Why would my friend believe ebook self-publishing was a viable choice? First, let’s look at how ebooks changed things for heavy consumers of fiction.
I’ve been a huge fiction reader for my whole life. If you’re reading this blog, you probably are too. As a kid I spent lots of time in libraries reading fantasy, hard and soft sci-fi, occasional horror like Lovecraft and the very earliest Stephen King, whatever else caught my fancy. My tastes have remained pretty consistent over three decades and more, with one exception: my favorite genre these days, urban fantasy, has only achieved wide audiences in the last few years.
So, I’ve read 200-300 books a year, every year, for as long as I can remember. During my paperback years, I would leave a trail of dog-eared, broken-spined corpses behind me on buses, in airports, doctor’s offices, wherever I finished reading them.
When ebooks came out on devices like the PalmPilot long ago, I had the devices and high hopes, but readability and battery life and book availability never really came together on those things, so I stuck with paperbacks.
Then true e-readers like the Kindle came out, with the e-ink screens that soothed sore eyes and stretched battery life from hours to weeks. Large numbers of heavy readers started seriously considering switching over.
Making the switch has been easier for some than for others…
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