Okay. I confess. I have a googlealert on my own name. Well, on Diane Perkins, Diane Gaston—and Gerard Butler. A google alert sends a message to your email anytime something new comes up on whatever topic you select. As you can see, I’ve selected three of my favorite topics for this service!
This week Diane Gaston popped up on my googlealert email, and I discovered that my RITA winner, A Reputable Rake, is an ebook! Harlequin has bundled A Reputable Rake with Nicola Cornick’s The Rake’s Mistress and Georgina Devon’s The Rake into an ebook available for order on eHarlequin and other ebookstores such as Fictionwise. It is called Rapturous Rake Bundle.
I’m delighted to enter the ebook market! A number of years ago I saw an ebook reader that intrigued me and made me feel that there would be a strong future for books in this format. Since then the market has grown. You might even say it provided the impetus for an entirely new romance subgenre – Erotic Romace – when Ellora’s Cave burst on the scene.
Many of us would never want to give up books, the feel of them, the smell of them, the sight of them three deep in our bookcases and piled next to our beds. When I see kids playing on their Game Boys (or whatever the “in” handheld game device is now), my own young adult offspring with their new IPods, and young career men and women with their Blackberries, I think that maybe ebooks will be the preferred way of publishing books in the future.
One idea I heard was to put textbooks on electronic reading devices. What a great thing that would be! Our high school and college students, even elementary school student, would not need to carry fat backpacks. Think of all the trees we would save! And one would hope that the cost of such books would decrease. Think of the innovations one could add to textbooks — short videos, animated diagrams, sound.
Most things I’ve read on the issue of ebooks say that there is still not an affordable, user-friendly
device on which to download books. Let’s face it, the IPod screen is a little small and even that device isn’t exactly inexpensive.
I haven’t yet read an ebook, but there is one on my TBR pile. My friend Delle Jacobs‘ His Majesty The Prince of Toads (A Regency!) is my first ebook download and I’m eager to read it!
Ebooks tend to have very long shelf life so an author’s backlist is readily available and ebook publishers often publish books that don’t fit a typical print publishing niche.
So, have you read any good eBooks lately?
Do you hate the idea of eBooks or are you a little bit intrigued?
To set up a google alert of your very own, go here:
http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en
And this is why I google Gerard Butler! Here he is on the set of 300, due for release in March!
Cheers!
Diane
Yummilicious!!
Thanks for the techie info. I’ve set up my alerts, too.
Despite my former tech career, I’m just not into reading in eBook format. I have to have the pleasure of touching, smelling, seeing the book.
I know, this is a completely environmentally unfriendly solution, but there you have it. There are lots of things I’m willing to do for the environment, but disposable diapers and books are non-negotiable. 🙂
I have Delle’s His Majesty The Prince of Toads in my TBR pile, but that’s ONLY because I can’t get a physical book. I just don’t enjoy reading on the computer, and I’m not spending the kind of money an eReader costs (besides which, I’ve yet to find an eReader that mimics a book well enough to please me). Maybe someday the iBook will convert me . . .
Thanks, Diane, for posting my cover! And yes, I do understand the huge learning curve and obstacles to reading ebooks. I didn’t read them much, myself, for a long time- It was just too hard to read onscreen. But the more I use my laptop for writing, critiquing and editing, the more I’ve become used to reading there. I’m still not fond of ebook readers, although the new (expensive) Sony may prove useful. But I now have ten bookcases and have no room left for more, so somehow the fiction has to go to make room for all my reference books.
If anyone wants a 10% discount coupon for my book at Fictionwise, just email me. But if you really want a print copy, it’s now available at Amazon.com.
Ahhhhh, Gerry in leather undies!! Can’t wait to see that on the big screen.
I have a few eBooks that I got for free via http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/ The only eBooks that I’ve purchased were Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton 2nd Episodes. All of these I read on the computer screen. I’ve never tried downloading them to a handheld device. Although I’d be willing to try some day, when I have time to figure it out.
Delle and Diane: It’s great to know that your books are available in a variety of formats, thereby suiting readers of all stripes.
Oh, and once again… Yummilllicioussss!!
