Hi, my name's Jane and I'm a reformed book snob.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about high-brow literature or only reading books that have spent time on the N.Y Times Best-sellers list. I'm talking about e-books.
Yes, I recognise the irony, being an e-book author, it's hardly surprising that I would take up the e-book mantle and make such a proclamation. But honestly there's a host of reasons for the change to my reading habits.

First. Once upon a time Hard copy (HC) books were edited to within an inch of their life. It was a rare thing to come across a grammatical error. Now a days grammatical/syntax errors abound, even in books that have spent months on the N.Y Times best-sellers list.
Scott Lynch's Republic of Thieves, springs to mind. The use of the word 'storeys' in this book instead of the word 'stories' did my head in completely. And it didn't stop there. I can only assume the American editor aiming for the UK/Australia market had read somewhere that adding a 'u' to most words would make them grammatically accurate. This is true to a point - honour, flavour, colour etc. It is not true for a host of other words such as 'evapourate'.
All I'm saying is that if publishers want the HC book buying public to shell out big bucks for a physical copy then they need to put their big editing boots on and spend some actual time getting everything right.

Second. The quality of books out there. I have read some woeful e-books that I have immediately tossed on to my teetering dnf pile but I've also read just as many HC books of late that I can say the same thing about. Where the gorgeous covers and exciting fresh blurbs have suckered me in only to find myself hitting a brick wall around chapter three, realising quickly that I have been played for a fool by the mass market publishing machine.

Genres that make money (my fave paranormal romance in particular) are flooded with dregs these days. And to be honest I'm not sure if all of them are deserving to be published as HC books. Or should continue to be published - I'm thinking here of the great Raine Benares series by Lisa Shearin but her very poor second series effort, The Grendal Affair.

Just as there seem to be more and more e-book authors that are going under the radar. Fantastic stories (okay, with maybe a few editing mistakes but no more than I'm seeing in many HC books these days), fresh and exciting. These authors, without the huge publishing companies behind them to generate publicity or push for word of mouth campaigns are lost in the back catalogue e-book wilderness.

And thirdly - price. Because it's such a crap shoot out there now, especially when it comes to a newly discovered author, I don't mind shelling out a few bucks to take a risk, but I really... really resent shelling out the cost for a HC book (seriously how and why are they still so expensive?)only to discover that it is essentially crap.

Lastly, the sheer convenience of the e-book reader. Going on holidays now doesn't mean loading my luggage down with ten books and still managing to run out of reading material half way through my beach holiday. It just means loading up my tablet and popping it into my handbag. Heavenly. (Though keeping the sunscreen oil off the tablet screen can be challenging)

So all hail the e-book - long may they reign. And doubly thanks for providing me with a format to get my books out there.