is in no way related to anything ghostly or supernatural, but is a metaphor for the things and people that haunt the back of the mind.
For Jacqueline, it is the shadow of the people and events she experienced during her time as a young and hate-filled teenage sabotage commando in the French Resistance after the invasion of her beloved Paris by Hitler and his Nazis. But unlike Marian, who is a naturally sweet and innocent girl, Jacqueline becomes incapable of feeling any regret for anything she has done in the past, not even her direct and personal cold-blooded murders.
For Marc, the young American who is Jacqueline's son, it is Marian, the girl he truly loves but is forced to leave behind when he is sent out to fight in the Vietnam War.
For Phil, the main protagonist of the second half of the book, it is all of them - Marian, Marc, Jacqueline and all the others involved in their personal lives. His seeking of vengeance is as determined and as cold as Jacqueline's, yet he possesses a lot of Marian's good heart and love within him.
As one critic stated, "It is a multi-layed novel set in London, Paris, Massachusetts, Rome and Stockholm, impossible to sum up in a few sentences ..." And after its first publication GHOSTS IN SUNLIGHT went on to be bought and translated by six European publishers and is currently under negotiation in Japan.
But back to the real basis of my point in writing this - as a writer of true and factional novels, as well as those novels simply with authentic backgrounds such as GHOSTS IN SUNLIGHT, my wish is for the readers to give no thought to me personally when reading my books - I have always believed that the story is all, the characters are all, and the author should simply be a name on the binder.
And finally, to those readers who have contacted me, and given me so many compliments about my work - I send you my thanks and appreciation, and much love.
Gretta
http://grettacurranbrowne.com
I've got to be honest, the answer is - hell no.
Goldenbridge, where I suffered, is now known as one of the most notorious orphanages for girls in Ireland, and now famous for its unbelievable cruelty to the children it had in its care. So much so that the Catholic Church and the Irish Government itself has now publicly and personally apologised to every one of those children, me included.
But Marian - no, her story was very different to mine. First, she was brought up in an English orphanage, Barnardos , which, I discovered in my research and also when I went down there to Barnardos in Barkingside when writing the book, to be more like a holiday camp in comparison to Goldenbridge. There has never been any complaints about cruelty in Barnardos, and it seems that although the conditions were strange and no substitute to a child for a loving family home, the people working there really did care for the children and the conditions were not bad.
Even now, Barnardos is still doing wonderful work helping homeless teenagers and those suffering with drug problems.
Marian Barnard is quintessentially English in every way, in the nice and polite way she speaks, in the very well-mannered way she behaves, but in GHOSTS IN SUNLIGHT - in the short flashbacks to her earlier life - the only similarity I wanted to convey was the innate loneliness suffered by such children - no matter their age, even the very young children, and no matter how caring their "House Mothers" -- they all know they have been abandoned to the care of strangers, some never knowing or ever finding out the reason why.
In Marian, we also see the vulnerability of these children when they become young adults, their lack of knowledge and savvy in dealing with the smart people in the world outside, and ultimately their innate sense of inferiority from the outset, which only a very lucky few manage to outgrow.
But it surprised me that so many readers were caught up in Marian's story and wanted to know how authentic is her back-story in relation to my own. Marian's story forms only the first third of the novel, so I was less surprised by those French readers who wrote to me about "Jacqueline".
The title GHOSTS IN SUNLIGHT is in no way related to anything ghostly or supernatural, but is a metaphor for the things and people that haunt the back of the mind.
For Jacqueline, it is the shadow of the people and events she experienced during her time as a young and hate-filled teenage sabotage commando in the French Resistance after the invasion of her beloved Paris by Hitler and his Nazis. But unlike Marian, who is a naturally sweet and innocent girl, Jacqueline becomes incapable of feeling any regret for anything she has done in the past, not even her direct and personal cold-blooded murders.
For Marc, the young American who is Jacqueline's son, it is Marian, the girl he truly loves but is forced to leave behind when he is sent out to fight in the Vietnam War.
For Phil, the main protagonist of the second half of the book, it is all of them - Marian, Marc, Jacqueline and all the others involved in their personal lives. His seeking of vengeance is as determined and as cold as Jacqueline's, yet he possesses a lot of Marian's good heart and love within him.
As one critic stated, "It is a multi-layed novel set in London, Paris, Massachusetts, Rome and Stockholm, impossible to sum up in a few sentences ..." And after its first publication GHOSTS IN SUNLIGHT went on to be bought and translated by six European publishers and is currently under negotiation in Japan.
But back to the real basis of my point in writing this - as a writer of true and factional novels, as well as those novels simply with authentic backgrounds such as GHOSTS IN SUNLIGHT, my wish is for the readers to give no thought to me personally when reading my books - I have always believed that the story is all, the characters are all, and the author should simply be a name on the binder.
And finally, to those readers who have contacted me, and given me so many compliments about my work - I send you my thanks and appreciation, and much love.
