More on the Big E

I was going to continue Emerald City workshop recaps today, but decided to piggyback onto Pamela Loewy's post from yesterday, especially after a conversation with a couple we met while out to breakfast. The coffee shop is small, as is the community. We'd seen this couple in the shop many times, and finally made those introductions. During the getting acquainted phase, I mentioned I was a writer. Things followed the usual path from there, and I offered them my bookmarks. Normally, I get, "Can I get these at the bookstore?" This time, I got, "Are they on the Kindle?"

First, and I've said this before, I'm all for choices. Abolishing either print or digital formats is NOT a good thing. There's room for both, and definitely places where each works "better" for an individual reader.

Right now, we're watching e-publishing move from infancy to crawling. Publishing itself is changing, and digital options are nudging the changes at a speed traditional publishing isn't used to.

To E or Not to E

What I'm reading: Lost Among the Angels, by Alice Duncan

One of the on-line groups has been discussing e-books lately. It's been gratifying to see that a good percentage of the people responding are seeing e-books as an alternative, not an either-or.

There's nothing wrong with liking print books, but that doesn't mean you can't also appreciate some of the advantages of digital format. To those who say, "I will never give up print books," I say, "Why should you have to? But why does that mean you can't look at e-books as well?"

The e-book is still in its infancy. The e-book reader has a long way to go. And it's not just that e-readers are expensive. Until there's a 'one format fits all' approach, people are going to be reluctant to commit.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of lighthearted reviews of two of the big players in the e-reader market: Sony and Kindle.

Keep Reading...

The Smart Bitches blog had an arrangement with Sony to let a select number of readers test drive the reader in return for a review. This one reviews the 700 model.

For more, you can scroll the blog:

For the Kindle, hubby was reading Scientific American, and he showed me this article: (Note: beverage alert before you start reading it)



For the record: I don't own either. I have an eBookwise, a reader that I bought before the Kindle came out. It's a basic model, but I love it. As a matter of fact, I've loaded it up because for the next two weeks we're going to be gone more than we're home, and I expect to have plenty of time for reading. Rather than fill a suitcase with paperbacks, I can take my eBookwise and have the equivalent in what amounts to the space and weight of a single book.


This is a short post, I know, but we're getting ready to leave town, and there's plenty to read at the links in the post.

Tomorrow, author Lorena Streeter is my guest, and she's sharing what she learned when she decided to write in 1st person instead of 3rd person POV. Please come back and see what she has to say.