She Wants to Know if You Read at the Computer

Here's the deal. Statistics show that 1 percent of readers purchase and read electronic books.

That's not a lot.

So my fantasy author, Sandy Lender, wants to know if that statistic is growing or not. She says it's been bandied about for a couple of years and seems to stay the same no matter who's bandying it about. Steve Jobs seems to think no one's going to be reading at all in a few years so creating devices for people to read electronic books more easily is a waste of research and development dollars. She says, "Way to jump in there and do something about the declining interest, there, Stevo." (Boy, you sure are cynical lately.) Oh, she says people in the public eye should either step up to the plate or get out of the public eye. Nice.

Anyway, Sandy's epic fantasy novel, Choices Meant for Gods, is available for ordering from her publisher's Web site in the traditional hard-cover format, but it's also available as an eBook. Now, you can order it in traditional print just about anywhere--Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, your local Borders or Hastings, etc., but if you want the electronic version (for only $3.99, she reminds me), you have to visit http://www.archebooks.com/BookIDX/Indexes/Fantasy/CMG/CMGDesc.htm to download it as a pdf and save it to your computer. Therein lies the reason for her question.

How many people are going to download an epic fantasy novel and sit there reading it on a computer screen?

She truly wants to know.

The good thing about buying the download/electronic copy is you can then print it out if you wanted to curl up with it on the sofa or in your favorite window seat. That's a lot of trees to kill, she says, but a ream of paper in a laser printer is still less expensive than paying full price at Amazon, even if they are still offering free shipping (which they are).

So what are your thoughts about purchasing eBooks versus the print version?

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, electronic book, traditional print