Gretta
http://grettacurranbrowne.com
August 3, 2012
May 23, 2012
JODI PICOULT – SAYS IT BEST ABOUT eBOOKS
Tuesday, 27 March 2012JODI PICOULT - SAYS IT BEST ABOUT eBOOKS
On this morning’s television show of The Wright Stuff, best-selling author Jodi Picoult gave her views on the current debate about the pricing of eBooks, pointing out that the main reason that readers do not believe they should pay as much for an eBook as they would for a print book is because `it’s not a book – it’s just a `file' transmitted to the buyer’s eReader.
`But what readers don’t realise,’ Jodi went on, `is when they buy a book, it’s not pulped paper they are buying – it’s a work regarded by law as the author’s `intellectual property’. Just as real in law as any bricks-and-mortar property. Hence, the copyright notices on all editions – just as real in law as the deeds to your house.
On the same panel, ex-MP’s wife, Christine Hamilton, opined, `Yes, but there is nothing quite like holding a book.’
Is that really what readers are paying for – to hold a heavy wad of paper? I always thought the same main rule for Hollywood applied also to books – `What’s the story?’
When I first started reading books as a youngster, the wad of paper I was holding meant nothing – the story was all. The story took me into other lands and other times and each book was like a holiday away from it all.
Of course I did not realise way back then, that all my little holidays away from it all were due to the talent and hard work of the authors who had written the books. All my appreciation went to the local Library who let me read them for free.
Okay, eBooks are just ‘a file’ transmitted onto an eReader – so let’s look at the actual cost of both. The last traditionally printed novel I had published cost £2,500 for the first 2000 print run and every 1000 copies printed after that cost 23 pence a copy.
In the bookstore the buyer paid £7.99p, of which the bookstore took 50% of the selling price – the publisher took 42.5% – and the creator of the product (the author) got 7.5% of the publisher’s cut = 26 pence. And out of that 26 pence per book, the author’s agent takes a further cut.
No wonder 90% of all authors struggle to make a living from their work – although for decades they have been making a very good living for publishers, bookstores and agents who live off the sweats of their work.
Then along came the techno experts and changed the world in so many ways, including the world of books. Now, thanks to those geniuses, the ‘content provider’ of the book (author) can sell directly to the ‘content consumer’ (reader) without having to support all those ‘main beneficiaries’ in-between.
Everyone is moaning and complaining these days about how publishers rip off authors, but hey – why is nobody complaining about the disgraceful way bookstores – especially the chain bookstores – are ripping off both publishers AND authors?
Some chains are now demanding 55% - 60% of the selling price from publishers, some even demand more than that. And worse, they also demand the right to return all copies of books they do not sell.
So publishers and authors are filling the shelves of their stores at no financial risk to the bookstore. If it doesn’t sell after 6 months – they can just fling it back to the publisher. In most cases, the cover is just torn off and sent back, because the books have been handled by book browsers and are no longer in the new and pristine condition sent by the publisher.
In what other business would this be allowed? Hey, fill your shop with my designer clothes and any you don’t sell you can fling back.
In any other business? No way!
Bookstores have though, in the last few years, attempted to remedy the situation to some extent – by bringing back apartheid to the world of books.
Now they will only stock best-selling brand-named authors on their shelves. The top 10% that are pushed and publicised to the hilt, no matter how bad their latest novels have become; and the other 90% can go and stand forever outside the huge gates locked to them.
The reader, of course, is not given a chance to discover anything new, although they don’t yet realise that their choice has long been censored by the bookstores.
What many of us book-lovers are now wondering, if this no-risk strategy of bookstores continues – where is the new generation of brand-name authors going to come from? Or is it their plan to occasionally open the locked gates a fraction and let the odd apartheid author inside in order to help build up the stock?
No wonder book chains like Borders have crumbled and died, and others will follow – the blind leading the blind over the cliff to doom.
But back to eBooks. They really are going to be the best way of reading in the future. I learned this just a few months ago while in Australia and got pneumonia and was confined to bed for over a week. The sun outside was blazing and my husband and son had gone off sightseeing, but I was stuck in bed. I tried to read a novel but it was heavy, and at the beginning I needed two hands to hold the first pages back, so I threw it down, too weak to be bothered.
Then my daughter handed me her new Kindle and told me to order any book of my choice from Amazon. I ordered `The Help` and the story was there for me in less than a minute, and the Kindle was so light I had no problem lying back and reading the story with one hand.
And `The Help` was everything a novel should be – it took me to another country and another time and was so engrossing and so entertaining I actually got better while reading it!
For me now, eBooks are my new way of reading – but a problem still remains: which brings me back to Jody Picoult’s comment on TV this morning that readers feel they should not have to pay as much for a transmitted `file’ as opposed to a paper book.
I agree with the readers – they should not have to pay as much for an eBook edition, because the costs for travelling Publisher’s reps and greedy bookstores has been cut out – but it is also unfair for readers to expect the price of eBooks to be dirt cheap.
After all, readers are getting the same novel, the same intellectual property belonging to the author, as they would in a print book, and authors of books are just as entitled to be paid a fair rate for their work as they are in any other profession.
Sadly though, some people think writing a book is as easy as reading one. And that dumb bunch of people seems to also include a lot of publishers who make their living from the work of authors.
