Smashwords' Mark Coker argues for "The Power of Free: How to Sell More E-Books"

It's a really interesting position that Mark Coker puts forth in this PW article.

Likening a free e-book to those supermarket samples of a new cheese, as a way of building customer trust that they'll like the new cheese, Mike argues that you shouldn't just give a taste of your e-book, you should give the entire e-book away for free. And, that the longer the book is, the better chance you have (if it's brilliant) of building trust with the new reader who has taken a chance on reading your work.

He goes on to say that free e-books are not only ideal as series starters, but they have a lot of value for authors with multiple titles, and even for authors with just one book out (suggesting free for a promotional time period.)

But even when you've giving it away for free, there's still that challenge of being discovered. As Mark puts it,

"Free is no guarantee of bestsellerdom. There’s a glut of high-quality free books. At Smashwords alone, we‘ve published more than 60,000 free books. The competition for reader eyeballs is fierce."

What do you think of "free?"

Business: E-books and Libraries - what's the vision?

One of the shakeups happening as our industry continues to move into the future is the controversy over exactly how downloading ebooks to your tablet should work... when you're not buying it, but rather getting it as a loan from your public library.

As reported in Publishers Lunch, as of February 10, 2012, Penguin

"will no longer offer additional copies of ebooks and audiobooks for purchase via Overdrive" and is severing their ongoing relationship with the vendor. 

Penguin and other publishers are concerned about security (especially in terms of over-the-air delivery to tablets like the kindle).

Authors want to make sure that they're fairly compensated - a library can loan out a physical book to only one patron at a time, and only so many times before they need to buy a new copy.  But a digital copy could be loaned out to multiple patrons simultaneously - and because it's digital, there's no wear-and-tear.

And library patrons (Readers!) want to be able to get e-books from their libraries.

In Australia, they have a system called "Public Lending Right"

Public Lending Right (PLR) and Educational Lending Right (ELR) are Australian Government cultural programs which make payments to eligible Australian creators and publishers in recognition that income is lost through the free multiple use of their books in public and educational lending libraries. PLR and ELR also support the enrichment of Australian culture by encouraging the growth and development of Australian writing.

They have that system in Britain, too, where authors get about six pence per library loan.  (In U.S.A. currency, that would be about nine cents.)

One possible path forward for publishers in the U.S.A.?

Following productive discussions between the ALA leadership and executives from Penguin, Macmillan, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Perseus, there is some talk about at least one pathway to what some believe is an appropriate model for now: lending ebooks to patrons from within library branches, the same way physical media is lent, rather than lending ebooks online. 

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Contest for Picture Book Writers: The MeeGenius! Author Challenge 2011

The folks at MeeGenius!--a e-picture book app for young readers for iPhone, iPad, iTouch, Google TV, and the web--have just kicked off a contest.

Open to both aspiring and published authors, the MeeGenius! Author Challenge 2011 will award one winner $1500 and a publishing contract as well as offering a MeeGenius! library to the school of the winner's choice. Three runners-up will win $500 and publishing contract.

Submissions will be posted on the MeeGenius! website where visitors can vote on their favorites. The most popular picks become finalists.

The deadline for entry is November 1st and winners will be announced in March. For complete rules and guidelines, visit MeeGenius.com.

In the News This Week

Weekly on the SCBWI blog, I share snippets of and links to some of the publishing/media-related news I've read during the last week that I found interesting, helpful, and/or fun. I've been doing this on Fridays since the blog debuted, but look for Saturday news round-ups occasionally in the next couple of months (due to a hefty freelance writing gig).

As you peruse the articles beginnings below, click titles to get to read the rest of the stories.

This week's stories include Google eBooks launch, trends courtesy of Scholastic, research tips from the recent NBA winner, a best YA list from GalleyCat, bookscan stats on Amazon, hard times for Borders, why teens don't tweet, eBook predictions, trouble for GLBT teens, and more.

Google Launches Google eBooks, Formerly Google Editions (PW)
After months of anticipation, Google today launched its long-awaited cloud-based e-book program, Google eBooks. Rebranded from its original moniker, Google Editions, Google eBooks overnight becomes the largest e-book provider in the world, at least in terms of its offerings, launching with nearly three million books available for purchase or download, including “hundreds of thousands of e-books” available for purchase and over two million public domain titles available for free.

