Epublishing

I purchased my first ebook recently from www.ravenousromance.com because one of my short stories was included in the anthology, Power Plays. Previously I had purchased audio books online, but hadn't ever known if I wanted to part with my hard earned buck to purchase something that wasn't physical.

In the past, I always thought I would miss the feeling of turning pages and holding a book up.

The PDF format of the ebook I bought is refreshing for a lot of reasons. I spend a ton of time in front of my laptop on the Internet, and in Microsoft Word. The little, black arrows on the bottom of the PDF make it much, much easier to keep track of pages without having to arrow key or scroll up and down. Every time I wanted to read a particular story again, I could just type in the page number on the bottom.

Also, I'm currently reading the trade paperback American version of Ken Follett's World Without End. So far, it's a good book, but it's heavy to hold up to my face for any length of time. So, I'm either bent over it as I read, or giving my arms a workout as I hold it. World Without End was a gift from my brother for Christmas, so I'm not complaining.

But, if I had to purchase another book in the 1000 work range, I would consider an ebook for this reason.

The other aspect of this last ebook I read that really got me excited was the ease with which I could take notes. What I purchased was fiction, so every time I came across a metaphor or neat descriptive passage, I opened my Excel file and began compiling and categorizing what other writers had written. I was easily able to write, "ABC writer wrote XYZ in DEF story on page LMNOP," in my various columns and rows within excel. Had I been reading a print book, I would have grabbed a sticky note, and then the information would have been eaten by purse, lost forever to the world.

The moral of my story is that I'm a child of the technology age. I'm sure I'll never stop buying paper books, they're convenient in places like the doctor's office or the mechanic's waiting room. But, I will buy more ebooks in the future.