The eBook has to go through the same formatting and editing processes; a cover still has to be designed and made; and the technology of uploading an eBook is not that much different to the same process used by traditional printers.
So, readers are getting the same stories to read, but in a different container to the hallowed wad of pulped paper – and those piles of pulped paper do seem a bit outmoded in this congested and lack-of-space world most of us now live in.
Bookstores have been riding on the King’s white horse for too long. Amazon and others have opened the gates and put an end to their system of discriminatory and literary apartheid. The ‘content provider’ and the ‘content consumer’ of books have a free road with no gatekeepers blocking the way or censoring their choice.
But to believe that eBooks must be dirt cheap in comparison to the print edition? Cheaper than a cup of coffee? Well, that’s just being mean!
So eBook or paper, whichever you choose, happy reading.
Gretta
23.
Ghosts In Sunlight
Gretta Curran Browne
5.0 out of 5 stars (8)
Available for download now
£3.00
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
Tuesday, 27 March 2012JODI PICOULT - SAYS IT BEST ABOUT eBOOKS
On this morning’s television show of The Wright Stuff, best-selling author Jodi Picoult gave her views on the current debate about the pricing of eBooks, pointing out that the main reason that readers do not believe they should pay as much for an eBook as they would for a print book is because `it’s not a book – it’s just a `file' transmitted to the buyer’s eReader.
`But what readers don’t realise,’ Jodi went on, `is when they buy a book, it’s not pulped paper they are buying – it’s a work regarded by law as the author’s `intellectual property’. Just as real in law as any bricks-and-mortar property. Hence, the copyright notices on all editions – just as real in law as the deeds to your house.
On the same panel, ex-MP’s wife, Christine Hamilton, opined, `Yes, but there is nothing quite like holding a book.’
Is that really what readers are paying for – to hold a heavy wad of paper? I always thought the same main rule for Hollywood applied also to books – `What’s the story?’
When I first started reading books as a youngster, the wad of paper I was holding meant nothing – the story was all. The story took me into other lands and other times and each book was like a holiday away from it all.
Of course I did not realise way back then, that all my little holidays away from it all were due to the talent and hard work of the authors who had written the books. All my appreciation went to the local Library who let me read them for free.
Okay, eBooks are just ‘a file’ transmitted onto an eReader – so let’s look at the actual cost of both. The last traditionally printed novel I had published cost £2,500 for the first 2000 print run and every 1000 copies printed after that cost 23 pence a copy.
In the bookstore the buyer paid £7.99p, of which the bookstore took 50% of the selling price – the publisher took 42.5% – and the creator of the product (the author) got 7.5% of the publisher’s cut = 26 pence. And out of that 26 pence per book, the author’s agent takes a further cut.
No wonder 90% of all authors struggle to make a living from their work – although for decades they have been making a very good living for publishers, bookstores and agents who live off the sweats of their work.
Then along came the techno experts and changed the world in so many ways, including the world of books. Now, thanks to those geniuses, the ‘content provider’ of the book (author) can sell directly to the ‘content consumer’ (reader) without having to support all those ‘main beneficiaries’ in-between.
Everyone is moaning and complaining these days about how publishers rip off authors, but hey – why is nobody complaining about the disgraceful way bookstores – especially the chain bookstores – are ripping off both publishers AND authors?
Some chains are now demanding 55% - 60% of the selling price from publishers, some even demand more than that. And worse, they also demand the right to return all copies of books they do not sell.
So publishers and authors are filling the shelves of their stores at no financial risk to the bookstore. If it doesn’t sell after 6 months – they can just fling it back to the publisher. In most cases, the cover is just torn off and sent back, because the books have been handled by book browsers and are no longer in the new and pristine condition sent by the publisher.
In what other business would this be allowed? Hey, fill your shop with my designer clothes and any you don’t sell you can fling back.
In any other business? No way!
Bookstores have though, in the last few years, attempted to remedy the situation to some extent – by bringing back apartheid to the world of books.
Now they will only stock best-selling brand-named authors on their shelves. The top 10% that are pushed and publicised to the hilt, no matter how bad their latest novels have become; and the other 90% can go and stand forever outside the huge gates locked to them.
The reader, of course, is not given a chance to discover anything new, although they don’t yet realise that their choice has long been censored by the bookstores.
What many of us book-lovers are now wondering, if this no-risk strategy of bookstores continues – where is the new generation of brand-name authors going to come from? Or is it their plan to occasionally open the locked gates a fraction and let the odd apartheid author inside in order to help build up the stock?
No wonder book chains like Borders have crumbled and died, and others will follow – the blind leading the blind over the cliff to doom.
But back to eBooks. They really are going to be the best way of reading in the future. I learned this just a few months ago while in Australia and got pneumonia and was confined to bed for over a week. The sun outside was blazing and my husband and son had gone off sightseeing, but I was stuck in bed. I tried to read a novel but it was heavy, and at the beginning I needed two hands to hold the first pages back, so I threw it down, too weak to be bothered.
Then my daughter handed me her new Kindle and told me to order any book of my choice from Amazon. I ordered `The Help` and the story was there for me in less than a minute, and the Kindle was so light I had no problem lying back and reading the story with one hand.
