This morning I read in The New York Times that “In the E-reader era, a book a year is slacking.” 

Julie Bosman writes (5/12/12): “For years, it was a schedule as predictable as a calendar: novelists who specialized in mysteries, thrillers and romance would write one book a year, output that was considered not only sufficient, but productive.” 

But now, she informs us, authors are having to pull the literary equivalent of a “double shift”—just to keep up with the fast pace and heavy demand that reasonably priced books have led consumers to expect—all available at a click of a mouse. 

What about taking our time to allow a book to take shape naturally, doing our homework (that is, research), and honing our craft so that we can offer readers our best work? 

All of that, apparently, is having to be newly fit into the reality of 21^st-century publishing expectations, at least for top writers who want to keep themselves “out there” and not be forgotten in the time it takes to create their next saleable work. 

“It used to be that once a year was a big deal,” Bosman quotes Lisa Scottoline, best-selling author of thrillers. “You could saturate the market. But today the culture is a great big hungry maw, and you have to feed it.” 

What does this mean for those of us who are not serial producers of blockbuster titles, but for whom a lovingly produced book of a smaller scale still engenders excitement and satisfaction? 

Well, we may be catching some of the fever as well, working a little harder, setting our deadlines a little closer, thinking ahead to our next book before the ink is dry on the one we’ve just finished. 

The message seems clear: Just keep writing! After all, it will always be those with passion and industriousness who will win the day. And these new, faster times will naturally separate the not-so-serious would-be writers from those who will rise to the challenge, even if it means burning some extra late-night oil. 

If a book a year is not enough, what IS enough? Some writers are working on short stories to bridge the gap between novels, often involving the same characters and shorter plots. Others are looking to their files of unpublished manuscripts and resurrecting them to publish in E-book form. Some writers, however, will just write at their own pace regardless, and trust their inner promptings as to timing and release. When publishers are involved, much of the scheduling of publication is out of our hands, anyway. 

My sequel to Becoming Flame: Uncommon Mother-Daughter Wisdom (2010) has taken two years to emerge, but the continuity I’ve achieved and having the two books to offer as a series has been worth it. Spinning Straw, Weaving Gold: A Tapestry of Mother-Daughter Wisdom has just been released: 

And yes, the new book I’m working on for 2013 is nearly ready to go to production. At least I’ve learned that much! 

Isabel Anders is the author or co-author of 25 inspirational titles.

As e-books become more and more popular, the question of whether or not they are a fad seems to have been swept aside. It is clear that e-books are here to stay, and now the question becomes whether paper books will survive. Authors and publishers need to make hard decisions about how they will publish their books. Here are some thoughts on whether it is still worthwhile to print books.

I find it hard to believe I am writing an article about the pros and cons of printing paper books. For over a decade we have been hearing about e-books and debating whether they would ever take off and win an audience. Even a couple of years ago, the jury was still out, but with the advent of the new Kindle and Nook and other e-readers, I can firmly say that I believe e-books are going to remain a major part of the publishing industry for years to come, if not forever.

In the last year, a new trend has started where I’ve actually seen authors produce only e-books. Granted, most of these authors are self-published and publishing their first book. They may not have the money to print paper books, or they simply do not want to risk the costs of printing on paper when producing an e-book is so less expensive. It’s hard to believe that a few decades ago a person would have spent tens of thousands of dollars to self-publish a book. By the beginning of this century, print-on-demand had reduced that cost to just a couple of thousand, or even just in the high hundreds. Now, producing an e-book might cost you only a couple of hundred dollars, or you could even do it yourself and just have the cost of your time to produce it. You can then sell it without ever having to do anything more—no printers, no printing costs, no delivery or mailing costs.

But are e-books really books? I’ve heard various publishing experts talk about how we are now in the information age, and we are no longer selling books but selling information. That’s a good point to make because e-books do not resemble books. Granted, e-readers like Kindle and Nook try to give the perception still that we are holding some sort of book, but it’s a different feeling to hold a plastic electronic device compared to paper that is pleasant and yielding to our touch. I still like the feel of a book better, and I think e-readers still have some bugs to be worked out, but I have to admit that the low price, the convenience of storing multiple books on an e-reader, and the speed of delivery are all preferable over printing paper books.

So is it no longer worthwhile to publish paper books? I know at least one author who has gleefully told me, “No more paper books for me.” But all I can say to that is, “Hold on. The paper book hasn’t died yet.” Maybe in ten years it will be dead, maybe sooner, but it isn’t dead right now. I think authors should continue to print paper books in reasonable quantities. I would recommend smaller print-runs—perhaps only 1,000, or 500, or even 100 books—just what you think you might be able to sell in a year or two and not beyond that, and then reassess whether you want to continue printing on paper. You need to be very realistic and savvy about how many paper books you can sell so you don’t end up with a basement full of paper while your e-book sales continue to climb, but a need for paper books still exists.

