So, then. If you like actual physical books or want to give somebody one for Christmas, and especially if you want to support smaller presses and indie writers, GET THEM NOW. There’s a book shortage looming. (if you get any of my paperbacks, let me know, I’ll send you a signed bookplate to put in it – for you, or for that person you want to give the book to…)
There will probably still be new stuff to read to stuff your e-readers with. But if you, like me, prefer the feel of a page-turning old-fashioned book-shaped object to hold in your hands… seriously. Get them now.
Of all the things that the pandemic was going to take away from us, I honestly didn’t even think about the possibility of paper books being a casualty. I make mine available in various formats because different people like reading them in different formats – but I myself read ebooks very rarely. Perhaps it’s simply because reading words on a screen feels too much like “work” to me – seeing words-on-a-screen like that triggers not my reading but my editing brain, which is fatal to almost anything in hand. In order to truly lose myself in a book I need a “dead tree” copy I can hold in my hands. And I know that there are others like me out there. If you’re one of them, and you were thinking about getting a paperback copy of any of mine… please consider doing a spree before Christmas. You may be stuck with the ebooks, if you don’t. And remember those bookplates. You can get them all signed.
However you do it, in whatever format… wishing you good reading. Always.