I said in my previous post here that I don’t actually buy e-books myself. But more and more people do, and as a result more books are being made available as e-books, and people are having all sorts of creative ideas about what e-books can do, and how they can do it.

Take Book View Café, for example, of which Chaz Brenchley has recently become a member. Book View Café is a consortium of authors in all genres who have come together to promote their work – and in particular to bring lost or neglected works to a new audience – using internet technology to offer both free and paid-for content.

As I said, I’m more comfortable reading print on paper. But if a book isn’t available, if it’s gone out of print and the available copies command silly prices, what then? Better an e-book than no book at all. And if there’s enough demand for an e-book, perhaps publishers will take note, and produce a paper edition. So I shall be watching the progress of Book View Café with interest.

While I was updating Chaz’z site with this information, I followed a link to this article by Sarah Zettel in the Examiner: she asks, "How do you get your e-book signed by its author?" – and she answers the question, too, though you’ll have to read the article to find out how.

Which set me thinking. I’m currently working on a facelift for My Home Library, an organisation set up to encourage children to read by offering free bookplates with which they can personalise their books. It has a wonderful selection of original bookplates created by many of the best of today’s illustrators, all ready to be printed off and pasted into books. But what if your home library consists of e-books on a reader? Can those be personalised by adding a bookplate? After all, the plates are just electronic files until you download them. I’m sure it must be possible…