E-xcited? by Jess Lourey

I never owned a security blanket as a child, but a book serves the same purpose for me as an adult. I love the feel, smell, and potential of a book in my hands. Would holding an ebook give me that same sense of comfort and safety? Maybe. It’s possible I’ll never know, though, because I am an o-reader: old-fashioned.

I no longer use paper to pay my bills, do most of my clothes shopping over a computer, and as a college professor, I teach 80% of my classes online. However, I prefer my eating, sleeping, and my reading to be tangible.

But as an author, I’m not blind to the future. On May 19, Amazon.com announced that their ebooks are now outselling print. According to this article, ebooks may not be ecologically sound, but they are convenient and appeal to the tool-loving monkey in most of us. And soon, photos with and personal messages from your favorite author will become part and parcel with your e-version of their book—consider it Author Signature 2.0. This writer even sees a future for professional editors to make the jump to ebook publishing with little or no start-up costs.

Anyone who tells you what the future of books looks like is guessing and hoping, but we know it’s changing. That is why I’m grateful to have a publisher who continues to position themselves in the future. I recently found out that June Bug is going to be a free Nook download and free Kindle download for the month of June! To those of you who have taken the technological leap to ebooks, cheers. If you have not yet checked out the series, now is a safe time to start. Please spread the word, and have a happy June.