Hi, Delle! You must google your name, too, because I didn’t have time to tell you I was mentioning HMTPOT!
Glad to see you here!
And Manuelita and Keira, I’m glad you appreciate my little extra treat.
Diane
I certainly appreciate it, too, Diane! Just the right upper for a cold day. 🙂
I’ve read a couple ebooks, and ordered one or two by friends (like Delle!) that I haven’t read yet, but I’m just not a fan. I do most of my fiction reading before I go to sleep, and love curling up in bed with a new book. Not sure what will happen in the future, though! I do like it that a variety of settings is more widely available in ebook at the moment…
Sure, I have plenty of ebooks on my hard drive, and have read some on my pda, but not very often at all. I do plenty on the computer, so when I want to read, I just really can’t get myself to wanting to spend more time in front of a screen to do it. So out of what I have of ebooks, I probably have read a tiny percentage. I’m just a book person. 🙂
Lois, who, alas, still prefers a different outfit on that guy, regardless of how much this one is showing. LOL
Lois
Actually, Diane, I pop in from time to time out to see what people are saying, and I spotted your post first, but then Google alerted me. Googles really do work.
Speaking of Risky stuff, ebooks definitely are a risky way to go. Yes, it might be nice to have a traditional publisher, but I do like being a part of something new, risky and different. Fortunately, there does seem to be a fast-growing readership. I used to love writing by hand, but I’m glad I gave it up for my laptop. But I’m a long way from giving up paper books yet.
I’ve read several ebooks over the last couple of years, though by far the bulk of my reading was with tradition paper and ink! Most of them were free public domain books from Project Gutenberg or other online sources; a few were copyrighted works that their authors had made available for one reason or another (such as for Hugo voting); only a couple were books that I had deliberately purchased. I actually have a couple of Delle’s books in my TBR–er, not stack, exactly. Queue? Buffer? But I haven’t gotten to them yet.
I use a Palm Z22 to read them. The screen is small, but I don’t find that much of a problem reading plain text, so long as it is formatted properly; it’s no worse than reading a column of print in a newspaper or magazine. But if there are illustrations or equations or something like that, it’s more of a problem, which is a pity because there are lots of things I need to read which would be handy to read in electronic format, but don’t fit the screen. I use my laptop for those, but it’s not nearly as comfortable or easy to carry around.
I still love regular books, and I don’t think ebooks will change that anytime soon. But as anyone who knows me can testify, I also tend to carry around a stack of “current books” wherever I go (lest, heaven forbid! I should become bored), and it’s awfully nice to have a stack of thirty books that I can carry in my breast pocket with comfort. 🙂
Todd-who-is-still-waiting-for-some-of-the-post-1923-books-to-enter-the-public-domain
Delle, I’m so glad you visit us! You are right, I think, about ebooks being Risky. With publishers like Awe-Struck and the new Cotillion, though, we can keep Regency alive. Your books are anything but “traditional” though, but that’s a good thing….My clumsy point is that there is still a place for traditional regency books.
Todd, I have not downloaded any Gutenberg books yet but I go there from time to time and browse!
If there were an affordable reader I’d get one just for the commuting reads. I can’t stand the idea of having to spend anymore time in front of a computer screen.
And I’ll probably wait until the technology comes up with a waterproof model (for bathtub reading).
And, ahem, have I mentioned that my Regency chicklit, now named One Last Scandalous Exchange is being released by HarperCollins simultaneously as a print and an e-book!!
Janet
Janet ~ A Regency chicklit? Well, I’m intrigued. Can’t wait to hear more about it.
Janet, I think the simultaneous releases are a smart way to go. Good for Harper Collins!
And, Manuelita, lots of us can’t wait for One Last Scandalous Exchange!!
Diane wrote:
Todd, I have not downloaded any Gutenberg books yet but I go there from time to time and browse!
I have no restraint. I have downloaded zillions of them. 🙂
One nice thing is that Project Gutenberg recently added an option to download their books in .pdb format, which means that they can be read with proper formatting by common hand-held ebook readers and PDA. This is a lot easier that laboriously converting them by hand, which is what I used to do.
Todd-who-always-bytes-off-more-than-he-can-chew