Up until now my ebooks have only been available on Kindle. Amazon offers various promotional incentives for being exclusive to them (primarily the ability to easily run price promotions and inclusion in their subscription service – Kindle Unlimited), and I wanted to be able to try them out. For my next release, Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet, I’ve decided to “go wide” and launch on all the major platforms – Amazon, Kobo, iBooks and Nook. The reason is very simple – I want as many people as possible to be able to read the book. Although there is a Kindle app for tablets and phones, not everyone uses it. If you’re an Apple user then you’ll probably go with iBooks. Nook readers will go with the Nook app. Kobo owners will go with the Kobo app. Although Amazon is the big player, there are a lot of readers using those other platforms and they’re loyal to them. Personally, I have a soft spot for Kobo. It isn’t as well known as Kindle in the US, but it’s much bigger in other countries – particularly in Canada. I bought my wife the first Kobo when it was released here – I had to queue outside the bookshop before it opened to make sure … Read More
BANG
The weeks are following a similar pattern at the moment. Monday and Tuesday have a crappy word count, then Wednesday comes along and BANG. Just under 1,552 words on Glitch today – Chapter 2 complete. Almost makes up for the very disappointing rejection I got last night. Oh, and I also found out I can switch my Kindle account back to the US so I can take advantage of all those juicy ebook offers. Too bad I missed out on both Doctor Sleep and The Lies of Locke Lamora. [BANG by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 18th September 2013]
In Defense of eBook Pricing
This is the latest in a series of Meaty Monday posts – longer posts where I ramble on about writing related topics. You can find the first Meaty Monday post here. Authors are almost legally required to hate ebooks. After all, those cold, soulless packages of bits and bytes can’t compare with the tactile and olfactory delights a real book provides. In a lot of ways that’s true and as my heavily overloaded shelves will attest, I’ve always had great difficultly resisting the lure of the bookshop. In fact, until a couple of years ago ebooks held no interest for me at all but then I bought my wife a Kobo reader for her birthday and then I borrowed it to read William Gibson’s Zero History. I was hooked. Sure, the first generation Kobo reader is slow and doesn’t have wireless or any other bells and whistles but it was so convenient and – for some unknown reason – fun. I quickly bought myself a Kindle and I’ve never looked back. I do still buy physical books, usually Subterranean Press or Cemetery Dance limited editions, or books by my favourite authors (Caitlin R Kiernan, Haruki Murakami etc.) but generally I choose the digital version if I can. The biggest advantage … Read More
It Means Nothing to Me
Our new Kobo Vox arrived yesterday. I resisted the eBook revolution for a long time but Ann persuaded me to buy her one for her birthday last year. I borrowed it to read William Gibson’s Zero History and was immediately hooked. She has her first generation Kobo, I have a 3rd generation Kindle. I see the Kindle as the Rolls Royce of ereaders, high quality and until recently, a bit expensive. The Kobo is nice, very light, although the first generation is a bit slow to start up, particularly compared to my Kindle. Maybe the newer ones have improved, I don’t know. Even though I have an ereader, I still buy physical books. I love the look and feel and smell of real printed books and I’ve spent over $400 on them over the last 3-4 weeks* but the ereaders have rekindled (do you see what I did there?) my love of reading. I’m reading a lot more books since I got my Kindle and I’m reading more broadly. In particular I’m picking up random self-published books by authors I’ve never heard of. Some of them I enjoy, some of them I don’t but either way I’m discovering authors that I … Read More