The AJC had a disappointing article yesterday citing a study showing that people who frequent bookstores are more likely to try authors or books they haven't heard of than those who buy e-books. People who read e-books tend to buy the same authors every time, a trend that is encouraged by the publishers' now making very inexpensive older novels by popular authors available to support the latest novel by that author. Think Patricia Cromwell, for example. How many novels has she written? Her publisher could easily make a dozen available for $5.00, make money since those novels probably aren't selling very well now anyway, and generate a lot of interest in her latest novel, which will be full price.
The other reason, according to this study, that e-book readers download the same authors instead of trying new ones is that looking for new books or authors on the computer is not as fun as browsing in the bookstore. No bright covers to catch your eye, no pages to ruffle through, no big display to stop you in your tracks. Instead, the e-book reader faces e-pages of tiny rectangular objects that he or she must click on, maybe twice, to read the description. The fact that the reader can download a portion of the novel and read it free doesn't seem to help. People don't value what they don't pay for. I suspect that many people download dozens of free works and never bother to read them.
Last and sadly, many e-books are poorly edited and poorly written, with horrible grammatical mistakes.
I hope in time all of this changes. I hope people grow more adventurous with e-books since so many authors are putting their work out there now and since good books are available for less than a Starbucks' cup of coffee. I know I plan to read several e-books I've downloaded from authors I've never heard of--some will be a waste of an hour or so, but then I've felt that way about many a well-known book or author.
Some, however, will be gems--gems that I found only because I was willing to risk a bit of time and boredom at the computer.
Here's the link if anyone wants to sign in to read the entire article: http://bit.ly/fdshhh
Hi, came over from FWG/LinkedIn. This can be discouraging for new writers, however if writers make the effort to market themselves and their book, I think they can find success. Some writers fail in doing this as well as getting their work properly edited, which contributes to the stigma of self-pubbing. Thanks for sharing
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