To Begin With…
With the release of Storm on the Horizon, the re-release of Love of My Life (to be retitled to its original title of An Exotic Heir), and some formatting work which I’ve gotten recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about exactly what goes into an ebook. I finally finished reading my Rita books, so I’ve been also looking for the next book I want to read – I’ve got a number sitting in my Kindle app waiting patiently for me to get to them, so I have the ability to think about this from both an author’s perspective and a reader’s.
What first hits me, I have to admit, is the nuisance I’m experiencing as a reader. I’ve got lots of books in my Kindle app. They’ve got great covers, and some terrific titles, but I bought them a month or more ago and, for the life of me, I can’t remember what they’re about! I need to go back into the Amazon store to look them up again to find out why I bought them and re-read the blurbs so that I can decide which one I feel like reading right now. What a pest! With my physical books, I’ve got a TBR bookshelf. When I want find a new book to read, I go to my bookshelf and pull out each book one-by-one and read the back cover. Easy! I’ll keep out the ones which sound like what I’m in the mood for and end up with two or three in my hand to choose from.
But I can’t do that with my ebooks! Why? Because all I’ve got is the cover of the book and then the book itself. I don’t have the back cover, the blurb.
I recently read a blog posting by Joe Konrath which
gave me one of those “duh!” moments. Why don’t authors (and formatters, like me) put the blurb on the first page of the book? That way, I just click on the book cover in my Kindle app and open up to the blurb. Right there! So easy! Then I can open up all my books to their blurb and switch back and forth and decide what I feel like reading. Wouldn’t that be easier than searching Amazon for the book all over again? It just seems to make so much sense.
And what about reviews? Some authors put reviews on that first page. Does anyone really read them? I put them in An Exotic Heir (the reviews I’d gotten for Love of My Life). One person I just did formatting for put those she’d gotten for her previous book into her new one. But are they useful? 
The copyright page? Does it have to be in the beginning of the book? Konrath thought it should go at the end. I’m torn on that one. I want it right there at the beginning so that any would-be pirates will see it and, hopefully, be reminded that the book is protected by law. But, on the other hand, are pirates really going to care? They know this. Everyone knows it. Do I need to have the copyright page at the beginning? Why can’t it go at the end, like Konrath suggests? I can’t decide where to put it. What do you think? Should the copyright page go at the beginning (to remind people that they should buy the book) or at the end (which, Konrath points out, leaves more space for the excerpt in Amazon’s “See Inside” feature)?
What do you think should be at the beginning of an ebook? Anyone willing to join me in putting the blurb on the first page? Would it look strange? Confuse readers? What do you think?