Here are some reasons why paper books are still a good idea. First, they are relevant to an author’s marketing strategy. If you plan to connect with readers only online, perhaps you don’t need this advice, but to produce only e-books is to alienate a good percentage of your audience.

Face-to-Face Interaction: Many readers like to connect with the author whose books they read. If that were not true, we wouldn’t have book signings and poetry readings and all manner of author events. Yes, perhaps a reader can connect with the author by sending him a Facebook message, and in some senses, the Internet has made author-fan connections much easier. But meeting someone online can never compare to meeting someone in person.

When you advertise a book release, it’s one thing to say “Go to Amazon to buy the Kindle edition.” It’s another thing to say, “Joanie will be signing books at Beauchamp’s Bookstore on March 8^th from 3-5 p.m. Granted, we all know that book signings do not draw crowds. You’re often lucky if three or four people show up. But then there are always people who happen to be in the bookstore who stumble upon you. You might think you can still make a personal appearance, but if you don’t have a book to sell, people may be less inclined to come to meet you.

Autographed Books: Along the lines of book signings, people like autographed, personalized books. Readers like to meet authors because they think authors are celebrities. Even people who are not readers are often overcome by an author’s perceived “celebrity” status and will then buy a book. I can’t tell you how many times I have had people say to me, “Wow, you’re an author” or “I never met an author before” and they say it with awe in their voices. These people do not want solely a reading experience. They want an in-person experience. They want to feel something exciting has happened to them by shaking hands with a famous author, and they want a memento of that experience by carrying away an autographed book.

Aesthetics: Granted, your book’s first edition may never become a collector’s item, and yes, we all feel we own too much stuff so it’s nice to have e-books that take up no space. But many of us love books for themselves. We collect first editions. We buy books we have already read just because we want the feeling that we own that book. We love the artwork of the covers and we want those books sitting on our coffee tables and bookshelves simply because the sight of them gives us pleasure. There is something so very aesthetically pleasing about the look and feel of a book, and book lovers know what a pleasure it is to see rooms filled with bookshelves, and all those enticing book spines in multiple colors with dramatic titles staring at them, holding secrets to be discovered and hours of reading pleasure.

Browsing for books in an online store just isn’t the same as going to the bookstore. Yes, it’s faster and easier to shop online, but if you really, truly, want to browse, you go to a bookstore. Going to a bookstore is like going to a movie, or going out for coffee. It’s a pleasant past-time. You can’t get that feel from an e-book, and you certainly can’t collect that feeling from an online bookstore. Maybe we’ll get that feeling when someone invents the virtual reality bookstore that we visit wearing special eyeglasses so we feel we really are in a bookstore—hey, I should invent that—but until that time comes, the physical bookstore will retain its charm.

Gifts: Can you see the excitement on Christmas morning when you all gather around the Christmas tree with your iPads and then check your email to find little messages saying you’ve been gifted electronic books? Boy, that just takes the festivity right out of gift-giving. Would you really give an e-book as a gift to a loved one? Perhaps if you live on opposite sides of the country from one another, but if you’re going to see that person on Christmas morning, isn’t a paper book wrapped in colorful paper a better token of affection and Christmas spirit?

E-Book or Paper? The Final Decision: To sum up my argument, we will have a need for paper books for years to come—at least until those of us who grew up loving paper books have departed this world. You certainly want to consider the longevity of your book. You want it available to future generations who may be raised on e-readers and never know what it is to read a paper book. A paper book can “go out of print.” So far, I haven’t seen evidence that an e-book can—although doubtless we’ll have to get newer e-readers.

So keep in mind that people still want to feel that human connection to the author—a paper book provides that connection in ways an e-book cannot. A paper book is more than the words on the pages. It becomes a gift, a token of affection, a symbol of meeting the author, a family heirloom. Somehow, I don’t foresee Grandma leaving her e-book collection to her grandchildren, but what about that family Bible, that first edition collection of the Anne of Green Gables series she enjoyed as a child, or that tattered and worn because much loved copy of Mother Goose that she used to read to you? Those are books you keep and treasure for a lifetime.

You can dismiss my argument for paper books as all sentiment if you like, but as an author who wants to sell books, don’t forget that humans are sentimental. Give them what they want. They may want the convenience of e-books, but they also want the sense of a human connection that a paper book offers.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find  reviews  of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity  and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

I don’t know what it’s like today, but when I was a child, every small town had a bogeyman. The kind of mythical creature parents employed to keep their kids in line. In our little village of six hundred souls, it was Old Man Cook.

