Preview's Sell E-books! (at least to me)

Sorry for the long hiatus but it's been an unusually busy holiday season. Hockey tournaments, Dad's 80th birthday celebrations (on New Year's Eve no less) and ongoing house reno madness has left me about six balls behind the 8th one. I must confess, though, that one of the things that led to my distraction from blogging was my hubby's birthday gift for me of the new Kobo Vox. It's sort of the Canadian version of the Kindle Fire - a tablet e-reader (that also allows me to surf the web since I can never get my hands on any of the computers at home!). It's fabulous. After I pried it away from my husband (seriously, I did not see it for the first six hours it was home) I was finally able to download my first e-book purchase.



I chose World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Apocalypse by Max Brooks for a number of reasons, one of them being my recent fascination with all things zombie due to The Walking Dead. But the biggie? The publisher let me read the first few pages. What, you ask? Isn't that standard e-book practice? Don't ALL e-books allow a potential buyer to get a taste of the book, an author's style, whether the beginning pages hook you or not? Surprisingly, NO.

I'm a big lover of sneak peeks. I love watching movie trailers for upcoming releases before the main movie begins. In fact, if we're late to a movie and miss the previews, it puts me in a grumpy enough mood for me to not enjoy the movie I actually came to watch. Those trailers hook me (or not) and are necessary (along with reviews) to help me make my decision about what movies I want to pay money to see in future. Same thing with books. When I browse for books from authors I have not read before I go through my process: Interesting title? Cover's cool? Blurb intrigues me? If all those are a yes, then I open the book and read a few pages. If it's all good then I usually buy.

When I was going through the Kobo library, I used the same process. Cover, title, blurb then I clicked on the Download Preview button. Then I went to my library where the book was sitting on my shelf, clicked on it and 9 times out of 10 I would get to read the first few pages. Well, I was deciding on whether to purchase World War Z and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. World War Z had it all and the writing was good so it was a no brainer. Click on Buy. With the second one, I already new Jonathan Safran Foer was a fabulous writer, my brother had spoken highly of the book, and I wanted to read the book before I saw the extremely well-reviewed movie. So you figure I should just buy it, right? Well, when I downloaded the preview and scrolled through the pages what I got were the first few pages of illustrations/pictures that were in the book but none of the actual writing. What the … ? No first five pages of writing, nothing. I know it probably didn't matter since the writer is who he is. But still. It irked me. I was denied the pleasure of browsing. I don't like to buy without browsing. No matter how many people tell me it's an amazing product. No click on Buy.

And it wasn't just that book. There were a few books from major publishing houses that gave me a preview of copyright and acknowledgement pages but stopped just before chapter one. I just don't get what they think they're accomplishing by doing that. Seriously. I don't buy the car without the test drive, people.

On a more positive note, I'm really enjoying World War Z and my Kobo Vox. And I'll probably go buy Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close the old fashioned way - standing in the bookstore aisle, flipping through the pages and enjoying the preview.

How about you guys? Do you need the test drive when you buy an e-book or not?

Screen Reading vs Page Reading

I've reached the point in my WIP (about 35,000 words in - a little over the half-way mark) when I usually stop to think over (i.e. panic) about where my story is headed and try and figure out (i.e. panic) what next few action/plot points I need to hit to get me to my ending. Usually, when I get to this point I do one of two things: 1. Stay away from the WIP for a few weeks while I mull over (i.e. panic) over the book or 2. I print out the whole shebang - about 135 pages - and read it in one go seeing if what I've written so far makes sense and can twig an 'aha!' moment of 'This is what must happen next'.

I've tried to outline the middle of this book more than my previous books and I have been doing that (the last ten chapters or so have been outlined before I've written them) but I need to stop and remind myself now about what all has gone before to make sure I'm not losing sight of characters, motivations and small threads that might prove important in the last half of the book. And to do that I need to read it on a page. For some reason, I tend to immerse myself in a story more completely when I can turn pages - maybe flip back and forth between scenes to make connections or notice when things don't add up. When I'm reading on the screen I seem to be able to concentrate more on deep editing and honing of words and phrases but less so on overall scenes and larger themeatic revisions. For that I need that WIP to be on old-fashioned paper.

Now, I don't have an e-reader (although I am contemplating getting one) but this is not about reading a book on paper or electronic devices. It could very well be that I become a convert to reading novels on e-readers. But for me as a writer, in this particular part of the process (and once again when I've finished the first draft) I need to print it out whole and revise it on paper before I begin to revise it on the screen.

So I'm curious - do any writers NOT print out their WIP's at some point and do a page read through? I'd fear I'd miss something if I just kept it on screen. I know I read things differently when I have them in my hand. Even at the day job where I do 90 per cent of my work on a computer screen, for large documents I need to print them out and look through them the old fashioned way.

How about you? Screen reader or page reader?

Why I Will Probably Never Buy an E-Reader

Okay, let's set the record straight. I'm not a techie by any means but neither am I a luddite when it comes to dealing in an electronic world. I'm inordinately fond of my emails, internet message boards and ordering things online - any of which I'm away from too long makes me twitchy.

However …

The idea of reading books on an electronic device (whatever its form) just so does not appeal to me. I don't think it’s the form of the e-reader so much - hard metal/plastic, screen instead of page, etc. Although, I do love the tactile feel of paper much better. Books just seem, I don't know, warmer to me. More intimate. Now I have no problem reading technical papers or academic works on screen. In fact, I think every high school student should have an e-reader so they don't have to carry 50 lbs of textbooks on their backs every day and develop spinal problems and horrible posture! But when I'm reading for personal pleasure, there is just something about the old form that appeals to me more and I think I might have just figured out what it is.

It's not about looking at a cover. You can get beautiful graphics on screen. It's not about the tactile feel or the smell of a printed book although, like I said, it does lend itself more to the cozy, curl up on a couch or bed type of reading I like to do. I think what it is, is that I like to see the totality of a book.

I like to feel the weight of it in my hand, see its bulk on my bedside table reminding me to finish reading it already! I like to see that bound, solid 200 - 400 pages or more because, when I've finished reading it, it feels like I've accomplished something significant. If it's a keeper book then seeing it on my shelf reminds me of characters, or pearls of wisdom gained from the reading, or the feeling I had when I entered that world. I guess I will always have too many books lying around my house. But that's okay too. I think seeing the books people read tells us a lot about a person. If I saw an e-reader on a table I'd never know what the heck my friends were reading!

To me, a book is a keepsake, a memory that I can always revisit. For me, out of sight usually means out of mind. In the case of an e-reader, books imbedded into a metal box will disappear altogether for me. Seeing I've read the whole book, having the whole book in my hand, makes me appreciate even more the work it took to get there. It's existence in solid form makes it akin to seeing a painting up front and personal rather than seeing a print of it on a computer screen. It's like when I print out my WIP's and I see that pile of papers beside me I think, 'Holy Cow. Did I really write all of that?' Seeing one page at a time on a screen makes less of an impact for me, I guess.

This is not to diss e-books or e-readers, at all. I just find this weird -almost personal- connection to the physical presence of a book. It is impressive and wonderful to me. I know it is all about the words and not the form the words travel in, I know it is more environmentally friendly to use an e-format. But physical books to me are beautiful things. And so much harder for me to get rid of than if I had a click of a button to make them disappear.