Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Welcome Becky Black



Ebooks are the wave of the future. Even those publishers who don't want to believe it's true know it. I do most of my reading on my Kindle or tablet now. When people are reading ebooks they are reacting to them as people have always done to books. They react to the text. The text is the book, not the container the text is in.

And yet there is still something magical about having a print release...

Everyone old enough to be reading my books now grew up with books as things made of paper and card. Some with pictures in them as well as the text. Sometimes stunning colour plates. Books weighed down your schoolbag. Their pages got wrinkly from reading in the bath. Old books got worn out, pages yellow and foxed, starting to fall apart. But we held them in as much affection and considered them as precious as family photographs. A book signed by the author is especially exciting for some people and you can't really do that with an ebook.

Paper books have such strong emotional resonance for some people that it's hard to let them go entirely in favour of ebooks. It's like the switch from vinyl to CD. Some people resisted that for a long time. And though the ebook is on the rise, but it will be a long time before it replaces the kind of book that counts as a work of art in itself. Or cookbooks, with their glossy photos of fantasy food. Or children's books that babies appreciate for their chewiness as well as their content.

So as great as ebooks are, and as much as I'm delighted to be published by a "digital first" publisher, I can't deny that parcel of author copies gives me a thrill like no other.



I have three books in print now. For your chance to win a copy of the latest, Higher Ground, comment below by Sunday 14th April at 09:00 UK time. Make sure you leave an email address so I can contact you if you win.

Higher Ground Blurb



Zach is impatient and likes to hurry. Adam likes to take it slow and to tease. But, they’d have worked it all out – if only the end of the world hadn’t gotten in the way.

Zach Benesh is sure his prediction is right – the island colony of Zahara is about to sink into the ocean. Adam Gray isn’t as certain, but he’s happy to follow the intense, brilliant geophysicist into the mountains to escape the flooding. Though he’d be even happier without three hundred other people – and their pets – tagging along. He’d like to have Zach all to himself out there.

But Zach’s prediction is right and as disaster begins to unfold towards an unstoppable, inevitable conclusion, the two young scientists must become a team in the fight to save their people. They draw strength from their rapidly developing relationship, but the higher Zach and Adam climb, the more difficult the tests they face – as lovers and as men.


More information and more buy links (including print) at Higher Ground’s book page on my site.
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8 comments:

  1. I read most of my stories on an ereader too. It actually feels strange to have a physical book to read on! But yeah, it's totally cool to hold your own book in your hands!

    Congrats on you new release!!

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    1. Thanks. I'm reading a paper book at the moment. It's like exhausting all that page turning. :D

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  2. Congrats on the print books. There's something magical about seeing your own book in print.

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    1. I keep getting them off the shelf just to fondle them. :D

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  3. As much as I like reading digital stuff, I can't imagine how empty my living room would be without paper books.

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  4. I read only from paper back or hard back. The reason is I don't have a ereader. It would be different. I'm so use to real paper books.

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  5. The contest is closed now - thanks for entering!

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