How the heck do you sign an ebook?
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…
March 15th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
I hadn’t thought of the bookplate variation, but I’d do it as a special “signed by the author” version of the file, and the “bookplate” would be an image that comes right after the cover image.
March 20th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
I have an amazon kindle ebook. I love it! I don’t regard it as a replacement to books: it’s more of an additional way of accessing books. I don’t even think about reading on-screen while i’m doing just that. The trick is – and it comes naturally in a short space of time – to get your mind out of the ‘machine’ and into the words. At present I’m reading (for the third time over a number of years) Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck. A wonderful philosophic study of humankind, masquerading as a travel book!
I also have a stack of books recently read and others in a queue to be read. My cup runneth over with softbacks, hardbacks and ebooks. Bring ’em all on. Please!
As for signing books, e or non-e (hey non-e no!) I’m reminded of the guy who, at a book launch, asked for a discount because the author had defaced his new purchase!!!
Best regards
Brian Lister