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Tuesday, July 20, 2010Goals and An Ah-Ha Moment
Posting my goals this week with a little incentive from the BIC crew (Maumee Valley RWA Members). I'm hitting fiction hard this week - want to get 1,000 words each day. The Saint is coming together very nicely, even with my 3 week break from everything because of health issues..and I think I may, just may, finish the entire book by mid-next week. Ahead of my schedule!!
And now for the 'ah-ha' moment I've head: E-books, even from the big authors and publishing houses must be soooooo muuuuuch bettttttteeeeeeerrrr than physical books. How did I reach my conclusion?
Y'all know I bought a Kindle a year or so ago. You know I love books. Well, during my health-hiatus I read. A lot, mostly e-books. I read some favorites, I read some new authors and I found a few keepers. I also learned a little something: If I don't like a book, an e-reader puts one more wall between myself and the book - even books written by bestselling authors. With a physical book, I can usually 'comfort' my way through, even if the characters don't 'talk' to me or the writing doesn't 'sing'.
What I learned over the past 3 weeks is that the e-reader actually puts a wall between me and the books I read. It isn't as comfortable for me. My favorite thing is to curl into a corner of my favorite couch, grab a light blanket for my feet (even in 90-degree weather!) and settle in to read. I lose myself in the pages within a few minutes when I have a physical book, even a not-great physical book.
Using my Kindle, that doesn't happen. Of the 10 or so books I read on my Kindle, three were bad. Just. Bad. And no matter how much I tried to like them, to find a comfortable position, to find the good I couldn't do it. It was torture. So I stopped reading those books and moved on. 5 minutes into the next book, even those that didn't become keepters, I was happy. Comfortable and lost again. It happened over and over.
I'm not sure what that means, ultimately, but it's something to think about as I move forward with my own publishing career. Building books for e-readers is a different thing than building books for the general, non-e-reader public. For me, an e-book - even those from the big NY authors - has to be overwhelming, enveloping and charismatic. Because I'm not holding soft, worn pages in my hands. I'm holding a machine that is cold and awkward and distant.
What about you guys? Do you love ebooks, all ebooks? Or do you find youself distanced from the e-versions of books - even books by your favorite authors?
