Reasons Why Writers Should Love E-Books

Photo: Research with highlighter

by Alton Gansky

Easily accessible E-books have been around for a decade and a half. The process and invention go back a little more than that, but the real surge came in the early 2000s. Since then, digital publishing has become a mainstay for publishers, indies, and writers. Several times a year, someone writes an article about how 1) e-books are crushing print books, or 2) how print books are crushing e-books. At the end of the discussion, however, both sides still agree that there are a lot of e-books being published.

Writers should love e-books. In fact, (don’t throw stones until you’ve finished this paragraph), for writers e-books are superior to print books. I’m not talking about publishing e-books. That’s a topic for another time and probably one best handled by a different writer. I’m talking about e-books used to help your work-in-progress.

Yes, I know that there remains a debate about the superiority of physical books. The pleasure, the feel, even the smell satisfies the avid reader more than digital ink. The debate seems silly to me and reminds me of the couple who argue over which is better, salt or pepper. I leave such jawing to others. I want to present my belief that e-books are to be valued by any writer that has to do research to make his/her work-in-progress the best it can be. Here’s what I mean:

1. Never be without material to read. This is me stating the obvious first. One great advantage to e-books is that the writer can carry around a library in a single device. This means that those books you use for research or inspiration are always within reach. I have apps on my iPhone, iPad (several iPads actually—don’t judge me). Those apps include Kindle, Nook, and iBooks. If I’m waiting at the dentist or the auto shop (don’t ask, it’s too sad for words) I can continue my research. I have scores of physical books on various topics. I can’t imagine carrying them with me when I go somewhere. With digital books, I can do just that.
   
2. Cheaper research. E-books are more often than not cheaper to purchase than their physical counterparts. If you’re having to do a lot of research on say, WWII American submarines, then you can drop several pretty pennies on some of the books you’ll need. The price of one hardbound book can be used to buy several e-books (not always, but frequently).
   
3. Makes you a better interviewee. Like you, I’ve spent a great deal of time doing radio interviews. This was especially true for my books 60 People Who Shaped the Church and 30 Events That Shaped the Church. I’ve also done a large number of interviews for my novels. Since I ain’t all that smart, I like to have notes in front of me. I have found having an e-book version before me lets me run down the info I need.
   
4. More efficient reading. 

• Highlighting. I love the highlighting function of e-books. Sure, you can highlight a physical book. I’ve marked up a great many of those. The point is: An e-book allows the writer to highlight some important bit of info needed in her work-in-progress. Especially when one considers the next item:
  
• Highlight summary. Most e-readers not only allow digital highlighting but will display every highlight as a list, making it remarkably easy to find what you’re looking for.
  
• Search function. This is a real time saver. Ever wonder why e-books don’t have indexes? They don’t need them. No index is easier to use than a Find function in an e-book. Recall a word or two of a line you read? Search for it and the reader will find all words that match your search and say, “Here ya go, would you like some cookies too?” Okay, maybe the cookie thing is a fantasy, but the rest of my statement is true.

Well, that’s a start. Can you think of other ways e-books can help you with your current project?


Alton Gansky is the author of 50 books, fiction and nonfiction. He is also the co-host of Firsts in Fiction podcast.

Alton Gansky

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Special Birthday Guest ~ Deborah Raney!

by +AneMulligan  @AneMulligan

Happy birthday, Novel Rocket! 

Don't forget to leave a comment every day this week to be entered in the drawing for these books:

I'm delighted to have as our guest, our very first interviewee, Deborah Raney. 

Deborah Raney dreamed of writing a book since the summer she read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books and discovered that a Kansas farm girl could, indeed, grow up to be a writer. After a happy twenty-year detour as a stay-at-home mom, Deb penned her first novel, A Vow to Cherish, which won a Silver Angel Award and inspired the acclaimed World Wide Pictures film of the same title. Since then, her books have won the RITA Award, HOLT Medallion, ACFW Carol Award, National Readers' Choice Award, as well as twice being finalists for the Christy Award. She and her husband, Ken, have four children and four precious grandchildren who all live much too far away. Visit Deb at www.deborahraney.com. 

Deb, you were our very first Novel Rocket interview in Sept 2005. What’s happened in the past 10 years? 

Wow, Ane! I can’t believe it’s been 10 years already! Whoosh! What’s happened in the past 10 years. Well, I’ve become Mimi to 5 precious grandkids, with 2 more on the way. Oh, wait… You mean in the writing world? ;) Well, let’s see…

Ten years ago, I was just signing my contract with Howard. I wrote seven books for them, and am now writing a five-book series for Abingdon Press. I’m working on my 31st novel now and still enjoying my career as a novelist. I’m also doing some freelance editing now, and finding I really enjoy that! 

