It’s just another Manic Monday, wish it were Sunday, as The Bangles would say. 

So I thought Monday is the best day to moan.  Did I just hear you moan, oh gees do we have to listen to a whinge?  No you don’t.  But I do need to blog about something in my own manic little way. 

So here it is....

The Kindle.  Now this isn’t really a moan it is more a reluctance.  A reluctance to give up on paperbacks.  Now you might say, you don’t need to give them up completely – and I probably don’t – but I'm dragging my feet regardless.

There are pros:  Get the numerous books I want instantly and for a much cheaper price.

For me, the cheap and fast options appeals.  To not have to wait for the postman to deliver a book would be more convenient.  But I like to hold a book in my hands.  Smell the paper and gaze at the cover.  I even like that noise, the one where you flip through the pages.  This is also when the aroma wafts up from the pages being fanned back and forth.

So what is the solution to this dilemma?  Bite the bullet and buy one.  See how I like it.  Download all those books I want to read.  It would certainly help with my Writers I Know Wednesday reviews.  Though the cheaper and more convenient the books to obtain the more time I spend reading, leaving me less time for everything else.  Time is already not on my side.  The ebook reader would entail me spending far more time with my nose in a book.  Wait can I still say that?  But I believe that the urge to own the latest gadget, my impatience and tight-arsedness will win out in the end.

The writer in me also feels mixed about it.  The positive of the kindle:  people may be more likely to purchase (or even download for free) your ebook if they own a kindle.  The cost is less and it is instant.  Readers may be more inclined to buy and read something they wouldn’t normally because of this.  If it is an unknown and (hopefully) up and coming author then there may be reluctance to fork out the money to buy and have delivered the paperback version.  It is the postage that is the killer really as many books are not available from bookstores and online overseas shipping is the only option thus the cost is that much more than in the stores.

The further evidence that ebook and kindle is the way of the future is the closure of bricks and mortar bookstores.  Some of the larger chains in Australia are already feeling the pinch of the ebook phenomenon.  So it seems ebook, as a writer with books only for sale online, is a far more viable option.  I am sure that if it wasn’t for ebook the ‘sales’ or number of people reading my book would be far lower.  Not only this, is it really about the money?  Well yes I would love to be a best seller (and this can still happen in ebook of course) and make loads of money BUT first and foremost I want to be read.  eReaders are allowing this to happen.  Sure my dream would be to go somewhere like the airport or be on a train and see someone holding my book in their hands but I think I have to face reality.  Electronic everything is the way of the future, it’s the way of now.  Paperback, I think sadly, will become a thing of the past and I will have to embrace the ebook.

So the call of the electronic book is loud and I believe it won’t be long before I release my stubborn hold on the paperback and embrace the way of the future.