And `The Help` was everything a novel should be – it took me to another country and another time and was so engrossing and so entertaining I actually got better while reading it!
For me now, eBooks are my new way of reading – but a problem still remains: which brings me back to Jody Picoult’s comment on TV this morning that readers feel they should not have to pay as much for a transmitted `file’ as opposed to a paper book.
I agree with the readers – they should not have to pay as much for an eBook edition, because the costs for travelling Publisher’s reps and greedy bookstores has been cut out – but it is also unfair for readers to expect the price of eBooks to be dirt cheap.
After all, readers are getting the same novel, the same intellectual property belonging to the author, as they would in a print book, and authors of books are just as entitled to be paid a fair rate for their work as they are in any other profession.
Sadly though, some people think writing a book is as easy as reading one. And that dumb bunch of people seems to also include a lot of publishers who make their living from the work of authors.
The eBook has to go through the same formatting and editing processes; a cover still has to be designed and made; and the technology of uploading an eBook is not that much different to the same process used by traditional printers.
So, readers are getting the same stories to read, but in a different container to the hallowed wad of pulped paper – and those piles of pulped paper do seem a bit outmoded in this congested and lack-of-space world most of us now live in.
Bookstores have been riding on the King’s white horse for too long. Amazon and others have opened the gates and put an end to their system of discriminatory and literary apartheid. The ‘content provider’ and the ‘content consumer’ of books have a free road with no gatekeepers blocking the way or censoring their choice.
But to believe that eBooks must be dirt cheap in comparison to the print edition? Cheaper than a cup of coffee? Well, that’s just being mean!
So eBook or paper, whichever you choose, happy reading.
Gretta
23.
Ghosts In Sunlight
Gretta Curran Browne
5.0 out of 5 stars (8)
Available for download now
£3.00
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
JODI PICOULT – SAYS IT BEST ABOUT eBOOKS
On this morning’s television show of The Wright Stuff, best-selling author Jodi Picoult gave her views on the current debate about the pricing of eBooks, pointing out that the main reason that readers do not believe they should pay as much for an eBook as they would for a print book is because `it’s not a book – it’s just a file` transmitted to the buyer’s eReader.
`But what readers don’t realise,’ Jodi went on, `is when they buy a book, it’s not pulped paper they are buying – it’s a work regarded by law as the author’s `intellectual property’. Just as real in law as any bricks-and-mortar property. Hence, the copyright notices on all editions – just as real in law as the deeds to your house.
On the same panel, ex-MP’s wife, Christine Hamilton, opined, `Yes, but there is nothing quite like holding a book.’
Is that really what readers are paying for – to hold a heavy wad of paper? I always thought the same main rule for Hollywood applied also to books – `What’s the story?’
When I first started reading books as a youngster, the wad of paper I was holding meant nothing – the story was all. The story took me into other lands and other times and each book was like a holiday away from it all.
Of course I did not realise way back then, that all my little holidays away from it all were due to the talent and hard work of the authors who had written the books. All my appreciation went to the local Library who let me read them for free.
Okay, eBooks are just ‘a file’ transmitted onto an eReader – so let’s look at the actual cost of both. The last traditionally printed novel I had published cost £2,500 for the first 2000 print run and every 1000 copies printed after that cost 23 pence a copy.
In the bookstore the buyer paid £7.99p, of which the bookstore took 50% of the selling price – the publisher took 42.5% – and the creator of the product (the author) got 7.5% of the publisher’s cut = 26 pence. And out of that 26 pence per book, the author, the author’s agent takes a further cut.
No wonder 90% of all authors struggle to make a living from their work – although for decades they have been making a very good living for publishers, bookstores and agents who live off the sweats of their work.
Then along came the techno experts and changed the world in so many ways, including the world of books. Now, thanks to those geniuses, the ‘content provider’ of the book (author) can sell directly to the ‘content consumer’ (reader) without having to support all those ‘main beneficiaries’ in-between.
Everyone is moaning and complaining these days about how publishers rip off authors, but hey – why is nobody complaining about the disgraceful way bookstores – especially the chain bookstores – are ripping off both publishers AND authors?
Some chains are now demanding 55% - 60% of the selling price from publishers, some even demand more than that. And worse, they also demand the right to return all copies of books they do not sell.
So publishers and authors are filling the shelves of their stores at no financial risk to the bookstore. If it doesn’t sell after 6 months – they can just fling it back to the publisher. In most cases, the cover is just torn off and sent back, because the books have been handled by book browsers and are no longer in the new and pristine condition sent by the publisher. In what other business would this be allowed? Hey, fill your shop with my designer clothes and any you don’t sell you can fling back.
In any other business? No way!
Bookstores have though, in the last few years, attempted to remedy the situation to some extent – by bringing back apartheid to the world of books.
Now they will only stock best-selling brand-named authors on their shelves. The top 10% that are pushed and publicised to the hilt, no matter how bad their latest novels have become; and the other 90% can go and stand forever outside the huge gates locked to them.
The reader, of course, is not given a chance to discover anything new, although they don’t yet realise that their choice has long been censored by the bookstores.
