The power of a printed book
In the last year, the majority of my sales have been Kindle and Nook e-books. But sometimes I'm reminded of the power of printed books.
Recently, Heather Sutherlin emailed me to say:
"I enjoyed your book, Island of Fog, very much and would love to review it on my blog, kidsgottawrite.blogspot.com. I would love to have you guest post, if you are willing, on a topic for young writers or parents/teachers of young writers."
Of course I was willing, so I wrote something and Heather blogged about it here. After that I sent Heather the whole set, and when she received the box, she emailed me to say:
Keith! I got your package this week!!!! It was kind of funny and a moment I wish I had recorded so that I could share it with all of my writer friends who self-publish. I had been telling my kids they should read your books and my son will only read books about dragons right now (he's Asperger's and more a little obsessive about things). Well, when he saw me open that box and pull out the books he turned to me with complete annoyance and said, "Why didn't you tell me they had dragons?!" And my daughter said, "Hey, look! Here's one about a mermaid."
It made me realize how very important our covers are, even when we want to tell ourselves they aren't, and also seeing them hold the actual books was really fabulous. You just can't entirely replace the power of a printed book in a kid's hands.
So, thanks a million for the books! We are devouring them here and my daughter is reading as fast as she can to get to that mermaid tale. ;)
Which is why I'll always have printed editions of ALL my books available even though the majority of sales might be Kindle or Nook e-books. Plus, it's far more satisfying to hold a printed edition than stare at an image on a screen.
That said, e-books are far easier to put together. They're completely free to publish, and you don't have to worry about such things as the resolution of the cover, obtaining a suitably large image, making sure it's CMYK for Lightning Source's pre-flight requirements, getting the spine size exactly right, choosing between white and cream paper stock, paying and waiting for proof copies, forking out for a shipment of stock copies, packaging them up when someone buys a copy... With an e-book, there's some formatting to do of course, but the process is far, far quicker. And if I need to make a change to the text, I just re-upload the file and the book is updated within 24 hours. Easy.
But still.
There will always be a place for printed editions, and in my opinion, authors who "don't bother" having that alternative are just slamming the door in a lot of readers' faces. Not everyone likes reading books on Kindle and Nook. I don't either; with my website design business, I stare at the screen enough throughout the day without adding to it.
What about you? Do you prefer electronic, print, or either?
