I try and post about this initiative every year. Last year I wrote about how important eBooks were to me in the early days of my career (they still are today). When we’re talking about eBooks, the conversation often focuses on how convenient they are, usually culminating in a debate between those who’ll read in any format, and those who insist on print. There’s no right or wrong answer, and I still do everything I can to give my readers the choice of how you want to read (or listen) to my books.
But there’s another facet of eBooks that often goes unspoken, and that’s how accessible they are to authors. There must be thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of novels that have been released electronically over the last couple of decades which would otherwise have remained unread. It makes you wonder how many magnificent pieces of work have been lost over the years because they didn’t appeal to the right publisher, editor, or agent at the right time.
So that’s as good a reason as any to keep supporting READ AN EBOOK WEEK. For a couple of quid you could take a chance and download something from a new author. If you enjoy it, let them know. I can’t tell you how much that means to an author starting out. If folks hadn’t taken a chance on the free download of AUTUMN back in the day, and if those folks hadn’t got in touch with their feedback, then things could have turned out very different for me.
If you’re in need of inspiration, indie firm SMASHWORDS is a staunch supporter of READ AN EBOOK WEEK. They’ve got a huge sale on this week. All my Infected Books titles are heavily discounted (including AUTUMN: DAWN and AUTUMN: INFERNO), but why not spend some time browsing and take a chance on some new authors?