What many of us book-lovers are now wondering, if this no-risk strategy of bookstores continues – where is the new generation of brand-name authors going to come from? Or is it their plan to occasionally open the locked gates a fraction and let the odd apartheid author inside in order to help build up the stock?
No wonder book chains like Borders have crumbled and died, and others will follow – the blind leading the blind over the cliff to doom.
But back to eBooks. They really are going to be the best way of reading in the future. I learned this just a few months ago while in Australia and got pneumonia and was confined to bed for over a week. The sun outside was blazing and my husband and son had gone off sightseeing, but I was stuck in bed. I tried to read a novel but it was heavy, and at the beginning I needed two hands to hold the first pages back, so I threw it down, too weak to be bothered.
Then my daughter handed me her new Kindle and told me to order any book of my choice from Amazon. I ordered `The Help` and the story was there for me in less than a minute, and the Kindle was so light I had no problem lying back and reading the story with one hand.
And `The Help` was everything a novel should be – it took me to another country and another time and was so engrossing and so entertaining I actually got better while reading it!
For me now, eBooks are my new way of reading – but a problem still remains: which brings me back to Jody Picoult’s comment on TV this morning that readers feel they should not have to pay as much for a transmitted `file’ as opposed to a paper book.
I agree with the readers – they should not have to pay as much for a eBook edition, because the costs for travelling Publisher’s reps and greedy bookstores has been cut out – but it is also unfair for readers to expect to the price of eBooks to be dirt cheap.
After all, readers are getting the same novel, the same intellectual property belonging to the author, as they would in a print book, and authors of books are just as entitled to be paid a fair rate for their work as they are in any other profession.
Sadly though, some people think writing a book is as easy as reading one. And that dumb bunch of people seems to also include a lot of publishers who make their living from the work of authors.
The eBook has to go through the same formatting and editing processes; a cover still has to be designed and made; and the technology of uploading an eBook is not that much different to the same process used by traditional printers.
So, readers are getting the same stories to read, but in a different container to the hallowed wad of pulped paper – and those piles of pulped paper do seem a bit outmoded in this congested and lack-of-space world most of us now live in.
Bookstores have rode on the King’s white horse for too long. Amazon and others have opened the gates and put an end to their system of discriminatory and literary apartheid.
The ‘content provider’ and the ‘content consumer’ of books have a free road with no gatekeepers blocking the way or censoring their choice.
But to believe that eBooks must be dirt cheap in comparison to the print edition? Cheaper than a cup of coffee? Well, that’s just being mean!
So eBook or paper, whichever you choose, happy reading.
Gretta
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
On this morning’s television show of The Wright Stuff, best-selling author Jodi Picoult gave her views on the current debate about the pricing of eBooks, pointing out that the main reason that readers do not believe they should pay as much for an eBook as they would for a print book is because `it’s not a book – it’s just a `file' transmitted to the buyer’s eReader.
`But what readers don’t realise,’ Jodi went on, `is when they buy a book, it’s not pulped paper they are buying – it’s a work regarded by law as the author’s `intellectual property’. Just as real in law as any bricks-and-mortar property. Hence, the copyright notices on all editions – just as real in law as the deeds to your house.
On the same panel, ex-MP’s wife, Christine Hamilton, opined, `Yes, but there is nothing quite like holding a book.’
Is that really what readers are paying for – to hold a heavy wad of paper? I always thought the same main rule for Hollywood applied also to books – `What’s the story?’
When I first started reading books as a youngster, the wad of paper I was holding meant nothing – the story was all. The story took me into other lands and other times and each book was like a holiday away from it all.
Of course I did not realise way back then, that all my little holidays away from it all were due to the talent and hard work of the authors who had written the books. All my appreciation went to the local Library who let me read them for free.
Okay, eBooks are just ‘a file’ transmitted onto an eReader – so let’s look at the actual cost of both. The last traditionally printed novel I had published cost £2,500 for the first 2000 print run and every 1000 copies printed after that cost 23 pence a copy.
In the bookstore the buyer paid £7.99p, of which the bookstore took 50% of the selling price – the publisher took 42.5% – and the creator of the product (the author) got 7.5% of the publisher’s cut = 26 pence. And out of that 26 pence per book, the author’s agent takes a further cut.
No wonder 90% of all authors struggle to make a living from their work – although for decades they have been making a very good living for publishers, bookstores and agents who live off the sweats of their work.
Then along came the techno experts and changed the world in so many ways, including the world of books. Now, thanks to those geniuses, the ‘content provider’ of the book (author) can sell directly to the ‘content consumer’ (reader) without having to support all those ‘main beneficiaries’ in-between.
Everyone is moaning and complaining these days about how publishers rip off authors, but hey – why is nobody complaining about the disgraceful way bookstores – especially the chain bookstores – are ripping off both publishers AND authors?
Some chains are now demanding 55% - 60% of the selling price from publishers, some even demand more than that. And worse, they also demand the right to return all copies of books they do not sell.
So publishers and authors are filling the shelves of their stores at no financial risk to the bookstore. If it doesn’t sell after 6 months – they can just fling it back to the publisher. In most cases, the cover is just torn off and sent back, because the books have been handled by book browsers and are no longer in the new and pristine condition sent by the publisher.
