Tag Archives: Echelon Press

eBooks Know No Age

Posted on February 22, 2011 | 1 comment

Just a few minutes ago I received an e-mail from one of my authors. She expressed her concern at the closing of her local Borders. Unless you live under a rock, you already know about Borders financial woes.

This author’s concern was for the seniors living in her area who will no longer have a place to gather for their book club. Money doesn’t seem to be the issue in this particular community as she mentions they have a bit of disposable income. They have been meeting at the Borders, talking books, and sipping warm beverages. Now there is concern as to where they can go. Does their book club have to end?

No, I say! This is the time to learn and educate more readers about eBooks. Kindles and Nooks are very senior friendly.

Advantages:

Font sizing options. This makes it easier for readers to decide what size letters they are reading.
Prices are coming down on devices and eBooks. Some of the devices are still over $200, but there are much more reasonable options in most models. In fact I saw the new Kobo Wireless eReader at Wal-mart for $99.00.
Devices are lightweight and easy to hold and manage.
Many of the same books are in eBook allowing them to continue to buy them, they will just have to find some special little. You can find eBooks at so many places it is nearly impossible to list them all.
Freedom from clutter. Many seniors living in assisted living or who have downsized have limited storage space. eBooks allow them to still purchase books from their favorite authors without stuffing one more paperback under the dining room table.
Flexibility. There are all manner of stories out there to read in various lengths. You can find everything from short stories to epic sagas. eBooks put them at your fingertips, literally, within minutes.

I could go on about the value of eBooks, but I hope that if you have already discovered the joys and wonders of eBooks, you will go out and tell your friends, your family, and your neighbors, no matter their age. Doesn’t everyone deserve the chance to experience eBooks?

1 Comment

Posted in Blatherings, Just for Fun

Tagged books, bookstores, ebooks, Echelon Press, kindle, Kobo, Nook, readers, reading, sales, senior citizens, wal-mart

Selling Books the Old Fashioned Way

Posted on February 19, 2011 | 4 comments

: Click Cover to Buy Now!

A few minutes ago, I read a tweet from one of my authors, Gale Borger, that asked, “Where will authors sell books with so few indy stores willing to do author events and chains closing?” [Twitter: @galeinwisconsin]

This is something I have been working on for quite a few years, but now I am seeing others starting to get worried about it. We started Echelon Press ten years ago and from the beginning, we have been attending conferences, conventions, and books festivals. Why? Because, silly, that’s where the readers are.

“No, no,” you argue, “readers are at bookstores.

“No, not exactly. Consumers are at bookstores. They buy books. They also buy pens, journals, lap desks, games, music, and all kinds of other things that bookstores have included in their inventory.”

You’re shaking your head now, right? “But those are readers.”

“Not exaclty, but kinda. They are people who read. Oh sure, that is a pretty generalized statement, but I think that most of those people (not all) could do without books.”

“What do you mean?”

“My experience is that most people these days who go into bookstores are looking for something specific. A friend told them the latest Patterson is out, or there is a new diet book that is better than the Atkins Diet.” Okay, again, generalizing, but bear with me.

Lots of people read, but don’t you think that those who are real readers are much more organized and deliberate about their book habits? Readers keep track of their favorite authors, they log the books and the series they read, and they will read anything, including the shampoo bottles in the bathroom. How many diehard readers, can name more than a few ingredients off the back of the Lysol can? Seriously.

Those people are readers, and they will go where the books are and where the authors are. That is one of the reasons Echelon has always participated in as many book festivals as we can. Readers go to festivals and conventions. They crave books and they will spend their last dollar on a book and make the cat eat leftover meatloaf with everyone else.

Bookstores are great, but there is a lot of panic in society right now about where readers will be able to get books if the bookstores all go away.

First of all, the bookstores are not all going away. Some are going, others are coming. There will always be fluxuation. My suggestion to you readers, and especially to you authors who are seeing less and less opportunities to meet and interact with your readers in proper bookstores, is to check out the book festivals and reader conventions in your area. These are such awesome places to find books of all kinds and to meet new and upcoming authors. If you’re lucky you may even find a few of your best selling favorites.

If you’d like to meet some really cool authors, you might want to look into attending the South Carolina Book Festival in Columbia, SC. May 14-15, 2011. In my Opinion, this is the best book festival in the south.

Even better than that is the jewel in the Midwest festival crown. Printers Row Lit Fest. in Chicago, IL June 2-3, 2011. This festival is blocks and blocks of books and authors and so much fun it should be illegal. This festival has been a favorite of Echelon’s since we discovered it in 2002. We never miss it.

Hopefully you readers out there will stop by and visit the Echelon authors when you see us at the festivals and conventions. We LOVE meeting readers and trying to convert you into our fans. At Echelon we believe the best way to reach readers is go where they can find us!

4 Comments

Posted in Blatherings, Just for Fun

Tagged author, authors, book festivals, books, bookstores, change, Echelon Press, Printers Row Lit Fest, publishing, reader conventions, readers, reading, SC Book Fest, writers

Why I love Mysteries [Guest Blog: Nancy Lynn Jarvis]

Posted on February 17, 2011 | 8 comments

I got hooked on mysteries at a tender age. Their logic and careful structure first began fascinating me when, sworn to secrecy by my grandmother who worried my mother wouldn’t approve of such a young girl reading mysteries other than Nancy Drew, I sat in Nana’s wicker rocking chair reading books by Agatha Christie.

I became quite good at figuring out who did it before Dame Agatha had Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot tell me, and I offered myself liberal congratulations for my cleverness. It wasn’t until I started writing mysteries myself that I realized the masterful Christie probably knew on which page I could know, not just guess, the villain’s identity before she even started writing her book.

Solving a mystery is like solving a logic puzzle—Sudoku on steroids— and if that isn’t fun enough, mysteries can give a reader, or me as a writer, an excuse to delve into a world of fascinating but unsettling things like decomposition, accidental mummification, and how ligature strangulation and death by hypothermia work. For me, researching those topics is akin to being a four-year-old playing with rubber dinosaurs: the game is enjoyable and I can control what might otherwise give me nightmares.

Mysteries, at least the kind I like and write, let me fill the sleuth’s shoes for a time and, from the safety of my favorite reading spot, live in a more daring world than my own and outwit the murderer within about three-hundred pages.

Nancy Lynn Jarvis has been a Santa Cruz, California, Realtor® for more than twenty years. She owns a real estate company with her husband, Craig.

After earning a BA in behavioral science from San Jose State University, she worked in the advertising department of the San Jose Mercury News. A move to Santa Cruz meant a new job as a librarian and later a stint as the business manager of Shakespeare/Santa Cruz.

Nancy’s work history reflects her philosophy: people should try something radically different every few years. Writing is her newest adventure.

She invites you to take a peek into the real estate world through the stories that form the backdrop of her Regan McHenry mysteries. Details and ideas come from Nancy’s own experiences.

Buying Murder

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Murder gets personal when human remains are found in the beach cottage that realtors Regan McHenry and her husband, Tom Kiley, buy. The murder victim has been hidden away for sixteen years, and although the authorities quickly discover his identity, the trail to his killer is cold.

Regan has sworn off playing amateur detective, but when it becomes clear the police have to focus on more pressing crimes, she has to break her promise. As her policeman friend, Dave Everett, says, “Your house, Regan, your murder.”

Welcome back to Santa Cruz, the community whose unofficial motto is “Keep Santa Cruz Weird,” for the twists and turns of the third book in the Regan McHenry Mystery Series.