For years, I slept with the covers over my head with only a small hole channeled for breathing. Every noise or rustle told me that Old Man Cook was in the hallway, or the closet, or on the roof. His sole intent in life was to come to my bedroom and kill me. Sometimes I slept with weapons—a knife or rolling pin—once a shotgun.

Even teenagers believed in him—at least some of them. My two younger sisters were terrified, and, once she got into bed, the smaller of them refused to put her feet on the floor until morning. Our regular baby sitter, who was perhaps two years older than I, refused to look out the living room windows after dark for fear of invoking him.

One night my parents were out, and my sisters and I sat in the living room with our caretaker watching our favorite show, Your Hit Parade. Snooky Lanson, et al. We’d memorized every song and had great discussions over what would be number one in a given week.

I glanced outside and saw a shadow. Almost paralyzed with fear, I informed the others that Old Man Cook lurked somewhere in the front yard. Instant pandemonium. The sitter instructed us to bring the chairs and tables into a circle in the middle of the room, much like a wagon train under attack. I ran to the closet and got my dad’s shotgun, loaded it with number nine buckshot, and planted myself in the middle of the redoubt, my body in front of the women and children (I read a great deal and knew the ropes).

We stayed put for two hours. My little sister peed her pants rather than risk a trip to the bathroom. The babysitter held her knees and moaned most of the time, in mortal fear for her life. My mom and dad finally arrived home. It’s fortunate that I heard their car in the driveway, otherwise, they might have been picking buckshot out of their skins. To say they were angry is an understatement. My dad gave me the lilac bush stick on the calves and locked up his gun.

I still didn’t believe I’d been wrong about sighting Old Man Cook, so the next day, I enlisted my two best friends, and we went to the barn where he was reputed to have hung himself.

The barn, an old graying two-story structure with missing boards, sat on a hill not far from my home. The approach was a rutted wagon track that ended at what had once been a large sliding door that now hung by a thread and gaped open like the jaws of hell.

Local myth had it that Old Man Cook had strung himself up on one of the six-by-six beams that ran lengthwise across the barn and supported haylofts on either side. We crept inside and were instantly struck dumb and immobilized by the sight of a noose tied at the end of a ten-foot rope dangling from the center beam. We tripped over each other escaping, all of us shouting and waving our arms. THE STORY WAS TRUE.

At dinner that night, my father kept interrupting his meal laughing at something he didn’t share with the rest of us. At one point, he had to wipe away tears. It wasn’t until I was much older I figured out the joke. In the meantime, Old Man Cook continued to terrify and entertain—not a bad combination for a harmless local myth.

Larry Seeley is a mystery/thriller writer who lives in the mountains north of Santa Fe, NM with his wife, Katie, and their two dozen animals. His two novels include the award winning Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves, published in April 2010, and 17 Degrees North, published in February 2012. His third book, Bridge of the Americas is due out autumn 2012.

For more information, visit www.larryseeley.com.

Whenever a book is published, the author has to decide whether to print a hard cover, a paperback, or both, and in recent years, a hybrid version—the French flaps cover—has appeared. Deciding which cover to use depends on an author’s budget, the type of book, and the book’s audience.

In the past, the decision about a book cover followed a steady pattern with traditional publishers. Most big name traditional publishers would print a book in hardcover, and then some months later, the paperback version would come out. This process was followed for a couple of reasons. A new book, especially by a well-known author, was a collector’s item. The first edition of a hardcover book was something to treasure, and it was often of the highest quality and made to be aesthetically pleasing, including having a dust jacket. People who wanted a book they could treasure for the rest of their lives would buy a hardcover book. But not all readers could afford hardcover books, so a cheaper mass market paperback would eventually follow. Depending on how much value the readers perceived that the book would hold for them, they might opt to buy the hardcover or they might wait for the paperback. On occasions where the hardcover did not sell well, the paperback edition was never released.

As the world of publishing has changed in the last couple of decades, more publishers have begun to bring out only paperback versions for books perceived not to be of such great lasting value, especially in terms of genre books like romance novels and mysteries. This move saves the publisher money and also makes the books available to a target audience that might not have paid as much for a hardcover of a mystery that can be read in just a few hours.

Now that self-publishing has become so popular, and because traditional publishers are struggling to remain financially stable, more and more books are being printed solely as paperbacks because it’s the most affordable choice. However, hardcover books are still chosen for significant titles by traditional publishers, and some self-published authors also choose hardcover books, often in addition, but rarely in place of paperbacks.

