My new year’s resolution for 2012 isn’t to run more often, or spend less time at the computer and more time with real people (though I should do both of those too) it’s to learn to love ebooks.
That’s not going to be easy for me, for several reasons.
Firstly, I love books. Real actual paper books. I love sharing them with small kids on my knee. I love putting them in coat pockets, or carting rucksacks full of them about. I love piling them up, putting them on shelves, lending them to friends. I love opening a new book. I love READING BOOKS. Books, real books, are where I’ve spent many of my happiest hours, for most of my life. I love books. And I love that what I write becomes real books.
I love bookshops too. Real bookshops. Staffed by real booksellers, with a real understanding of books and bookbuyers. Shops where you can find a book you didn’t even know you wanted to read. And I love that my books sit on shelves in those shops, and get browsed, recommended and bought, in those bookshops.
Also I’m not a fan of new technology. I’m never at the cutting edge of anything digital. I have the oldest phone in my family (even my kids have fancier ones). I like to see a new thing work in the hands of other people for a while before I accept that it might be a good thing. I’m not actually a technophobe. Once someone can persuade me it’s useful and not going to bite me, I get to grips with it eventually. I have a netbook which I love, and an ipod which I couldn’t live without. But I don’t have an ereader. I thought about asking Santa for one, and then changed my mind and gave Santa a list of books about mazes, dragons, hares, and Scottish history instead. I love my new pile of books. I’m not jealous of all the people who got Kindles. I can read my books in the bath.
I worry about the effect ebooks will have on real books, and real booksellers. And I don’t trust new technology anyway, not until it becomes slightly older technology.
But…
BUT…
BUT…
People read ebooks. Kids, lots of kids, got ebook readers for Christmas.
So if I want people to meet and care about my characters, to join in the adventures I’ve imagined, to be excited by the dangers and challenges I’ve created, if I want people to read my STORIES, then I have to share those stories in the way readers want to read them.
If you want ebooks, then that’s how my characters will have to come and find you.
So this coming year, I will try to understand ebooks. I will accept them. I will even learn to love them. Next time I see someone reading a Kindle, I will ask them if I can give it a cuddle. Because I need to learn to embrace ebooks. Not for me, I think I’ll probably stick with my teetering piles of books, but for my stories, my characters, my readers.
Because however you want to get your stories, that’s how writers should to give you your stories.
So, please let me know what you think of ebooks: Did you get an ereader for Christmas? Do you think children’s books should be on screen or on paper? Do you enjoy books as much on a screen? And can real books survive?
But in the meantime, here’s my New Year’s resolution for 2012: cuddling ebooks.
And in honour of this, I can now announce that all my novels are available in ebook form. And First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts, the first in the series, is on Amazon’s 12 Days of Kindle until 6th Jan at only 99p.
See, I’m promoting ebooks already. Getting off to a great start. Now, I need to find an ebook reader to cuddle. You’ve been warned…
My daughter has five of your books, you have signed four of them with a personal message to her. They mean so much to her, you can’t sign an ebook and she can’t admire her book sitting on the bookshelf enticing her to read it again. I love the fact that when my children are reading a book they are having a break from technology. I know that ebooks are very popular but I hope real books can survive.
Thanks so much for this comment. I’m learning about ebooks because I think authors and publishers need to embrace them to survive, but I really hope they don’t kill off real books. A real book can be a friend. I still have books I read as a child, a bit tattered and pale, but they hold my memories as well as the stories inside, and I doubt anyone will ever feel that way about an ebook. I hope I meet you and your daughter sometime to sign that fifth book!
Hello! I thought I’d visit your website. I think publishers would be wise to figure out a way to allow authors to sign e-books. They could include a blank e-page and provide some sort of stylus for us to sign the books with.
I still much prefer real books though.
Hello! Thanks for visiting. I have heard of authors signing the physical ebook reader for fans, but that isn’t really sustainable! (How many authors’ signatures can you get on the outside of one Kindle?) But yes, particularly with children, I think the personal touch of a signed book can be a great way to remember meeting an author. I am still loyal to paper books for my own reading, but I do find myself a little awed and excited when I realise that children are choosing to read my novels on this very new technology, because I suppose it gives me hope that whatever methods we use, stories will still be created, shared and enjoyed!