Tag: Kindle (page 1 of 2)

Reading habits

Image from Wikimedia Commons

I’m not a bibliophile—not, at least, in the purest sense of the word (n., a person who loves or collects books, especially as examples of fine or unusual printing, binding, or the like). I love books, of course, but I don’t treat them like works of art. I love to read them—and when I read them I dog-ear the pages, and bend their spines to mark my place, and highlight them, and write in them. My books have ragged covers and torn pages and creased spines and coffee stains. I’m probably a librarian’s worst nightmare. I love books, but the physical packages themselves aren’t what matters to me.

That being said, I still can’t quite bring myself to embrace the digital revolution. I simply don’t like reading ebooks. I do read them (I don’t have an ereader; I use the Kindle for PC app), but usually only when I can’t get my hands on a physical copy, or when it’s something I’m reading for school and I don’t expect to enjoy it anyway that’s significantly cheaper in electronic format.

Aside from strictly aesthetic considerations—ebook design is still quite clunky and unappealing, not to mention glitch-ridden—it’s so much easier for me to immerse myself in the world of the book if I’m reading, well, a physical book. I visualize things better, perhaps because I read print books more slowly. I tend to skim electronic text, picking out only what’s most obviously “important”; social media has, unfortunately, trained my eyes and mind this way. I read more now than I did before the advent of ebooks. I read stuff I probably wouldn’t have ever read otherwise. But the way I read has changed, and mostly for the worse. I now tend to rush through books without taking the time to really absorb what I’m reading. I tend to multi-task while reading ebooks; I become distracted and lose interest more quickly. The fault is mine, not the fault of the ebook as a medium. But the fact remains there is, for me, a qualitative difference between reading a physical book and reading an ebook. (And, as shown above, not because I’m “one of those ‘love the smell of books’ people.”)

Obviously that’s all subjective; I’m sure other people find ebooks just as engaging as print. My point is that there are other reasons for preferring print format than that print books are somehow sacred. I can’t argue with the fact that ebooks are more convenient and cost-effective, but I worry about letting “convenience” dictate my reading experience.

Crunching numbers

A big thank-you to all who downloaded a Kindle copy of His Own Good Sword last week! The promotion was an enormous success; as I tweeted on Tuesday, I gave away more copies of the book in the first nine hours than I sold all last year. Still more exciting, the book slipped several times into the top five of all historical-fantasy downloads on both the US and UK sites (and into the top ten action/adventure downloads on the German site). Here’s a breakdown of the final numbers, for those of you who are interested:

  • United States/India: 342 copies
  • United Kingdom: 150 copies
  • Germany: 34 copies
  • Japan: 6 copies
  • Canada: 2 copies
  • Italy: 2 copies
  • France: 1 copy
  • Total: 537 copies

Which means that, on average, more than one-hundred copies were downloaded each day of the promotion. Which is awesome. So thanks again to all who participated and devoted their reading time, and also to those who helped spread the word through retweets and Facebook shares! I hope everyone enjoys the book. (If you didn’t get the chance to download a copy, and are now feeling a bit guilty, it’s still only $0.99 in the US Kindle store; the paperback version is currently $7.19.)

Rerelease party!

His Own Good Sword is being officially rereleased tomorrow, May 7, and just for tidiness’ sake I thought I’d compile a helpful list of all the celebratory goings-on so nobody misses out. There are a ton of sweet promotions (including free ebooks!)—be sure to take advantage of all of them!ColumnFirst, enter the Goodreads giveaway for a chance to win a signed paperback copy. Today’s the last day to enter, so head on over. Also, don’t forget to add the book to your shelves if you haven’t already!

Second, get a free Kindle copy of His Own Good Sword from the 7th through the 11th! Yes, you read that correctly—the book will be free in Kindle format for the first five days of its release, His Own Good Swordso you are literally without excuse if you don’t have the book on your Kindle by midnight on the 11th.

Not to denigrate those Illustrious Readers who prefer physical books to electronic ones! If you purchase the $7.99 paperback edition of His Own Good Sword from either Createspace or Amazon between the 7th and 11th, forward a copy of your confirmation email to amandamccrina AT gmail DOT com and I’ll make arrangements with you for a free piece of signed artwork by yours truly featuring any character/object/whatever-you-choose* from the book. (For an example of my art style, take a look at this. Disclaimer: Batman is not a character in His Own Good Sword. Though that would have been awesome.)

[Edit] I’ll be doing an interview on Hazel West’s blog tomorrow, talking about the changes I’ve made to the book for this release and also about which movies I’ll be going to see this summer. There’ll be a brief excerpt from the book, too, so if you’d like to get the flavor of the story before downloading, be sure to check it out.

Finally, I’m proud to say that His Own Good Sword is This Week’s Read over at Indie Books R Us. Be on the lookout for the forthcoming review and interview!

*Within, you know, reasonable limits. And I’m the determiner of “reasonable limits.”

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