GOOD-BYE PAPERBACKS HELLO E-BOOKS
Posted by Jo-Anne Vandermeulen on January 14, 2009
How I ‘Conquer All Obstacles’–Accepting Change
After reading January, 2009 issue of RWA, Romance Writers Report, “Electronic Readers: Death Toll of Books or an Offering to Our Electronics-Addicted Society?” by Chris Kocourek, my view of the future for books changed. He concluded that e-books would soon replace the traditional paperback books.
I will be honest with you. My accepance of e-books didn’t occur overnight. When I first read his words, my heart beat so fast I thought it might rip from my chest. Talk about feeling VERY uncomfortable.
Are you ready for the change? Will you handle the new world of technology with fear or excitement?
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” >Charles Darwin<
I have always taken great pride in the way I anticipate change. Others follow me as a leader of strength. They’ve seen me with a positive attitude, able to handle the new with proper perspectives. With any change, you must anticipate and accept failures in a trial and error blind journey down a foreign path. I had no problem throwing out the old, as de-clutter was my middle name. “Use it or lose it,” I would smile and say while chucking the old to make room for the new.
I still have this motto, but for some reason, this change–new movement of turning to e-books from traditional paperback books just didn’t heighten my natrual response of excitement. I was not responsive to this change. Instead, I was scared.
For the past thirty-some years, I’ve carried around a book. If I was ever to leave the house without something to read, I felt naked. Traditional novels and non-fiction books have always been my mode of escape. They’ve filled in time, and lifted my spirits. Now, I’m reading about a manchine/computer that will take the place of my security blanket…I don’t like it.
How do I accept change?
Identify the problem – I hate feeling scared. It’s just plain ugly. I don’t want to give up my books. I’m having a difficult time keeping an open-mind.
Overcome the obstacle – I need to replace fear with excitement. Change is going to happen whether I like it or not.
Plan – I knew I needed to change my way of thinking, to trash this negative attitude, and discover my usual acceptance and perception to change. Again, I spent a lot of time reading, researching specialists’ view points.
Discover a Solution – I needed to look at myself. To become honest in the way technology has advanced in my life over the past year. What used to be snail mail paper submissions has turned 97% e-mail. I cannot complain. This change was for the good, way too many benefits over the old (not that I knew this at the initial time of introduction).
Conclusion – Eventually, I began to reform my initial reaction. I started to see the benefits of e-books. So perhaps this new way of reading books will be better. It’s not going to occur overnight; but instead, a gradual process. When it comes time to replace paperback books with e-books, I will remember to take this change one-step at a time. I will be prepared for slips along the way. Even down-right failures. But like with any obastacles, a person has to learn to get-up off the ground and dust off the ‘ol knees.
Does this mean I’ve accepted change?
Yes. My heart is still thumping fast, but at least now it feels comfortable. I can ‘conquer all obstacles’ and so can YOU. We can accept change by keeping an open-mind which will turn fear into excitement, and in time–e-books will be a better option to reading than our traditional paperback books.
Jo-Anne Vandermeulen/ Professional Support Network for Writers/ Prolific Writer of Romantic Fiction/ gr5mom2.wordpress.com
CJParker said
I don’t mind reading E-books, what I mind is the fact the readers are so expensive. Not everyone can plop down anywhere from $250 to $400. Yes, I love the feel of a real book in my hands. I even love the smell of the ink. But I could switch to all E-book reading if they’d get real with the price of readers.
amydetrempe said
I will be slow to make the change. I like to curl up with a good book – not an electronic devise. And, one of my favorite places to read is in a hot bubble bath after a long day. A book eventually dries out if you accidently drop it, but what would happen to an e-reader. One the bright side, it is portable enough to plop in my purse, just like a book, so there is the benefit of taking your library with you wherever you go.
laurinw said
I’m looking forward to getting comfortable with e-books. I’ve resisted e-books because I didn’t want to have to read at my computer when I spend so much working there already. But now I’ve ordered a Kindle. Hopefully it’ll arrive in time for my late March birthday.
The idea of being able to take lots of books with me wherever I go, upload my own files or read other manuscripts, buy books on the fly… be still my heart. I’m sure I’ll still want paper copies of my “keepers” but I’m really looking forward to the convenience of carrying a whole library with me!
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Susan Culp said
I am hearing that e-books are on the rise. I certainly hope so because my recent novel was picked up by an e-book publisher. I have to admit that sales have been rather slow, but then all of a sudden there are a bunch of orders from different e-book stores where my publisher placed my book. They say it takes a year to get yourself known on-line. I am out there plugging. Any suggestions on what really works?
gr5mom2 said
Hi Susan;
Congratulations on publishing your book. What a thrill!
My question to you is: Do you want to spend the time plugging your name and book or do you want to continue to spend the time writing?
If you want to take the time learning how to efficiently promote and market, the Internet is full of ideas. The problem is, once you learn everything there is to promote, it is so time consuming to market effectively.
Thankfully, I have a solution for you and all my fellow writers…
This month, I will be announcing the solution to all your problems on this blog: gr5mom2.wordpress.com. I don’t want to spill the beans as of yet. Call me a perfectionist, but I want to line all my ducks in a row (now talk about cliche’s…lol…way too early this morning…:0).
Feel free to click on past posts for more information that may help you right now.
Good luck and take care.
Jo-Anne
jessicacoultersmith said
While I read ebooks, I cannot afford an ereader at this time. It makes it difficult to sit at my computer to read a book. So I still purchase an obscene amount of paperbacks. But I’m hopeful that one day I can get an ereader for a resonable price and be able to take my ebooks with me too…
As an author, I’ve noticed that my ebooks sales have more than doubled this year. I was rather surprised to see this happen, but I guess it makes sense. Ebooks are more environment friendly than a paperback and more cost effective for the publishers. If the price of an ereader came down to where everyone could afford to buy one, I imagine that ebook sales would take off even more.
gr5mom2 said
“As an author, I’ve noticed that my ebooks sales have more than doubled this year.” >Jessica Coulter Smith<
Wow! This is amazing. So technology is really catching on–not that I should be too surprised, but I just never thought the traditional paperbacks would dissolve and be replaced by a cold steel machine. Even a decade ago, 'who woulda thunk it'.
Thank you for your feedback, Jess. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts.
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