I'm a bit of a Luddite. I like my technologies proven and my chicken fried. However, I also think that, reluctantly, technology is important. So, since I'm both a writer and shameless self-promoter, I should start addressing this new fangled e-reader thing.
Nah, just kidding. Back by popular demand is everyone's favorite publisher, blogger, and author. Give a big Mimsey welcome to HK Savage!
Considering how much I enjoy our favorite blog host, I was
more than happy to write an article for him this week.
Anyone who has ears
and/or eyes knows by now that there is a book out there that has brought this
topic screaming out of the backroom. I’d say closet, but that’s another topic.
Well, not really. Hold on, I’ll explain.
Remember
back in the old days when the only way to read a book was to buy, borrow, or
steal a copy printed on paper?
Or be bribed with pizza to read. Oh who are we kidding,
this was the only way book nerds got free pizza.
The
advantage was that you could read it anywhere including on the plane long after
everyone else had shut down their electronic devices. The downside was that
everyone else knew what you were reading. Yep, that meant that if you didn’t
want everyone to know that at your mature age you were still reading about
vampires and werewolves ( a subject I have recently stopped apologizing for
writing even though I’m supposed to have outgrown it ).
It also meant that your church group knew that you liked to
read a good bodice ripper, or that maybe you liked things a little hotter. You
know you’ve seen the covers. There’s no explaining to your mother in law that
the woman on the cover, bits only barely covered by shadow and the author’s
name is wearing little more than handcuffs and a pleasant expression not often found
outside of the bedroom (or wherever else those sorts of things are done ). A
rapidly growing subgenre in the erotica realm is male/male. Try explaining that
one to your knitting circle.
Enter
the ereader.
This little device has blown the doors off of the reading
and publishing world. The books we used to read after everyone went to bed,
those guilty pleasures be they dwarves and hobbits, whips and chains, or fanged
and furred, are now portable. That’s right, you can read them on the bus, in
the waiting room, on the couch next to your kid while he/she watches Yo Gabba
Gabba. And provided you keep your cheering or sweating to a minimum, no one is
the wiser.
I typed in "Sexy Dwarf" this is what came up.
For publishers this has opened up a huge new area in which
many of us are finding eager audiences ready to snap up some new reads. Ask any
digital readers out there what their favorite thing about this new discovery is
and I guarantee you will hear two sentiments at the top of the list: price and
variety.
Wait,
we have choices? More than the socially approved, “NY Times Bestseller lists”
and “Oprah’s Book Club picks,” really? Uh huh. I know, it sounds cynical, but
it’s true.
A
lot of us alter our decisions every day to please others. Remember how you
wanted that king sized candy bar when you were a kid but Mom lifted that brow
and your hand moved over to the normal sized sugary goo goo cluster?
No.
That’s right, you did it. We all did. And we still do.
Clothes? Same thing. Hair? Yep, you guessed it. Our book choices are no
different. For decades, in order to avoid having to explain ourselves or not to
be considered “different,” we avoided reading books that our peers might not
approve of.
So feel free readers, you can now download your favorite
book no matter the genre without fear of judgment. One piece of advice though: before you set
your reader down to go tuck the little one in and leave it in the room with
Gramma, make sure you swing over to Little Bo Peep or sleep mode just might
show off that cover and give you away. Breakfast with the family might get
weird.
It's all smiles until they find out you love "My Immortal"
-----HK Savage
That's all the time we have for today folks. Give a big hand and lots of love to HK Savage, and see you again soon!
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