Kindle Readers Aren't Snobs

“It's really expensive,” she [Sara Nelson, ex-editor of Publishers Weekly] said of the Kindle 2, which Amazon sells for $359. “If you're going to pay that, you're giving a statement to the world that you like to read - and you're probably not using it to read a mass market paperback.”

What? Kindle readers are too high-minded for mass market paperbacks? Hah! Do Kindle readers have a type? If I had to guess, I'd say they have two shared characteristics: they love to read and they're not afraid of new technology.

What is Nelson saying anyway? Because the Kindle is expensive, you shouldn't read genre fiction on it? You mean like drinking Budweiser out of a champaign flute? As though there's something low-class about mass market paperbacks!

The article went to say when people read on Kindles, you can't see their book titles, so you can't make judgments about what they're reading. It's about time. That's why I sell more copies of The Sex Club on Kindle than anywhere else. People don't have to ask out loud for it or let anyone see their purchase, which readers have admitted was embarrassing for them.

Meanwhile, here's the top 10 selling books on Kindle last week. If they're not mass market paperbacks now, most of them will be in a few months.

1. Long Lost by Harlan Coben
2. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
3. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
4. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
5. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
6. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
7. Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark R. Levin
8. The Shack by William P. Young
9. Just Take My Heart: A Novel by Mary Higgins Clark
10. Handle with Care: A Novel by Jodi Picoult

Do you own a Kindle? Do you download books for the masses every once in a while?

E-Book Buzz

As the Kindle 2 is unveiled, the buzzword in publishing is e-book, e-book, e-book.

It’s the only segment of the industry in which sales are growing, and this phenomenon has some readers worried (“I’ll miss the feel and smell of a new book”) while others are delighted (“The environmental benefits are worth the sacrifice”).

But what does it mean to authors? Speculation on that front is rampant as well.

• “More new authors will be published because the production costs are so minimal.”
• “Author advances will disappear, and it will be more difficult to earn a living as a novelist.”
• “If you don’t have an e-book, you’re missing a whole section of the market.”

All three scenarios could come true.

Another interesting question: Will e-books fall into the same categories—traditionally published versus self-published—that print books do? Will novels from well established e-publishers automatically carry more prestige than an e-book from Author Unknown? I read a post today that stated unequivocally that one of the benefits of publishing an e-book is: “You don’t have to go through the obstacles and headaches involved in finding an agent and a publisher.”

What about distribution? If you don’t go though the headache of finding an e-book publisher, how will anyone find and buy your book? Just because your book is downloadable from your website or for sale on Amazon doesn’t guarantee that you’ll have buyers. The production quality and file choice matter too. You want your e-book to be downloadable to, and nicely displayed on, the major e-readers: Kindle, Sony Reader Digital, and Mobipocket Reader.

I’ve thought about all of this because I’ve considered self-publishing some of my early novels as e-books. Then I decided against it because the benefit would be minimal, and who needs the stigma of being a self-published e-book author? I know that statement will rile some people, but the attitude exists, whether valid or not. Well known authors, on the other hand, could probably do quite well selling e-books from their own websites.

Ultimately, as an author, I want to have all my books available both in print and e-files from traditional publishers with established distribution (and web traffic). But the publishing industry is changing and becoming much less clearly defined. As e-book sales grow and become a sizable chunk of the market, some of the old distinctions may disappear.

What do you think? Are e-books the future? And does it matter who produces them?