eReading v. Paper Reading (or We Are Living in a Digital World and I Am a Digital Girl*)

*With apologies to Madonna

Tip of the Day: Check out these YA for NJ ebay auctions for more chances to get cool stuff for donating to NJ's Sandy relief efforts!

Last Christmas, my mother bought me a Nook Simple Touch.

I was excited to own an ereader because a) I wanted firsthand experience with the new technology that we'd be promoting at my library with our OverDrive ebook lending platform, and b) I wanted to easily read some ebook-only novels on a nice matte screen.

Skip ahead 11 months into ereader ownership. Do I prefer digital words to printed? Let's find out.

TIMES I PREFER EBOOKS/EREADING:
1. When flying (lighter packing)
2. When on the exercise bike/elliptical machine (easier to hold onto with sweaty hands/less finger strain)
3. When a good sounding book is only epubbed
4. When reading in bed (easier to read with less moving (yes, I'm lazy right before sleepy time))
5. When I want to read something very fast (it's easy for me to skim with one-touch page turning)
6. When I want a book immediately (wifi connection!)

TIMES I PREFER PAPER BOOKS/PRINT READING:
1. When flying (can still read during "no electronic devices may be turned on" period)
2. When at the library/bookstore (can easily/quickly flip through, read random pages, see if the book is for me)
3. When the cover is gorgeous and I want to look at it again and again
4. When the formatting of the ebook is messy/hard to read (has happened with self- and trad-pubbed books)
5. When reading picture books (I like the images big and bold)
6. After I've been staring at a computer screen all day at work (need a break from screen time)
7. When doing book talks to teens (they can see the whole package of what they're getting -- length, tone from book design, etc.)

From these lists I can easily say that both types of books have a place in my life, and I don't want to see either go away any time soon.

What do you prefer about each type of book/reading experience?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Writing Middle Grade Books

Tip of the Day: Midde Grade readers ARE using kindles etc. to read ebooks. I know this is something a lot of us authors wondered. We kind of thought that most ebook readers would be a little older, at least into YA. When I had a chance to hang out with a bunch of 4th and 5th graders the other day I took a poll and the majority of them said that they read ebooks on their parent's ereaders in addition to paperbacks. Want to hear more about my book club visit with the kids? Read my blog from Tuesday.

Last week Giora asked how we, as middle grade writers, get into the heads of middle grade characters and have the dialogue sound authentic. Since I'm working on a middle grade right now I thought I'd tackle these questions. I spend a lot of time thinking back to when I was that age and how I handled different situations. And while that was some time ago, things aren't THAT different. Sure we have more technology now so it's wise to pay attention to that kind of thing. You probably wouldn't three-way call your frenemy and hit mute while your best friend got her to say a bunch of stuff you weren't supposed to hear (which we did ALL of the time). But you'd have her forward you the e-mail she sent talking smack about you. And you wouldn't wear big hats and tease your hair ala Saved by the Bell:

http://badassdigest.com/2011/11/28/the-week-in-fake-movie-news-saved-by-the-bell/

So you should pay attention to fashion current trends. But the basic stuff that happened to us as kids at that age still goes on today. A middle grade girl is still hurt when her best friend starts hanging out more with a new friend. Or the boy she likes rejects her. Or she doesn't get the role in the school play that she wanted so desperately. So if you recall how you felt when things like that happened to you, it's easy to get into the heads of your middle grade characters.

When I wrote my first middle grade, My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours, I was thinking about my own 7th grade fake boyfriend and the trouble I got into because of him and my BFF at the time. It was in thinking about this that I came up with the idea for the book. And the idea of fake boyfriends must be eternal because people are always telling me about the fake boyfriends they had (or still have!) when I meet them at book signings.

And to answer your question about realistic dialogue, just listen to how kids are talking now. Turn on Disney or Nickolodeon and take note. Listen to a group of kids at the library chat. Kids today really don't speak all that differently than we did at that age. I hear my 9 year saying "Dude!" to his friends all the time. And I said "Dude!" at that age too. Though I can pretty much guarantee that no one today still says, "Like, gag me with a spoon!" :-)

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Do Teens Read eBooks?

Tip of the Day:  Did you hear J.K. Rowling's big news?

Question: What's keeping teens from reading ebooks?

Short answer: Nothing.

There was this really interesting article from Publisher's Weekly about teens and ebooks earlier this week. Read it here.

Based on a survey, teens are "reluctant" to embrace ebooks. Then the articles goes to talk about how agents, editors, and writers disagree. I think that's fantastic! In whole, it's a really exciting article about the future of ebooks for teens. There are some pretty cool apps that can be piggybacked on ebooks and it seems publishers are jumping on that. Luuuuv that idea - planning to do that myself in the future.

Unfortunately, I think there were a couple of odd assumptions made in the article.

Kids can read e-books on laptops or phones, but the e-reader makes it easier. “There still has to be an investment in the actual device before you start buying e-books,” says agent Ginger Clark. Still, with a basic Kindle now selling for just $79 (and machines inevitably getting less expensive) and a growing number of kids getting their parents’ hand-me-downs, more teens are becoming e-reader owners. (Ypulse’s Shreffler predicts a cell-phone–like “two-year window” for the devices.)

100% true. Teens do need a device of some sort to read an ebook. However, I seriously need to argue the idea that $79 for an introductory Kindle is too much. Many teens own a Nintendo DS (over $200, plus games which run anywhere from $9.99 to $59.99) or iPod Touch (again, hundreds of dollars - and they can read ebooks on it!). They have game systems like Wii or XBox or Playstation - all costing hundreds of dollars with equally expensive games.

If parents are willing to shell out cash for those electronics, what makes it seem like a basic Kindle at $79 is too expensive? I'm confused...

  “Teens still find passing a copy back and forth is the easiest way to share,” says Clark at Curtis Brown. With e-books, passing along to others isn’t allowed. 

I suppose that's true ... for ebooks with DRM - digital rights management. Traditional publishers put this limitation on their books so people can't share. That's too bad. Most indies, like me, don't utilize DRM so teens can share as many ebooks as they want. Please, pass my books on, I don't care. I'd love to see traditional pubs strip DRM from their ebooks too. After all, you can't force someone to not share a paperback. Why not let them share an ebook?

 Many teens are slowly realizing they can check out e-books from the public library.

What breaks my heart about this statement, and they go into it a bit in the article, is that libraries are going to be shut out of ebooks from four of the Big Six publishers. I'm a HUGE proponent of libraries. My mom is a library aide. I've worked in libraries. My books circulate in libraries. I think people should have access to ebooks in libraries and I hope they work it out soon. Every librarian I know wants ebooks in circulation. Read more about this travesty here.

I think teens are poised to blow up the ebook market. They want content when they want it. I actually prefer ebooks now to paper, having read on my iPhone, Nook, and computer for a few months. It has to be something pretty special for me to shell out for a hardcover now.

Most of this Publisher's Weekly article is fantastic, just a couple things are wonky (to me), and I really do feel bad that traditionally published authors get such a low royalty rate on their ebooks. As a self-published author, I get a 70% royalty on my Kindle books priced above $2.99. I'm making a pretty good living, even with expenses like covers, swag, formatting, etc, etc, etc.

So, YAY to teens falling for ebooks! It's awesome. YAY to traditional publishing for investing in ebooks. YAY to trad pub for following indie writers' strategies of setting the first book free (my first novel, Anathema, is FREE on Smashwords & the iBookstore and Wattpad) and pricing as low as $2.99. But BOO to trad pub for not giving its talent higher ebook royalties. And BOO to trad pub for denying libraries access to some of their books.

Note: Oh, and it may look like I'm jabbing at Ginger Clark. I'm not. It just happened to be the parts she commented on in the article. I simply have a different viewpoint and opinion. I hear she's a pretty cool chick & a great agent.

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber

 

Kindle Commercial, I'm Not Happy With You

Tip of the Day: Buy a book from a bookstore. And go see Meg Cabot! She's touring right now for the next month.

Maybe I'm feeling a little sensitive because my favorite coffee shop just closed (yes, the one I had my first launch party at. Sigh.) Or because the really cool tea shop my bookstore friends and I liked to go to just closed too. Or maybe I'm still just aggravated that my Borders is gone. But this Kindle commercial really pissed me off.

Yes, I get it. They need to sell their product. But don't bash bookstores and make people feel like a loser for going to one. To me this commercial sounded like:

Girl: Yay, I'm going to the bookstore to get a book I really want!

Boy: Why Lucy Loser? If you weren't such a losey lose loser you'd download books like me in 60 seconds (note, the whole commercial was only 31 seconds. You didn't download that fast.)

Girl: Oh wow, I don't want to be a loser. Forget how much fun it is to walk in a bookstore, see all the books, browse, and hold one in my hand. Guess I'll just stand here with you and download stuff.

Blech.

I'm not against Kindle or ereaders or anything, don't get me wrong. I just don't see why they had to put out a commercial where they try to make someone appear stupid, or not in the know, not cool or what have you, because she wants to go to the bookstore. Sure, it's easy to download books. There's an easier way to do everything. Why walk to the park with the kids when I can drive them? Why cook them dinner when I can microwave something in two minutes? I guess walking and cooking is for losers too.

What do you guys think?

Kristina, Miss Author in Action