In choosing a book cover format, authors should think about the way the book will be used, the practicality of the cover choice, their own printing costs, what price the market will bear, and how potential readers will view the cover. Following is a breakdown of guidelines for choosing a book cover format for self-publishers.

Hardcover
If you are publishing your first book, you probably should keep your costs low until you know your book will sell, so you are better off opting for a paperback over a hardcover book. That said, there are some exceptions to this rule. Hardcover books are often a good choice for:

·    Children’s Books—because children might be rough with their books so these covers will give the book greater endurance.
·    Cookbooks—because a hardcover book can more easily lay flat on a kitchen counter for quick reference while cooking.
·    Coffee Table Books—hardcover books are easier to hold than paperback books because coffee table books tend to be larger than the average size of 6x9 or smaller used for most paperback books.

While most nonfiction titles and novels will do best as paperback books, you might also ask yourself what perceived value your readers will find in the book. How important is your book, and how important will your readers perceive it to be? Putting your ego aside, you need to understand that your readers are probably not going to place as great a value on your romance novel as they will if you write a biography of Mark Twain. The type of cover you use will speak to the reader, telling him how important your subject is. Remember, readers do judge a book by its cover.

One final advantage to a hardcover book is the amount of “selling” text you can place on it. It is possible to print a nice looking hardcover book without a dust jacket so that the front and back material are the same as if you printed a paperback. However, most hardcover books are printed with dust jackets, which allow for more text to be printed on them. A good formula for text on a dust jacket is to fill the back of it with testimonials you’ve collected from other authors or experts in your field. Then the inside front flap can provide a description of your book that might even run over onto your inside back flap. The inside back flap can also provide space for a short biography of the author and room for a color author photo. Room for more text means more space to sell your book to the potential reader.

That said, if you’re like me, you may find the dust jacket gets annoying while you read the book. I have a tendency to remove the dust jacket while I read, but if readers do that, it doesn’t hurt anything once the book has been sold.

Finally, think about the cost to you and the customer. A paperback book is more affordable to authors and readers. However, a hardcover can be produced sometimes for as little as four dollars more, and that cost can be passed onto the customer by selling the book for five dollars more so you still make a profit on the hardcover. The question is simply: Will people be willing to pay five dollars more for the hardcover edition?

Paperback
The paperback cover is most affordable, and except for the few exceptions listed above, it is probably the best choice for any book, especially novels and self-help books and other nonfiction titles. Again, your book will be judged by its cover, so people may perceive your paperback book as of lesser value—meaning they might actually think the content is of less value too—than if it were a hardcover. However, there is no longer any sense that people are “slumming” by buying paperbacks. I don’t know the percentages for a fact, but I would guess that at least 90 percent of books are printed solely as paperbacks today, especially among self-published books.

You have a little less space on a paperback cover to write text that will sell the book, but you can generally fit on the back cover all the information that you would include on the inside flaps of a hardcover’s dust jacket. If you wish to include testimonials, you can place them inside the front cover as the opening pages. I have mixed feelings about placement of testimonials. Many readers will read them in choosing to buy the book, but others will go to the book description first—most people will buy the book because the topic interests them more than because someone famous said the book is great—but having both can only help so it’s up to you whether or not you feel your testimonials deserve back cover space. Often you can fit just one or two short testimonials on the back cover with the description and author bio to balance everything out.

French Flaps
I’m seeing more and more books published with French flaps. This format is basically a hybrid. It is really a paperback book, but the flaps are an extended part of the paperback cover that fold inward to serve as a dust jacket without being removable. French flaps provide the same space as a hardcover for book descriptions without the expense of a hardcover with a dust jacket. A book with French flaps does cost more than a paperback, but depending on how many books you print, it will probably cost you less than a dollar more per unit.

I believe a lot of authors are choosing to use French flaps because they believe this format makes their book look more professional or significant than if it were simply a paperback. Readers may be impressed with the look of French flaps and even see them as a novelty, but frankly, I find such books annoying to read—the flaps have a tendency of wanting to flip up, making the book somewhat unwieldy. This format feels pretentious to me, like such books have delusions of wanting to be hardcover books.

Making the Choice
Personally, a standard paperback is good enough for me with the few exceptions of books I’ve listed where a hardcover is preferable. While I have offered some guidelines here for choices, no two books are the same and special circumstances may exist that would make one cover a better choice than another. Every author must choose for himself which book cover will best suit his book to promote its value as well as be most desirable in format and price to potential readers.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find  reviews  of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity  and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.