How has your writing changed in these years?

With my two series for Howard, and especially my standalone The Face of the Earth, I was able to incorporate more threads of suspense than in my earlier novels. That was a challenge and made me a better writer, I think, even with my new series, which is a bit more lighthearted than some of my books.

Overall, I definitely write shorter and more spare now than I did earlier in my career. I’m not sure what brought that change about, but I’ve learned to let dialogue carry a good part of the story, and maybe I’ve learned not to include the boring parts readers skip over. 

How have you seen the industry change over the past 10 years?

The whole e-book phenomenon has really shaken up the publishing industry. I see both challenges and advantages for authors in this. Challenges because the competition has never been stiffer, and the rules have never been so hard to pin down. What worked even two years ago doesn’t necessarily hold true today.

With traditional publishing, there seems to be fewer slots and shrinking advances. But the good news is that it has never been easier to self-publish. Many authors are having success publishing their own novels or publishing with small indie presses. And competition is always good for everyone in the long run.

I think the future looks bright for new writers, as long as they don’t skip the important steps—study the craft, get professional editing, professional cover design, etc., things that have always been hallmarks of good books.

I’m sure we have yet to see how things are going to ultimately shake out, but one thing is sure: storytellers will never go away. And that makes this reader happy.

  

I’m so honored to have been a part of Novel Rocket all these years, and I hope you’ll come back [to me] in another ten years and see what’s up with both of us then!

Two Roads Home

Minor-but-nagging setbacks continue to sour Grant and Audrey Whitman’s initiation into the world of innkeeping, but larger challenges brew when an innocent flirtation leads to big trouble for the Whitmans’ son-in-law, Jesse.

Jesse Pennington’s friendly, outgoing personality has always served him well, especially in a career that has earned him and his wife Corinne a very comfortable lifestyle. But Corinne and Jesse are both restless—and for similar reasons, if only they could share those with each other. Instead, too many business trips and trumped-up charges of harassment from a disgruntled coworker threaten their marriage and possibly put their three precious daughters at risk.

With their life in disarray, God is tugging at their hearts to pursue other dreams. Can Corinne and Jesse pick up the pieces of what was once a wonderful life before it all crumbles beneath them?

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An Open Letter to my Fellow Authors from novelist Richard Russo

It’s all changing, right before our eyes. Not just publishing, but the writing life itself, our ability to make a living from authorship. Even in the best of times, which these are not, most writers have to supplement their writing incomes by teaching, or throwing up sheet-rock, or cage fighting.

It wasn’t always so, but for the last two decades I’ve lived the life most writers dream of: I write novels and stories, as well as the occasional screenplay, and every now and then I hit the road for a week or two and give talks. In short, I’m one of the blessed, and not just in terms of my occupation. My health is good, my children grown, their educations paid for.

I’m sixty-four, which sucks, but it also means that nothing that happens in publishing—for good or ill—is going to affect me nearly as much as it affects younger writers, especially those who haven’t made their names yet. Even if the e-price of my next novel is $1.99, I won’t have to go back to cage fighting.

Still, if it turns out that I’ve enjoyed the best the writing life has to offer, that those who follow, even the most brilliant, will have to settle for less, that won’t make me happy and I suspect it won’t cheer other writers who’ve been as fortunate as I. It’s these writers, in particular, that I’m addressing here.

Not everyone believes, as I do, that the writing life is endangered by the downward pressure of e-book pricing, by the relentless, ongoing erosion of copyright protection, by the scorched-earth capitalism of companies like Google and Amazon, by spineless publishers who won’t stand up to them, by the “information wants to be free” crowd who believe that art should be cheap or free and treated as a commodity, by internet search engines who are all too happy to direct people to on-line sites that sell pirated (read “stolen”) books, and even by militant librarians who see no reason why they shouldn’t be able to “lend” our e-books without restriction.

But those of us who are alarmed by these trends have a duty, I think, to defend and protect the writing life that’s been good to us, not just on behalf of younger writers who will not have our advantages if we don’t, but also on behalf of readers, whose imaginative lives will be diminished if authorship becomes untenable as a profession.

I know, I know. Some insist that there’s never been a better time to be an author. Self-publishing has democratized the process, they argue, and authors can now earn royalties of up to seventy percent, where once we had to settle for what traditional publishers told us was our share.

