Wednesday, December 24, 2008

e-Books Making Inroads?

(Note: Link repaired 12-25-08, 9:45AM)

The New York Times published an article on Dec. 23, 2008 entitled Turning Page, E-Books Start to Take Hold. Authors Brad Stone and Motoko Rich did a good job of summarizing the situation.

The item that struck me the most was the fact that 20% of Amazon's sales of “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” are Kindle sales. That's very encouraging to us e-book authors.

The only thing I'd quibble with is the authors description of Harlequin as "the Toronto-based publisher of bodice-ripping romances". (emphasis mine) Ugh, will that old meme ever go away? Romances have changed so much since that description was first used back in the 1970's.

I'll try to get my monthly astrology post up soon, but in the mean time, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all!

Linda

5 comments:

Teresa said...

Hi Linda,

I couldn't get your link to the article to work, but I think I read that same one. It credited the Amazon Kindle with bringing e-books more into the mainstream. No wonder you e-book authors are giving one away.

Happy Holidays to you.

Teresa

Anonymous said...

eHarlequin provides very interesting books for this holiday season!!

Linda McLaughlin said...

Teresa, oops, sorry about the bad link. I had one too many http://es in it. It's fixed now.

Lincoln, eHarlequin is mentioned in the article, but without a link.

Linda

Teresa said...

Hi Linda,

Thanks for fixing the link. That was the same article I had read. I thought of you and your Kindle while I was reading it.

I always thought the term "bodice-ripping" was rather swashbuckling, but since you write non-traditional romances, it probably bothers you more. IMO, you could always write a wicked satire a la Jonathan Swift to thoroughly skewer the term, something like "Amorous Adventures of a Bodice-Ripping Space Cowboy in Drag." Give him a robotic werewolf sidekick and poke fun at all the typical romance sub-genres in one great epic e-book. It could be great fun to write and fun to read.

Teresa

Linda McLaughlin said...

Teresa, that's a cute idea. My objection to the term bodice ripper is that it has always been meant to be derogatory. It was coined by critics not romance writers.

Linda