Research Advice from National Book Award Winner Kathryn Erskine (GalleyCat)
Kathryn Erskine tackles tough subjects through children’s books. Her debut novel, Quaking, responded to the Virginia Tech tragedy. Her second novel, Ibhubesi: The Lion, dealt with apartheid. Her third book, Mockingbird, featured a character with asperger’s syndrome–winning this year’s National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. We caught with her to learn about her writing process. Here are some highlights from the interview.

Best YA Books of 2010: A Literary Mixtape (GalleyCat)
What’s the best young adult book you’ve read this year? Share it in the comments and we’ll add it to our new literary mixtape of the Best YA Books of 2010. This GalleyCat editor makes an annual mixtape (CD actually, but the idea is the same) collecting his favorite songs from the year–allowing his friends and family to sample some of the year’s best music. We love reading “Best Books of …” lists, but we want to build a list focused exclusively on sample chapters. Using your suggestions, we will create a giant directory linking to sample pages from your favorite YA books from 2010–allowing readers to sample the books like a literary mixtape. 

What Children's Publishers Are Doing in the Apps Space (PW)
Last week we looked at how some adult trade houses view the potential market for apps, finding that most publishers are cautiously moving into this area. While adult and children’s divisions face many of the same questions about apps—costs, sales potential, and whether they should drive profits or market books—children’s content is generally more suited to this space. Still, like their adult counterparts, children’s publishers are developing apps slowly. PW contacted a number of children’s divisions and houses and found that many publishers are experimenting with different formats—some are creating heavily educational material (which occasionally doesn’t even link to a specific title), others are investing in games, and still others are looking for more direct ways of adapting existing fiction into an app.

Scholastic Experts Issue List of ‘Ten Trends in Children’s Books from 2010’ (Scholastic.com)
Scholastic, the largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, today released a list of 10 Trends in Children's Books from 2010. The list was compiled by editors from Scholastic, including children’s literature experts from Scholastic Book Clubs and Scholastic Book Fairs, divisions of Scholastic that distribute books from all publishers through schools nationwide. "We've seen some exciting innovation in children’s publishing in 2010, including new formats and platforms for storytelling that are helping more and more kids become book lovers," said Judy Newman, President of Scholastic Book Clubs. "At the same time, we’re seeing a rejuvenation of some classic genres, which I think is evidence of the timeless power that stories and characters have on the lives of children."

5 Useful Tools to Monitor Twitter Hashtags (AllTwitter)
Want to know what’s being talked about on Twitter right now? Or how about what people are saying about your or your brand? Monitoring hashtags is a great way to get in on a conversation on Twitter, whether it’s a trending topic or a few tweets per day. We’ve compiled 5 useful tools that will help you monitor hashtags on Twitter, so you can keep up with the conversation.

'Get the Xanax ready': Authors respond to BookScan on Amazon (LA Times)
Authors responded to Thursday's news of Amazon making Neilsen BookScan's sales numbers available with both enthusiasm and trepidation. "Get the Xanax ready," tweeted David MacInnis Gill, author of "Black Hole Sun," a sci-fi thriller for young adults. In an e-mail, he explained: "Authors worry. We worry about writing. Worry about our editors, our agents, our reviews, and our readers. We worry about everything, including all forms of social media including blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and personal websites. The one thing we haven't been able to obsess about is real-time sales numbers."

Borders Sales Disappoint, Loss Soars; Liquidity Issues Arise (PW)
Borders third quarter results, released just after the market closed Thursday afternoon, provided little sign that the company is turning around as total revenue fell 17.6%, to $470.9 million and comparable store sales dropped 12.6%. The loss from continuing operations was $74.4 million compared to a loss of $37.7 million a year ago. CEO Michael Edwards called the results disappointing, adding they reflect “the business challenges facing Borders and the industry at large.”

Gay and lesbian teens are punished more at school, by police, study says (WashPost)
Gay and lesbian teens in the United States are about 40 percent more likely than their straight peers to be punished by schools, police and the courts, according to a study published Monday, which finds that girls are especially at risk for unequal treatment. The research, described as the first national look at sexual orientation and teen punishment, comes as a spate of high-profile bullying and suicide cases across the country have focused attention on the sometimes hidden cruelties of teen life.   

Why Teens Don't And Won't Tweet (ReadWriteWeb)
I'm 16 and, unusually, I use Twitter quite a bit. I say unusually because perhaps you've heard that teens don't tweet. This first came to light last year when a 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern wrote a report [PDF] where he explained that teens "realize they are not going to update it," and that "no one is viewing their profile, so their 'tweets' are pointless. Teens' lives are entirely built around their actual friends. Quite simply, why would teenagers bother using Twitter when Facebook exists, and offers so much more? Teens want a platform that allows easy, fully-functional communication to an exclusive social circle. That is, solely to their friends and peers. Twitter is a platform built for inclusive broadcast (to everyone), and to teenagers it offers no obvious value.
 
Figment Looks to Attract Young Writers (PW)

Founded by New Yorker staff writer Dana Goodyear and former New Yorker managing editor Jacob Lewis, Figment.com is an online writing community aimed at attracting a membership of young people, ranging from kids to teens and older, to post, share and comment on each other’s original writing. Launched this week, the site is also teaming with YA author Blake Nelson, author of the well-received 1994 adult novel Girl, who is serializing Dream School, a long unpublished YA sequel to Girl, on the Figment site. 

eBook Readership Will Grow To 30 Million Readers Globally By 2013 (eBookNewser)
eBook readership is predicted to grow to 30 million readers globally by 2013, almost double the predicted 2012 total, according to ABI Research. According to ABI analyst Jeff Orr, a number of these people will come from Western Europe followed by China. Orr had this statement: ““In two or three years we will enter a period in which much more digital printed matter will become available in other countries and regions. Western Europe will be first, followed by Eastern Europe and Asia, especially China.”

eBook Predictions Are Futile (HuffPo)
It's the end of the year, which means prophets will soon be flooding every possible venue with predictions for the future. Most of them will end up being laughably wrong. And because it's the end of the decade, they'll be wrong about what happens for the next ten years. The publishing industry is especially difficult to speculate about because it's undergoing so much upheaval.

In the News This Week

Fridays on the SCBWI blog, I share snippets of and links to some of the publishing/media-related news I've read during the last week that I found interesting, helpful, and/or fun. Click titles to get to the full articles.

I took the day off that day after Thanksgiving (devoting the day to eating was pie), but I'm back this week with links to piece a piece on Black Friday book sales, a great PW roundup of YA publishers, the continuing Kindle vs. iPad popularity contest, the best agents on Twitter, some tips for self-editing, ABC plus ABA, an addictive blog on subway reading, and more.


Jeff Kinney and Rick Riordan Put the "Black" into Black Friday (PW)

Many independent booksellers contacted by PW earlier this week reported solid holiday sales over the Thanksgiving weekend. While those figures include adult titles, especially memoirs—former president George W. Bush’s Decision Points, Keith Richards’s Life, and The Autobiography of Mark Twain—children’s books contributed to sales boosts. Two standouts, even at stores that don't typically boost a high percentage of children’s sales, were the fifth Wimpy Kid title and the first book in the new Heroes of Olympus series. At 40-year-old Breakwater Books in Guilford, Ct., where children’s comprise 30% of sales, the bestseller for the entire weekend came from the kids’ aisle: Peter Yarrow’s The Night Before Christmas, which features a musical recording by Peter, Paul, and Mary, and paintings by Eric Puybaret. And at BarnesandNoble.com, the perennial holiday favorite, The Elf on a Shelf by Carol V. Aebersold, held top positions in books for the gift set, with a light-skinned elf at #1 and a dark-skinned elf #10. 

Today's YA Scene: New Players, Innovative Directions, Fresh Voices (PW)

There is no shortage of media coverage about boom times in the young adult market. Looking beyond the houses responsible for many of the bold-faced headliners at the top of bestseller lists, one finds an enthusiastic group of publishers, some newcomers to YA, whose authors are making impressive contributions and helping to satiate the reading appetites of Twilight- and Hunger Games-frenzied fans.

From these publishers comes word of thriving YA programs, fueled by a bumper crop of talented new writers—many of whom are startlingly young—and a sizzling double-edged crossover market involving more adult authors penning YA novels and more adult readers buying YA fare. Editors claim they are not filling their lists with derivative stories (though vampires and dystopian landscapes are surely in evidence), but are signing up books in an increasingly diverse range of genres. Here's a look at some of these publishers' offerings and observations.

Small Press Spotlight: Purple House Press (Shelf Talker)

For some time now, I’ve meant to start a recurring feature highlighting some of our favorite small presses. We independent booksellers are always working to get the message out about the wonderful benefits we offer to readers; just as important is our support of smaller indie publishers, who likewise depend on us to recognize and value (and buy) the unique books they have to offer. In this economy especially, we need to put our money where our mouths are. Let’s hear it for small presses!

Kindles And iPads Are Most Popular eReaders: ChangeWave Research (eBookNewser)
Kindles and iPads are closely competing this holiday season. While more people currently own Kindles, iPads are growing in popularity, says a new consumer research study by ChangeWave Research.
In August, ChangeWave interview more than 2,800 consumers to inform the new report called “The Consumer Electronics Spending For the Holidays. The report found that 47 percent of eReader owners own a Kindle and 32% own an iPad. Interestingly, readers find the iPad more satisfying as an e-reader, with 75% of iPad owners saying that they are “very satisfied” with the tablet as an eReader, compared to 54% of Kindle owners reporting the same thing.

ABC Booksellers Overwhelmingly Approve Merger With ABA (PW)
By a vote of 105 to 23, members of the Association of Booksellers for Children have approved a merger with the American Booksellers Association. This marks the culmination of a process set in motion nearly two years ago when the ABC board, concerned about the organization’s long-term survival given that nearly two thirds of its budget is funded by publishers, initiated possible merger discussions with ABA.

Best Literary Agents on Twitter (GalleyCat)
Looking for an agent? To help aspiring writers, literary agents, and publishing professionals connect online, we are building a new directory of best literary agents on Twitter. At the eBook Summit on December 15th, we will have a special panel discussion about finding an agent in this new digital publishing landscape. Reading these agents every day will help you prepare as well. Add your favorite agent (or yourself) to the growing list below. Our feeble list IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE–yet. We will regularly update the directory, just like our other directories of publishing professionals on Twitter. This will a BIG directory, so please be patient as we update.

Flipping through e-readers, a skeptic becomes a believer (LA Times)
The last time I was stuck somewhere without a book to read was 1988. The place was Homa Bay, a village on the Kenyan shore of Lake Victoria that I wouldn't be leaving for five days at the minimum, with lots of downtime in store. After three days I'd finished both John Le Carre novels I'd brought with me. I was only saved from spending the endless hours watching scorpions skitter across the sand by the Gideons, whose geographic reach really is remarkable. After that experience, I never left home without a Dickens in my knapsack, on the principle that you can't get stuck anywhere on Earth long enough to get all the way to the end of "Little Dorrit."But that wouldn't be an issue for me today, because now I have my Kindle.

5 Tips for Productively Editing Your Writing (HuffPo)
I've got writing on the brain these days. I've recently joined a writing group and I'm about to turn back to my own manuscript in a few days. (Drumroll, please...) So I'm thinking again about the craft of writing. Not the initial creative burst that yields a blog post, an article or a novel, but that potentially stomach-churning, roll-up-your-sleeves and stare-the-beast-in-the-face process commonly known as editing. (I think Ernest Hemingway summed up the distinction between these two phases best when he said: "Write drunk. Edit sober.")

Book Spy Sees What You Read on the Subway (GalleyCat)
Ever feel like you’re being watched on public transportation? Maybe you’ve been spotted by The Book Spy. This anonymous New York City blogger explained in a post: “Every day, I spend nearly two hours in a dank, dark box hurtling through tunnels under the ground. It is my curse, but also my blessing. In the subway I’m exposed to a culture of readers unequaled elsewhere. They flip through magazines, shuffle through print-outs, and contort their newspapers into elaborate origami folds to keep the pages from encroaching upon their neighbors. Above all they read books. Books of every shape, size, genre, and format.”

MeeGenius! Kicks off the Launch of Their Authoring Platform with a Contest

MeeGenius!, the children's book app for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and the Web, is celebrating the kick off of its authoring platform with a contest.

MeeGenius!, a bookstore and reading platform that offers enhanced picture books (including word highlighting, audio playback and auto-play), is looking for great children's book submissions and will award one grand prize winner an ebook publishing contract along with a top-of-the-line iPad (64GB + 3G). Four runners-up also win a contract along with an iPod Touch. Authors Laura Dave, Jane Green, and Allison Winn Scotch will serve as judges, along with MeeGenius founders Wandy Yeap Hoh and David Park.

Material submitted for the contest must be suitable for a 3- to 8-year-old audience and must include illustrations. The deadline is October 31st and winners will be awarded in January. After publication, author/illustrator will receive 30% of net revenues from the book's sale. MeeGenius! may also choose non-winners for publication (with the same revenue deal). Click here for complete contest rules.         
                     
"We have two main customers--Parents & Kids and Authors & Illustrators," says David Park. "With the April launch of our website, iPhone and iPad apps, we built something for Parents & Kids, now with the launch of the authoring platform we've built something for our other customer base--Authors & Illustrators. We thought what better way to celebrate the launch of the authoring platform than to have a book contest to find some new and wonderful children's books."

To find out more about MeeGenius! and their contest, check them out online:

• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Contest info 
• Author & Illustrator info
• App Store

In the News This Week

Fridays on the SCBWI blog, I share snippets of and links to some of the publishing/media-related news I've read during the last week that I found interesting, helpful, and/or fun. Click titles to get to the full articles.

Below you'll find a cool book deal by Carolrhoda Lab, top picture book agents, an essay defending grown-ups who read YA (whatev!), writers helping a financially strapped library in my home state, layoffs at Borders, Elizabeth Bluemle's updated list of star-reviewed titles (fall reading list, anyone?), speculation on THE HUNGER GAMES movie casting, an enhanced e-book from Knopf BFYR, query letter tips, and some Twitter news items worth tweeting about.

Lerner Lands Unconventional Book from Three YA Authors (PW)
YA readers will have an opportunity to learn how authors conceptualize and write fiction, from start to finish, when Lerner Publishing Group releases (in spring 2012) a collection of YA stories written by Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver and Linger), together with her colleagues Brenna Yovanoff (The Replacement, Razorbill, fall 2010) and Tessa Gratton (Blood Magic, Random House, summer 2011). The stories originally appeared on the three authors’ blog, Three Merry Sisters of Fate. The as-yet-untitled release, which will be published under the Carolrhoda Lab imprint, will also include private emails, tweets, and IMs among the three, discussing and critiquing each other’s work as they develop and revise their stories.

Top 20 Picture Book Agents in Publishers Marketplace (Suite101)
The world of children's literature is packed with promise and savvy literary agents, listed below are the top 20 dealmakers as of August 6, 2010.

Twitter Moves to Make it Easier to Tweet (WJS Digits)
Twitter borrowed a page from Facebook Thursday, announcing a plan to begin offering online publishers the chance to embed a “tweet” button on their sites. The goal is to make it easier for users of Twitter to share content–or tweet, in Twitter-speak. More than 30 large sites including CNN.com, HuffingtonPost.com, and YouTube, the video website, today will begin making the tweet button available to users, Twitter announced.

The Stars So Far 2010—Updated 8/12/10 (Shelf Talker)
It’s time for another update of the starred reviews from Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, the Horn Book, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates). Starred reviews are excellent guideposts, but they don’t tell the whole story, of course. There are amazing books out there that never receive a starred review but are popular and/or critical favorites nonetheless.

Writers Help Struggling Ohio Library (PW)
Newcomerstown Public Library in Newcomerstown, Ohio, has been struggling to remain open in its small community due to state budget cuts. The library formed a fundraising committee last fall and has been working hard to raise funds so that it may continue operating.

Borders Group lays off more employees at Ann Arbor headquarters (AnnArbor.com)
Borders Group Inc., which is battling a continuous revenue slide and massive industry changes, laid off more employees at its Ann Arbor headquarters this morning, a spokeswoman confirmed. The job cuts come as the book store chain is placing a heavy emphasis on its new electronic books strategy in the midst of major structural challenges to its core business model.

The Kids’ Books Are All Right (NY Times)
While au fait literary types around town await the buzzed-about new novels from Jonathan Franzen and Nicole Krauss, other former English majors have spent the summer trying to get hold of “Mockingjay,” the third book in Suzanne Collins’s dystopian trilogy, so intensely under wraps that not even reviewers have been allowed a glimpse before its airtight Aug. 24 release. What fate will befall our heroine, Katniss Everdeen? My fellow book club members and I are desperate to know. When will the Capitol fall? And how can Collins possibly top the first two installments, “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire”? Oh, did I mention? “Mockingjay” is for teenagers. I am well into my 30s.

FishbowlNY Talks To Marie Claire About Its Interactive September Issue (FishbowlNY)
It seems that many publications are touting the interactive features made possible with iPad or smartphone applications, but Marie Claire has found a way to make browsing through a print magazine a more interactive experience for its readers. We spoke with the magazine's publisher, Nancy Berger Cardone, about how Marie Claire's September issue, with a little help from image recognition technology expert Pongr, is helping readers shop instantly for items found among its pages.

3 Key Elements of a Great Query Letter (HuffPo)
Yes, the concept of writing a query letter can be an intimidating process. The fact that it should only be one page in length makes the need for potency even more relevant. It is the proposal for your proposal and it's just as important. You have to be able to convince agents why you and why your book.

RH Children's Does First Enhanced E-book (PW)
Knopf Books for Young Readers is publishing its first enhanced e-book, a tie-in edition of Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. The publication marks the first foray any Random House imprint has made in publishing an enhanced e-book for the children's market. The e-book went on sale August 10 for $14.99, leading up to the August 27 release of the film, which is directed by Rob Reiner.

iStoryTime Launches Story App For Deaf Children (eBook Newser)
Digital publisher iStoryTime, a publisher of children's storybooks for the iPhone and iPad, has launched a new app for deaf children. Their first app designed for the hearing impaired, the app is a hear impaired version of Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy includes a sign-language interpretation.

Casting Future Movie Franchises: Who Will Star in The Hunger Games? (New York Magazine)
The next win-a-franchise battle—this one called the “Who gets to be Katniss Everdeen?” contest—is scheduled to begin on August 24, with the release of Mockingjay, the third installment in Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, a series of adult-loved YA books that will be adapted into movies, and that you will only be hearing more about.

Women in Publishing Twitter Directory (GalleyCat)
Today Dear Author co-founder Jane Litte created a big stir in the publishing Twitter-sphere, celebrating her favorite Women in Publishing. Her post generated a massive response from readers around the globe, all archived at the hashtag, #womeninpublishing.

Got an iPad, Still Not Sold on eBooks

When I got home from going out to lunch yesterday (I'm a very popular lunch date these days), there was a you-missed-a-delivery FedEx tag stuck to my door. It was the iPad I've been waiting almost two weeks to get! I picked up the boy and we headed to the FedEx HQ to retrieve it.

The iPad really is kind of (as it's advertised) magic. It's simply gorgeous. My photos never looked so amazing. The email interface is fabulous. It's fast and easy to use and really great to type on. It feels good in my hands and fits nicely in my bag. (One big issue for me: Blogger doesn't work on the iPad or iPhone and there's no decent app to help. Someone create a Blogger app pronto! I'll be first in line; I'll pay whatever it costs.)

One of the first things I did after syncing my new device was load in iBooks and spend some time in the store. It's attractive, easy to browse, and has a ton of titles. And yet I can't quite bring myself to buy an ebook.

My lunch yesterday was at the cafe at my local independent bookseller. After the delish vegetarian chili, I did a little browsing. I discussed with my friend how much I love the smell of bookstores. I bought three new books. I need more books about as much as I need more shoes and have pretty much no storage space left for either, so ebooks should be the way to go for me especially with this great device that holds a bajillion titles. It just seems weird to me to pay ten or fifteen bucks or more and not have a physical book in my hands. I pay for apps all the time. I buy songs in iTunes constantly. So what's the big deal, self? Huh?

Books are different. It's the sensual part of reading that I'm worried I'll miss--the feel of the pages, the aforementioned aroma of paper and ink. The act of turning each page and inserting a bookmark. The way I hug a terrific novel to my chest and sigh when I finish it. The ability to foist a favorite book on a friend saying: You MUST read this.

iBooks came with a copy of WINNIE THE POOH. It looks really book-y. You can turn the pages with a swipe. I'll give it a try. I'll see what I can find in the way of books for young readers. I will take the plunge and let you know if I become a convert. Stay tuned...

In the meantime, what do you think? Do you read and love ebooks? Am I being silly? Or will they take away your printed books when they pry them from your cold, dead fingers? Leave a comment!