Anecdotal evidence is marshaled in support of this view (statistical evidence to follow). Those of us who are alarmed, we’re told, are, well, alarmists. Time will tell who’s right, but surely it can’t be a good idea for writers to stand on the sidelines while our collective fate is decided by others. Especially when we consider who those others are. Entities like Google and Apple and Amazon are rich and powerful enough to influence governments, and every day they demonstrate their willingness to wield that enormous power.

Books and authors are a tiny but not insignificant part of the larger battle being waged between these companies, a battleground that includes the movie, music, and newspaper industries. I think it’s fair to say that to a greater or lesser degree, those other industries have all gotten their [butts] kicked, just as we’re getting ours kicked now. And not just in the courts.

Somehow, we’re even losing the war for hearts and minds. When we defend copyright, we’re seen as greedy. When we justly sue, we’re seen as litigious. When we attempt to defend the physical book and stores that sell them, we’re seen as Luddites. Our altruism, when we’re able to summon it, is too often seen as self-serving.

But here’s the thing. What the Apples and Googles and Amazons and Netflixes of the world all have in common (in addition to their quest for world domination), is that they’re all starved for content, and for that they need us. Which means we have a say in all this.

Everything in the digital age may feel new and may seem to operate under new rules, but the conversation about the relationship between art and commerce is age-old, and artists must be part of it.

To that end we’d do well to speak with one voice, though it’s here we demonstrate our greatest weakness. Writers are notoriously independent cusses, hard to wrangle. We spend our mostly solitary days filling up blank pieces of paper with words. We must like it that way, or we wouldn’t do it. But while it’s pretty to think that our odd way of life will endure, there’s no guarantee. The writing life is ours to defend.

Protecting it also happens to be the mission of the Authors Guild, which I myself did not join until last year, when the light switch in my cave finally got tripped. Are you a member? If not, please consider becoming one. We’re badly outgunned and in need of reinforcements.

If the writing life has done well by you, as it has by me, here’s your chance to return the favor. Do it now, because there’s such a thing as being too late.

Richard Russo

December 2013

Richard Russo is the author of numerous novels, including Straight Man and Elsewhere, and won the Pulitzer Prize for his fabulous novel Empire Falls. This letter was forwarded to me by novelist Scott Turow, president of The Authors Guild, in order to build support for the Guild.  We at Novel Rocket believe in the role, goals, and objectives of The Author’s Guild, and I've joined. Novel Rocket encourages all authors to consider the benefits of the Guild. You can find more information and a membership application at www.authorsguild.net or authorsguild.org. Tell them Novel Rocket sent you!

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What is the price of your e-book?

As we wait to see how the law handles the charges that Apple and five publishers met to fix e-book prices, I've found myself surprised at the price point I've seen thrown around in the news. I mean, there's only so much I'll pay for "air" before I'd rather upgrade to a physical copy of the book. It's left me wondering what's the highest price people are willing to pay for an e-book. They say in real estate the house is worth whatever someone will pay--and the same is true for us. So here's the Question:

Feel free to post this poll at your blog, too! I'd love to get an idea of what price range gets the biggest percentage of buyers. Here's the HTML for the poll: <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/6164691.js"></script> <noscript><a href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/6164691/">Those of you with E-Readers, what's the highest you've paid to date for an e-book?</a></noscript>

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E-Books...One Woman's POV

K. Dawn Byrd is an author of inspirational romance and romantic suspense with five books published to date...all in e-book versions. Here’s her take on the e-book phenomenon.

My first book published in e-format with Desert Breeze Publishing was in 2010. At the time, I felt like I was getting in on the ground floor of something great. I'd just learned how to download e-books to my BlackBerry and found that I loved reading them on the go. It was, and still is, wonderful to have dozens of books in one lightweight device that I always have with me. I've grown to love e-books so much that if a book doesn't come in E, I simply don't purchase it.

Publishing is changing at rapid rates. I've watched the market as publisher after publisher jumped on the e-book wagon. Some publishers publish only in E format. Kindles, Nooks, and every other e-book reader imaginable flew off the shelves in alarming rates this last December.

For those who love going green, e-books are the answer to conserving resources. Can you imagine how many trees have been saved? In addition, I hate to think of books ever ending up in the landfill, but it does happen. Since gasoline is so expensive, everyone is trying to conserve. It's nice to have access to millions of books with just the simple push of a button.

E-books are so convenient. I enjoy reading in bed and can now do so without turning on a lamp. I don't have to worry about disturbing my husband while I read and it's nice to pack light on vacation because all my books are in my Blackberry. When the power was off at my house for over thirty hours last winter due to a snowstorm, I was able to occupy myself by reading on my Blackberry.

I can't imagine the world without e-books and I'm so glad they're here to stay.

