Chipping away at the walls of Jericho

I've always been a snob. You know, the print-book kind of snob. I like'em in print, I want my cover. That's just the way it is. I have over six hundred (I counted) pounds of books, all sorts. I keep them in stacks, and pile them on tables. There's something about them.

If I were a feng shui sort, I'd say that the impact of so many worlds moves the room a little off kilter, like a dimensional bubble of some sort. The more you love your books, the more secure that bubble gets. My room, (I like bookshelves in my room--although people have been telling me to put them somewhere else) "feels" good. When I walk into it, my shoulders relax. (or will soon, damnit.)

..but like Alice once told me she did--I've been running searches. Random curiosity I guess, to see how Hot Contract is doing. So far I've found people referring others to old blog-posts I did last year when I was working out plot threads, a couple of hits to emotional structure--which I'm still working on, although now I'm trying to figure out how to tie everything together without taking so damned long. I found one woman--no clue who she was, on livejournal, who used my book as part of her reading challenge. I also found out that e-books sell. I knew they did, but I didn't expect the scope.

Once I figured out how to use the filters on fictionwise, I found out that some old books by Wild Rose Press--Jen's included--are STILL selling. STILL. SELLING. Long after the hoopla died down, long after a normal bookstore would have shunted the print books to "spine-outs" if not the stripped pile. These books are selling.

It made me think.

Some of the titles I recognized from last year. They had hundreds of reader feedback votes--hey! Speaking of votes, what's up with my two? One fabulous. One poor. Must mean I'm an acquired taste. You either like me, or hate me, and that's normal, lol.

But it means that someone out there--larger than a circle of friends, is buying books, from these on-line retailers, and reading like there's no tomorrow. The way my kid uses his Palm makes me think the revolution is almost here.

Maybe it's not a revolution anymore, but it's not mainstream yet, more like a gradual up-filtering. People are reading electronically. People aren't hung up on paper. I still like paper, I don't think I'll ever go completely digital, but--I can download it right then and there. It could be why so many of the bigger Houses are moving to e-books.