eBooksAndYou

newsletter

March 2004

Well it has been an interesting month since we activated our website. Go back and take another look. You will see lots of changes. We’ve added two short stories that you can download for free and after checking out the competition we reduced the prices of our e-books.

It didn’t take long to learn the lesson that every e-commerce site learns early on. Having a website is one thing, getting people to know it exists and visiting it is another. In an attempt to solve that problem, we have been checking out other author’s websites and trading links. We now have a FAVORITE LINKS page that I think you will find interesting.

The other major problem we’ve discovered is that e-books are extremely popular. E-novels are not. It seems most people are addicted to reading novels the old-fashioned way, one paper page at a time. We are currently investigating some of the e-book readers that are available. The prices are coming down, but they are still a little pricey. It seems however, that once people try them, they love them. You can read in bed in the dark and not disturb your partner. You can store a small library of books to take on vacation or a business trip. You don’t have to fuss with turning pages and sometimes losing your place. The e-readers have a lot of advantages, but we believe it will be a few years before they catch on. Consider this and I think you will agree that they are the future. Think about today’s school children hunched over under heavy backpacks loaded with texts. We know that it causes health problems. Now consider them carrying one 16-ounce e-reader that stores all of their text books. Remember, these are children who grew up watching TV, working a computer, and playing video games. E-readers will be a natural for them. So will e-novels.

But for now, in an attempt to solve the paper problem, we are investigating Print On Demand. This is a new form of publishing that doesn’t print the book until it is ordered. It then prints a very professional, 5.5 inch by 8.5 inch, full color book and ships it within 48 hours. Some progressive bookstores are gearing up to put this technology in their stores so you can browse their shelves, find the book you want to purchase, order it, have a drink in their coffee bar, and ten minutes later, pick your book up while it’s still warm. Very interesting.

We also have a Literary Agent and a traditional Publisher looking at TWICE UPON A TIME. Maybe by this time next month, we’ll have good news to pass along.

We welcome suggestions and advice.

Stay tuned, and have a great day.

Gene and Paula Tague

www.ebooksandyou.com