K. Dawn Byrd is an avid blogger and gives away several books per week on her blog... most of which are signed by the authors. She's also the moderator of the popular facebook Christian Fiction Gathering group.

When not reading or writing, K. Dawn Byrd enjoys spending time with her husband of 16 years while walking their dogs beside a gorgeous lake near her home and plotting the next story waiting to be told. Her latest releases in the Zoe Mack Mystery Series are due out in January, June and December 2012.

When Zoe Mack moves in with her grandparents to start college, she's thrown into more mystery than she bargained for. Her cousin, Emma, is terrorized by a stalker who breaks into her house and leaves a photo-shopped image of Emma hanging from a tree. Nothing is as it seems and Emma soon learns that even the man she thinks she can trust is suspect.

Zoe can't wait to reunite with Nate, the bad boy who doesn't talk about his feelings much, but the passionate kiss he gave her last summer had to have meant something. When she discovers he's in trouble with the law, she takes matters into her own hands to clear his name. She has her hands full with a needy Emma, a cop who gives her the creeps, and Nate, the guy she desperately wants to call her own. Can Zoe solve the mystery, clear Nate's name, and make him fall in love with her?

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To E or not to E ~ by guest blogger K. Dawn Byrd

K. Dawn Byrd is an author of inspirational romantic suspense. A masters degree in professional counseling helps her better understand her characters and what makes them tick. She's an avid blogger and moderator of the popular Facebook group, Christian Fiction Gathering. When not reading or writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband of 15 years while walking their dogs beside a gorgeous lake near her home and plotting the next story waiting to be told.

To E or Not To E

Okay. I'll admit it. I don't much like change. To be more accurate, I loathe change. When I heard snippets that e-Books were the wave of the future, I fought it with everything in me. I've been a book collector for over 15 years and have approximately 2,000 books in my home. The very existence of e-Books threatened my beloved print books. I vowed that I would never buy an e-Book (the enemy that might eventually extinguish the print books that I so loved so much.)

A Christian fiction book came out that I just had to read, but I didn't see it available as a print book. I e-mailed the author and she responded that it was available only in e-format. I kicked it around in my head for a few days and decided that I just had to have that book.

After I figured out how to download the first e-Book, I was hooked. I have the Kindle app on my laptop, my netbook, my Eken, and also my Blackberry. I have purchased dozens of e-Books since that first purchase.

I absolutely love e-Books. I'm not killing trees, using expensive ink or lugging around heavy objects. And best of all, I can read when I want on my cell phone. Anywhere. Any time. And, I can read in bed with hubby right beside me and don't have to worry about disturbing him with a bedside light. The font is adjustable and right now my font is larger and darker than the print in a paperback. It's backlit and easy on the eyes. I can purchase e-Books in seconds and never have to leave the house. I have literally thousands of titles at my fingertips. Also, e-Books are inexpensive and many of them, especially those in the public domain, are free. They're not taking up room in my home and I can read them again if I choose.

I've decided not to fight it. After all, how many people fought purchasing a microwave oven? DVD player? Cell phone? And, now an e-Book? Progress will continue no matter how hard we try to fight it. I, for one, believe that e-Books are here to stay and I'm loving every minute of it!

Thanks for allowing me to share my e-Book experience. I hope you'll give them a try and love them as much as I do!

I'm have two writings spaces. I keep my ball chair at the antique desk upstairs where my trusty old computer awaits. That computer is about 5 years old and not Internet ready, which is just the ticket when I want no distractions. The downstairs writing space is a cozy corner of my kitchen with a side window overlooking the street. The antique desk there has lots of little cubbyholes to hold my supplies and an antique clock, penwell and feather quill sit atop along with an art deco lamp and some of my favorite editing books. Thanks for taking a tour of my writing spaces!

Queen of Hearts, a WWII romantic suspense was the bestselling novel for her publisher during its debut month. At the time of this writing, it was the #1 bestselling suspense e-Book at www.christianbook.com.

Queen of Hearts

Daphne Dean is proud to be serving her country stateside during WWII as a reporter and an Office of Strategic Services operative. When the photograph she takes of the crowd at a murder scene places her on the mob's hit list, she's forced into hiding in a vacant mental asylum in the middle of nowhere with terrifying secrets of its own.

Daphne believed herself to still be in love with her ex-fiancée, Kenneth, until she spends several days locked away in the asylum with Vito, the mob boss' son. Can she put the terrifying events that occurred there behind her and allow herself to pursue a relationship with Vito? Or, will she return to Kenneth who has turned his back on his country by becoming a draft dodger and a black market racketeer? One thing's for sure, it won't matter if she can't escape the mental institution alive. 

Join Dawn on Facebook.

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