In what other business would this be allowed? Hey, fill your shop with my designer clothes and any you don’t sell you can fling back.
In any other business? No way!
Bookstores have though, in the last few years, attempted to remedy the situation to some extent – by bringing back apartheid to the world of books.
Now they will only stock best-selling brand-named authors on their shelves. The top 10% that are pushed and publicised to the hilt, no matter how bad their latest novels have become; and the other 90% can go and stand forever outside the huge gates locked to them.
The reader, of course, is not given a chance to discover anything new, although they don’t yet realise that their choice has long been censored by the bookstores.
What many of us book-lovers are now wondering, if this no-risk strategy of bookstores continues – where is the new generation of brand-name authors going to come from? Or is it their plan to occasionally open the locked gates a fraction and let the odd apartheid author inside in order to help build up the stock?
No wonder book chains like Borders have crumbled and died, and others will follow – the blind leading the blind over the cliff to doom.
But back to eBooks. They really are going to be the best way of reading in the future. I learned this just a few months ago while in Australia and got pneumonia and was confined to bed for over a week. The sun outside was blazing and my husband and son had gone off sightseeing, but I was stuck in bed. I tried to read a novel but it was heavy, and at the beginning I needed two hands to hold the first pages back, so I threw it down, too weak to be bothered.
Then my daughter handed me her new Kindle and told me to order any book of my choice from Amazon. I ordered `The Help` and the story was there for me in less than a minute, and the Kindle was so light I had no problem lying back and reading the story with one hand.
And `The Help` was everything a novel should be – it took me to another country and another time and was so engrossing and so entertaining I actually got better while reading it!
For me now, eBooks are my new way of reading – but a problem still remains: which brings me back to Jody Picoult’s comment on TV this morning that readers feel they should not have to pay as much for a transmitted `file’ as opposed to a paper book.
I agree with the readers – they should not have to pay as much for an eBook edition, because the costs for travelling Publisher’s reps and greedy bookstores has been cut out – but it is also unfair for readers to expect the price of eBooks to be dirt cheap.
After all, readers are getting the same novel, the same intellectual property belonging to the author, as they would in a print book, and authors of books are just as entitled to be paid a fair rate for their work as they are in any other profession.
Sadly though, some people think writing a book is as easy as reading one. And that dumb bunch of people seems to also include a lot of publishers who make their living from the work of authors.
The eBook has to go through the same formatting and editing processes; a cover still has to be designed and made; and the technology of uploading an eBook is not that much different to the same process used by traditional printers.
So, readers are getting the same stories to read, but in a different container to the hallowed wad of pulped paper – and those piles of pulped paper do seem a bit outmoded in this congested and lack-of-space world most of us now live in.
Bookstores have been riding on the King’s white horse for too long. Amazon and others have opened the gates and put an end to their system of discriminatory and literary apartheid. The ‘content provider’ and the ‘content consumer’ of books have a free road with no gatekeepers blocking the way or censoring their choice.
But to believe that eBooks must be dirt cheap in comparison to the print edition? Cheaper than a cup of coffee? Well, that’s just being mean!
So eBook or paper, whichever you choose, happy reading.
Gretta
23.
Ghosts In Sunlight
Gretta Curran Browne
5.0 out of 5 stars (8)
Available for download now
£3.00
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
Tuesday, 27 March 2012JODI PICOULT - SAYS IT BEST ABOUT eBOOKS
On this morning’s television show of The Wright Stuff, best-selling author Jodi Picoult gave her views on the current debate about the pricing of eBooks, pointing out that the main reason that readers do not believe they should pay as much for an eBook as they would for a print book is because `it’s not a book – it’s just a `file' transmitted to the buyer’s eReader.
`But what readers don’t realise,’ Jodi went on, `is when they buy a book, it’s not pulped paper they are buying – it’s a work regarded by law as the author’s `intellectual property’. Just as real in law as any bricks-and-mortar property. Hence, the copyright notices on all editions – just as real in law as the deeds to your house.
On the same panel, ex-MP’s wife, Christine Hamilton, opined, `Yes, but there is nothing quite like holding a book.’
Is that really what readers are paying for – to hold a heavy wad of paper? I always thought the same main rule for Hollywood applied also to books – `What’s the story?’
When I first started reading books as a youngster, the wad of paper I was holding meant nothing – the story was all. The story took me into other lands and other times and each book was like a holiday away from it all.
Of course I did not realise way back then, that all my little holidays away from it all were due to the talent and hard work of the authors who had written the books. All my appreciation went to the local Library who let me read them for free.
Okay, eBooks are just ‘a file’ transmitted onto an eReader – so let’s look at the actual cost of both. The last traditionally printed novel I had published cost £2,500 for the first 2000 print run and every 1000 copies printed after that cost 23 pence a copy.
In the bookstore the buyer paid £7.99p, of which the bookstore took 50% of the selling price – the publisher took 42.5% – and the creator of the product (the author) got 7.5% of the publisher’s cut = 26 pence. And out of that 26 pence per book, the author’s agent takes a further cut.
