Yesterday I spent four miserable hours trying to upload The Bretton Katt Alliance to the Kindle format. First it just plain wouldn't take, then it was full of bobbles that called for correction. Oy. Well, it finally told me it was done, and that the book should be available to readers 'in 12 to 72' hours. That's a long window. Amazon never did explain why it might take up to three days.
Hopefully, it's done, and people will be able to download it to their little gadgets. If not, it's back to the drawing board.
I still have mixed feelings about this. How well will it sell? Will Amazon pull anything with that less-than-above-board contract? Does this really mean anything for the future of books and publishing, or is it just another momentary fad?
Who knows?
Tags:
amazon, book formats, kindle, publishing, the bretton katt alliance
Posted at: 01:21 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Later this week I will be uploading the text of The Bretton Katt Alliance into the Kindle format. I know, a mere ten weeks ago I said I had no plans to do this. So, what changed my mind? A couple of things, mainly.
It's a market. In several on-line forums, readers have said that these days they're buying nothing but Kindle books (I hope that no security scare precipitates a seizure of all electronics from all passengers, etc). I don't know if they'll buy my book or not, but if it isn't on Kindle, they won't. I don't think I'm particularly greedy, but I do want people to read my book!
Curiosity. I would like to see how buyers respond to a Kindle edition. Just how big a market is this? Probably not as big as Amazon claims. It costs me nothing, after all. Okay, I admit: there's the desire not to be left behind. Like it or not, some format of the electronic book is here to stay. Writers must adapt. I'm not that much of a Luddite.
I still have some reservations. I still don't trust Amazon as far as I could throw an elephant. But for right now, going with the Kindle looks like the right thing to do. If it turns out to be a bad decision, well, we can only fall back and try something else. We get nowhere by settling into ruts, even comfortable ruts.
So, look for The Bretton Katt Alliance, coming to a Kindle near you (I hope) by this weekend.
Tags:
amazon, kindle, new markets, science fiction, the bretton katt alliance
Posted at: 12:52 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Lately I’ve been thinking about making my books available in the Kindle format, and eventually buying one myself. After some research and soul-searching, I’m not so sure. Yes, it would be handy to load several books onto one gadget, rather than lug around a backpack full. It would be cool to download newspapers and, ahem, blogs when you’re not actually at the computer. But I think that this, and any other electronic reader, are at best a supplement to the old-fashioned bound book; it’s not a replacement. I have several books that were printed more than forty years ago; my mother has some that were printed in the nineteenth century. I can take any of them off the shelf and read them; there are computer programs from a mere fifteen years ago that are obsolete.
Yesterday I made a list of ten of my favorite authors and checked the Kindle availability of their work. Here are the results:
Joy Chant-0
Arthur C. Clarke-7
Robertson Davies-0
Ursula K. LeGuin-short stories only
Doris Lessing-7
Naomi Novik-4
J.K. Rowling-0 (yes, that’s correct)
Dan Simmons-11
J.R.R. Tolkien-0
Sigrid Undset-1
Only Novik has her entire oeuvre available on Kindle.
After perusing the Kindle store, I concluded that this is geared mostly to people who read bestsellers rather than to true book fanatics; most of the books I checked on cost $9.99-more than a mass market paperback. Add this to the $350.00 cost of the Kindle itself and it looks like less than a bargain. Nor does the Kindle do graphics that well; so much for children’s picture books, art books, books on astronomy-anything that has lots of large color illustration
True bibliophiles don’t just read books, they have relationships with them. They understand that reading is a sensual activity, as well as a mental one. We love the feel of books in our hands, the touch of paper under our fingertips, the weight of a book propped on our raised knees when we sit up in bed to read. The sight of many different volumes lined up on a shelf. You will never replace that with a machine.
As for making my own books available, perhaps. No market should be written off. But I'm going to think long and hard about it.
Tags:
amazon, bibliophiles., kindle, readers
Posted at: 01:01 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink