YA LGBT Books discussion

How many people use kindle and how many can ONLY have a book?

I flit between the two.

Am considering publishing a kindle book but how many potential readers will I cut out?!!?

I read both, but for LGBTQ I read mainly on ebook (Nook and kindle) a lot, because so much of the good stuff is either hard to find or expensive in paper.

We were having this debate on FB about YA and whether a book that was only in ebook could reach a big enough audience. And how to find that audience. Libraries and schools and people buying for teens, and GSA/PFLAG spaces all tend toward paper. And ebooks are hard to buy without a credit card.

I'll be interested to see the answers you get.

I only buy hard copies of books I absolutely love. That way I’m sure to have them should kindle decide to delete them which Amazon has been known to do. I love the ease of my kindle because I can read at night without a cumbersome book light.

So, I literally have thousands of books within 10 feet of me. Books under the bed, on the wall, in built-ins in the hallway. I love books. The covers. Pretty title pages. Signs I have read and loved a page before.

But...kindle all the way. Reading glasses suck. #lifepast40

I don’t think I have a preference, really. In fact, I bought an iPad mainly so I could read on it—easier for me to download books than on a e-reader. I’ve never had an intense desire to own hundreds of books, and I’m not too attached to physical books, I think. I don’t smell them or anything, like some people (online) say they do.

Really, I just read both.

I mostly buy physical books (although I still buy ebooks occasionally), but I only publish on Kindle/Smashwords at present.
Both have advantages - physical books have a more satisfying weight and texture, but ebooks are good for some rarer books or to allow authors of more niche genres to flourish.

I'm torn...I love books for the feel, texture, smell, the sheer delight of seeing their spines on a shelf fills me with joy.

My Kindle is a great way to take a library with me wherever I go. Plus I don't have to worry as much about space being taken up by too many books.

I love both, but ebooks have an edge simply because I can pack a library's worth of books on my phone to have something to read at all times.

But on the subject of Kindle specifically, I avoid it like the plague. Personally, I will never put my work on their platform because the closed ecosystem and proprietary format means they can make people's books disappear at any time for any reason. I will always favor purchasing from the writer's/indie press' own website, Smashwords, or Google Play. I've often skipped books I would have otherwise picked up simply because it was only available on Kindle and didn't have an ePub edition.

the closed ecosystem and proprietary format means they can make people's books disappear at any time for any reason."

Hey - what does this mean specifically?

Meyer wrote: " the closed ecosystem and proprietary format means they can make people's books disappear at any time for any reason."

Hey - what does this mean specifically?"

You don't buy a book from Amazon kindle, you essentially buy the right to read it but don't own it, and they can revoke access at any time. It's why I don't get anything except free books through kindle. I resent someone taking back something I feel I've paid for in good faith. It's like someone walking into my house and stealing a book off my shelf because they don't stock it in their shop anymore. Utter crap.

Meyer wrote: "How many people use kindle and how many can ONLY have a book?

I flit between the two.

Am considering publishing a kindle book but how many potential readers will I cut out?!!?"

I read both physical and digital, mainly because it's hard to knit while holding a book!

I think that if there's a way to put up a version of an ebook that is DRM free and not locked to kindle, that's a lot more appealing to me, personally. I read using Freda+ on laptop, tablet and phone and that opens a number of different unlocked formats.

Iamshadow wrote: "Meyer wrote: " the closed ecosystem and proprietary format means they can make people's books disappear at any time for any reason."

Hey - what does this mean specifically?"

You don't buy a book ..."

Thanks for replying!! How scary! why would they do that?

Meyer wrote: "Thanks for replying!! How scary! why would they do that? "

Money.

I have a hard time reading ebooks so if I really don't have to do that I will pick the book and read that. If it only exists as an ebook it have to be a book I REALLY want to read, else I will just skip reading it.

This viewpoint is coming strictly as an independent author. For those writers that are new to the industry, and unable to convince a publisher to take on their work, (something that is growing increasingly difficult) , publishing their work in e-book format is the only viable avenue to get their work out there. The cost of printing good quality paperbacks is prohibitive at best. As a reader, I love the printed page. There's something physically enticing about holding a book in your hand, turning real pages, and knowing that it's there without the added burden of an electronic device. As a self published author, I have found that the trend is towards e-books, and have a stack of my own books in evidence to that fact. They're for sale, but I mostly give them away to friends. When e-books are on sale at a fraction of the cost of paperbacks, even with the transient nature of the things, it's too much of a temptation, and an all too easy alternative.
Brook