No wonder 90% of all authors struggle to make a living from their work – although for decades they have been making a very good living for publishers, bookstores and agents who live off the sweats of their work.
Then along came the techno experts and changed the world in so many ways, including the world of books. Now, thanks to those geniuses, the ‘content provider’ of the book (author) can sell directly to the ‘content consumer’ (reader) without having to support all those ‘main beneficiaries’ in-between.
Everyone is moaning and complaining these days about how publishers rip off authors, but hey – why is nobody complaining about the disgraceful way bookstores – especially the chain bookstores – are ripping off both publishers AND authors?
Some chains are now demanding 55% - 60% of the selling price from publishers, some even demand more than that. And worse, they also demand the right to return all copies of books they do not sell.
So publishers and authors are filling the shelves of their stores at no financial risk to the bookstore. If it doesn’t sell after 6 months – they can just fling it back to the publisher. In most cases, the cover is just torn off and sent back, because the books have been handled by book browsers and are no longer in the new and pristine condition sent by the publisher.
In what other business would this be allowed? Hey, fill your shop with my designer clothes and any you don’t sell you can fling back.
In any other business? No way!
Bookstores have though, in the last few years, attempted to remedy the situation to some extent – by bringing back apartheid to the world of books.
Now they will only stock best-selling brand-named authors on their shelves. The top 10% that are pushed and publicised to the hilt, no matter how bad their latest novels have become; and the other 90% can go and stand forever outside the huge gates locked to them.
The reader, of course, is not given a chance to discover anything new, although they don’t yet realise that their choice has long been censored by the bookstores.
What many of us book-lovers are now wondering, if this no-risk strategy of bookstores continues – where is the new generation of brand-name authors going to come from? Or is it their plan to occasionally open the locked gates a fraction and let the odd apartheid author inside in order to help build up the stock?
No wonder book chains like Borders have crumbled and died, and others will follow – the blind leading the blind over the cliff to doom.
But back to eBooks. They really are going to be the best way of reading in the future. I learned this just a few months ago while in Australia and got pneumonia and was confined to bed for over a week. The sun outside was blazing and my husband and son had gone off sightseeing, but I was stuck in bed. I tried to read a novel but it was heavy, and at the beginning I needed two hands to hold the first pages back, so I threw it down, too weak to be bothered.
Then my daughter handed me her new Kindle and told me to order any book of my choice from Amazon. I ordered `The Help` and the story was there for me in less than a minute, and the Kindle was so light I had no problem lying back and reading the story with one hand.
And `The Help` was everything a novel should be – it took me to another country and another time and was so engrossing and so entertaining I actually got better while reading it!
For me now, eBooks are my new way of reading – but a problem still remains: which brings me back to Jody Picoult’s comment on TV this morning that readers feel they should not have to pay as much for a transmitted `file’ as opposed to a paper book.
I agree with the readers – they should not have to pay as much for an eBook edition, because the costs for travelling Publisher’s reps and greedy bookstores has been cut out – but it is also unfair for readers to expect the price of eBooks to be dirt cheap.
After all, readers are getting the same novel, the same intellectual property belonging to the author, as they would in a print book, and authors of books are just as entitled to be paid a fair rate for their work as they are in any other profession.
Sadly though, some people think writing a book is as easy as reading one. And that dumb bunch of people seems to also include a lot of publishers who make their living from the work of authors.
The eBook has to go through the same formatting and editing processes; a cover still has to be designed and made; and the technology of uploading an eBook is not that much different to the same process used by traditional printers.
So, readers are getting the same stories to read, but in a different container to the hallowed wad of pulped paper – and those piles of pulped paper do seem a bit outmoded in this congested and lack-of-space world most of us now live in.
Bookstores have been riding on the King’s white horse for too long. Amazon and others have opened the gates and put an end to their system of discriminatory and literary apartheid. The ‘content provider’ and the ‘content consumer’ of books have a free road with no gatekeepers blocking the way or censoring their choice.
But to believe that eBooks must be dirt cheap in comparison to the print edition? Cheaper than a cup of coffee? Well, that’s just being mean!
So eBook or paper, whichever you choose, happy reading.
Gretta
23.
Ghosts In Sunlight
Gretta Curran Browne
5.0 out of 5 stars (8)
Available for download now
£3.00
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
JODI PICOULT – SAYS IT BEST ABOUT eBOOKS
On this morning’s television show of The Wright Stuff, best-selling author Jodi Picoult gave her views on the current debate about the pricing of eBooks, pointing out that the main reason that readers do not believe they should pay as much for an eBook as they would for a print book is because `it’s not a book – it’s just a file` transmitted to the buyer’s eReader.
`But what readers don’t realise,’ Jodi went on, `is when they buy a book, it’s not pulped paper they are buying – it’s a work regarded by law as the author’s `intellectual property’. Just as real in law as any bricks-and-mortar property. Hence, the copyright notices on all editions – just as real in law as the deeds to your house.
On the same panel, ex-MP’s wife, Christine Hamilton, opined, `Yes, but there is nothing quite like holding a book.’
