Book Costs

After a great mini vacation from blogging and writing while my sister visited, I'm back with some questions I just need the answers to. When I get together with my Picayune, MS sister we spend time in bookstores. Even though she buys nearly all her books on her Kindle, we both enjoy the book atmosphere.

We had lots of time to discuss the advantages of ebooks from price, to access to not needing the shelf space. Though we both love the feel of traditional books, we're comfortable with where things are going right now.

When we discuss books, we cover all kinds of discussions and this time we got around to discussing the cost of college textbooks. My sister is a nurse. All you medical professionals out there know where this is going. Textbooks for students in the medical fields are some of the most expensive. I've heard tales of a single text costing more than $200. One book. At my daughter's school, her classes often require multiple books. Many of these textbooks, perhaps most of them, are not yet available in ebook or the students are encouraged to buy them in traditional form. Those books take a chunk out of a college student's  meager horde of dollars.

Why do these books cost so much? A medical book can become outdated quickly. How great would it be if you owned the ebook and could receive updated versions as they became available for a small cost or even free if you paid tons for the first edition?

Fiction ebooks have a wide range of prices and so do many nonfiction books. Why is the cost of college texts so high? Do you think they'll ever come down or turn to mainly ebooks? What is the most you've ever paid for a book?

Read An Ebook Week

If you don't read ebooks yet, don't you think it's about time to give in. We all love our print books, the library, the comforting scent of paper books and the feel of written and bound prose in our hands.  But if you own an ereader, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, or any other, chances are you love it too.  It's lightweight.  It holds hundreds of books and you add books to it within seconds.  You can find backlisted books by your favorite authors and discover new writers at bargain prices.

There have been ebooks nearly as long as we've had access to personal computers.  And now you can read books on your phone, laptop, tablet or other electronic devices.  To celebrate the ebook, this entire week is set aside to honor the invention and growing love of the ebook.  So from today, March 4th through the 10th, read some ebooks. Buy some ebooks. Share some ebooks.  Tell someone about ebooks.

The publisher of my romance novels, New Concepts Publishing, is one of the older, most successful ebook publishers in the field.  I love working with them. Check out their website. They've published at least one of my books every year for the last five years.  I hope to have a new series with them before the end of the year.

Do you read ebooks? What type of reader do you use? Do you think you would be delighted with ebooks five years ago or are you a new convert?

Overload of Fun

What a Christmas! Lots of time with loved ones, new games to play and more food than could be good for anyone.  Today is leftover day for all meals so I'm going to be having fun catching up with my blog friends and figuring out my Kobo.
That's right.  My husband purchased an eReader for me.  I didn't give him any demands for type but he knew I wanted one.  I bought my daughter a Nook and my son a Kindle so somewhere down the road I should be able to give a good comparison between the three styles of readers.
What am I doing with it?  Buying books.  Today I bought The Limehouse Text by Will Thomas and tomorrow I'm buying Follow the Stars home by Cate Masters.  Join me here on my blog tomorrow and meet Cate.  She's one terrific writer.
I hope lots of you received your own eReaders and some gift cards for books.  It's a great time to purchase books from those wonderful authors who write for smaller publishers.  Often their books are not sold in the large chain bookstores but you can usually buy them from the company's ebook store or a place like Fictionwise.  I like supporting those small publishers who were willing to take a chance on a new author or a story that didn't fit comfortably into any of the big pubs lines.  This entire week I'll be bringing you interviews from some of those authors.  I'll hope you'll visit and decide to fill your new eReader with some great books.
Did you get or give an eReader for Christmas?  What kind? Where do you purchase your ebooks from?

Weak Week

I confess.  I did not meet my writing goals for last week.  I missed it by tons.  I did minimal promotion for my upcoming book signing in State College this weekend and didn't update my website at all.  So here are my goals for this week.

1.  15K this week on my WIP.

2.  Some promotion EVERY day for the upcoming booksigning with Jon Sprunk.

3.  Continue to set up blog tour for January release of Beyond the Gate.

On another issue, I'm going to take the plunge and buy some ereaders for Christmas gifts.  I found a link to this article on FB and am going to share it with you.  It compares the demographics of consumers who prefer Ipad versus Kindle.  I'm not telling which one I'm thinking about purchasing but it was interesting reading this.  So tell me, where do you fall and why do you think it works out the way it does?  Or you the Ipad type of the Kindle type?  No other types of readers are compared so I assume the two written about are the ones with the biggest chunk of the market.