Error Pop-Up - Close Button Sorry, you must be a member of the group to do that. Join this group.

Hugging ebooks, cuddling Kindles

My new year's resolution for 2012 isn't to run more often, or spend less time at the computer and more time with real people (though I should do both of those too) it's to learn to love ebooks.


That's not going to be easy for me, for several reasons.


Firstly, I love books. Real actual paper books. I love sharing them with small kids on my knee. I love putting them in coat pockets, or carting rucksacks full of them about. I love piling them up, putting them on shelves, lending them to friends. I love opening a new book.  I love READING BOOKS.  Books, real books, are where I've spent many of my happiest hours, for most of my life. I love books.  And I love that what I write becomes real books.


I love bookshops too. Real bookshops.  Staffed by real booksellers, with a real understanding of books and bookbuyers.  Shops where you can find a book you didn't even know you wanted to read.  And I love that my books sit on shelves in those shops, and get browsed, recommended and bought, in those bookshops.


Also I'm not a fan of new technology. I'm never at the cutting edge of anything digital.  I have the oldest phone in my family (even my kids have fancier ones).  I like to see a new thing work in the hands of other people for a while before I accept that it might be a good thing.  I'm not actually a technophobe. Once someone can persuade me it's useful and not going to bite me, I get to grips with it eventually. I have a netbook which I love, and an ipod which I couldn't live without.  But I don't have an ereader. I thought about asking Santa for one, and then changed my mind and gave Santa a list of books about mazes, dragons, hares, and Scottish history instead. I love my new pile of books. I'm not jealous of all the people who got Kindles. I can read my books in the bath.


I worry about the effect ebooks will have on real books, and real booksellers.  And I don't trust new technology anyway, not until it becomes slightly older technology.


But…


BUT…


BUT…


People read ebooks. Kids, lots of kids, got ebook readers for Christmas.


So if I want people to meet and care about my characters, to join in the adventures I've imagined, to be excited by the dangers and challenges I've created, if I want people to read my STORIES, then I have to share those stories in the way readers want to read them.


If you want ebooks, then that's how my characters will have to come and find you.


So this coming year, I will try to understand ebooks.  I will accept them.  I will even learn to love them.  Next time I see someone reading a Kindle, I will ask them if I can give it a cuddle.  Because I need to learn to embrace ebooks.  Not for me, I think I'll probably stick with my teetering piles of books, but for my stories, my characters, my readers.


Because however you want to get your stories, that's how writers should to give you your stories.


So, please let me know what you think of ebooks: Did you get an ereader for Christmas? Do you think children's books should be on screen or on paper? Do you enjoy books as much on a screen? And can real books survive?


But in the meantime, here's my New Year's resolution for 2012: cuddling ebooks.


And in honour of this, I can now announce that all my novels are available in ebook form.  And First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts, the first in the series, is on Amazon's 12 Days of Kindle until 6th Jan at only 99p.


See, I'm promoting ebooks already.  Getting off to a great start.  Now, I need to find an ebook reader to cuddle.  You've been warned…


 

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on December 31, 2011 05:50
No comments have been added yet.