Is that really what readers are paying for – to hold a heavy wad of paper? I always thought the same main rule for Hollywood applied also to books – `What’s the story?’
When I first started reading books as a youngster, the wad of paper I was holding meant nothing – the story was all. The story took me into other lands and other times and each book was like a holiday away from it all.
Of course I did not realise way back then, that all my little holidays away from it all were due to the talent and hard work of the authors who had written the books. All my appreciation went to the local Library who let me read them for free.
Okay, eBooks are just ‘a file’ transmitted onto an eReader – so let’s look at the actual cost of both. The last traditionally printed novel I had published cost £2,500 for the first 2000 print run and every 1000 copies printed after that cost 23 pence a copy.
In the bookstore the buyer paid £7.99p, of which the bookstore took 50% of the selling price – the publisher took 42.5% – and the creator of the product (the author) got 7.5% of the publisher’s cut = 26 pence. And out of that 26 pence per book, the author, the author’s agent takes a further cut.
No wonder 90% of all authors struggle to make a living from their work – although for decades they have been making a very good living for publishers, bookstores and agents who live off the sweats of their work.
Then along came the techno experts and changed the world in so many ways, including the world of books. Now, thanks to those geniuses, the ‘content provider’ of the book (author) can sell directly to the ‘content consumer’ (reader) without having to support all those ‘main beneficiaries’ in-between.
Everyone is moaning and complaining these days about how publishers rip off authors, but hey – why is nobody complaining about the disgraceful way bookstores – especially the chain bookstores – are ripping off both publishers AND authors?
Some chains are now demanding 55% - 60% of the selling price from publishers, some even demand more than that. And worse, they also demand the right to return all copies of books they do not sell.
So publishers and authors are filling the shelves of their stores at no financial risk to the bookstore. If it doesn’t sell after 6 months – they can just fling it back to the publisher. In most cases, the cover is just torn off and sent back, because the books have been handled by book browsers and are no longer in the new and pristine condition sent by the publisher. In what other business would this be allowed? Hey, fill your shop with my designer clothes and any you don’t sell you can fling back.
In any other business? No way!
Bookstores have though, in the last few years, attempted to remedy the situation to some extent – by bringing back apartheid to the world of books.
Now they will only stock best-selling brand-named authors on their shelves. The top 10% that are pushed and publicised to the hilt, no matter how bad their latest novels have become; and the other 90% can go and stand forever outside the huge gates locked to them.
The reader, of course, is not given a chance to discover anything new, although they don’t yet realise that their choice has long been censored by the bookstores.
What many of us book-lovers are now wondering, if this no-risk strategy of bookstores continues – where is the new generation of brand-name authors going to come from? Or is it their plan to occasionally open the locked gates a fraction and let the odd apartheid author inside in order to help build up the stock?
No wonder book chains like Borders have crumbled and died, and others will follow – the blind leading the blind over the cliff to doom.
But back to eBooks. They really are going to be the best way of reading in the future. I learned this just a few months ago while in Australia and got pneumonia and was confined to bed for over a week. The sun outside was blazing and my husband and son had gone off sightseeing, but I was stuck in bed. I tried to read a novel but it was heavy, and at the beginning I needed two hands to hold the first pages back, so I threw it down, too weak to be bothered.
Then my daughter handed me her new Kindle and told me to order any book of my choice from Amazon. I ordered `The Help` and the story was there for me in less than a minute, and the Kindle was so light I had no problem lying back and reading the story with one hand.
And `The Help` was everything a novel should be – it took me to another country and another time and was so engrossing and so entertaining I actually got better while reading it!
For me now, eBooks are my new way of reading – but a problem still remains: which brings me back to Jody Picoult’s comment on TV this morning that readers feel they should not have to pay as much for a transmitted `file’ as opposed to a paper book.
I agree with the readers – they should not have to pay as much for a eBook edition, because the costs for travelling Publisher’s reps and greedy bookstores has been cut out – but it is also unfair for readers to expect to the price of eBooks to be dirt cheap.
After all, readers are getting the same novel, the same intellectual property belonging to the author, as they would in a print book, and authors of books are just as entitled to be paid a fair rate for their work as they are in any other profession.
Sadly though, some people think writing a book is as easy as reading one. And that dumb bunch of people seems to also include a lot of publishers who make their living from the work of authors.
The eBook has to go through the same formatting and editing processes; a cover still has to be designed and made; and the technology of uploading an eBook is not that much different to the same process used by traditional printers.
So, readers are getting the same stories to read, but in a different container to the hallowed wad of pulped paper – and those piles of pulped paper do seem a bit outmoded in this congested and lack-of-space world most of us now live in.
Bookstores have rode on the King’s white horse for too long. Amazon and others have opened the gates and put an end to their system of discriminatory and literary apartheid.
The ‘content provider’ and the ‘content consumer’ of books have a free road with no gatekeepers blocking the way or censoring their choice.
But to believe that eBooks must be dirt cheap in comparison to the print edition? Cheaper than a cup of coffee? Well, that’s just being mean!
So eBook or paper, whichever you choose, happy reading.
Gretta
www.grettacurranbrowne.com
