Welcome back to Austen Promises and the Writer’s Journal!
I found this post in draft form when I was reviewing previous topics, and since you have not seen it, I saved myself some work! 😀 This was written in December of last year, but its point is still valid. I have since begun adding large print books to my list. Oh, and I have been publishing for four years now, not three. 🙂
As I sit here this evening (Sunday, three days before this goes live on the blog) and consider a topic for this week’s journal, a dozen of them fly through my head. None of them are, of course, the one I had selected this morning, because I have completely and totally forgotten what it was. I seem to have misfiled it in my highly organized brain. 😉 Anyway, what I settled on was print books. 
Not every author “does” print books. Some publish solely in e-books. I didn’t know that when I started three years ago, but I don’t think it would have changed my mind about putting my books in print. At that time, I was still a die-hard fan of print books. I owned a Nook and, I think, a Kindle by then, but only because e-books were cheaper and I had a serious addiction to JAFF that needed to be fed. 😀 I still prefer print books, to be honest, but my eyes can’t always read the tiny print. My e-readers allow me to adjust the size of the font up, so I, sadly, must stick with those. However, one of my new writing rewards is a print book for every 50,000 words I write, so even if I can’t read them, I’ll be buying them. <3
Other than my own love for print books, there are reasons behind my decision to publish in print. One is that I can’t imagine not doing so. To me, a book is not a book if it’s not in print; it’s just a file if it’s not in print. Not sure that makes sense to anyone but me, but there you have it, Zoe Burton wisdom at its best. 😉
A second reason is that there are readers out there who will not read e-books. I always have sales of my print books, and though they are only a fraction of Kindle book sales, they are steady. On Amazon, I always have the matchbook feature set to free, which means that if a purchaser buys one of my books in print, he or she will get the e-book free. I like to make it that way, because print books are so expensive anymore, that I like to give readers an extra “gift” of sorts as a way to express my thanks for buying my books.
A Bookstore in Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America. Editorial use only!
A third reason to publish in print is that it’s never wise, in my opinion, to put all of one’s eggs in one basket. The most successful companies in the world diversify. They offer more than one product. If I wish to be successful, I must also diversify.
Finally, print copies make great gifts and giveaways. I usually give a few of my books to my RWA chapter for their raffle baskets in September. I give signed copies as prizes at Austen Authors. I’ve been known to send books to charities to auction off, and to leave them at doctor’s offices and my hairdresser’s. Hmmmm … I owe her a few. Haven’t been there in a while; best get on that one! 😉
While print books are perhaps not as popular with a certain group of readers as they used to be, in my opinion, they’re still important. I’ll continue publishing in print for a long time.
Come back next Wednesday for another peek into my journal! <3
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