Tag Archives: book marketing

A Reader’s Take on Free Ebooks

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English: A Picture of a eBook Español: Foto de...

A Picture of a eBook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been running into these articles of late – two so far – about authors disliking this trend of free ebooks. Their concerns seem justified to my amateur ears. Other authors agree with them of course and chime in. How about a reader’s opinion on the dearth of free ebooks out there? How do we feel about it? I’ll start. First, I think free ebooks as a promotional tool to introduce readers to new writers is a great idea. Second, I don’t think every book should be priced free – new writer or not. If it’s good the book will sell but finding those readers is the problem and goes beyond the scope of my short article. Last, I’m not always drawn to free ebooks and don’t feel the need to download them every time they are offered to me by new writers especially. However, I know some readers who do want free ebooks. If it’s free they are downloading it. Whether they read it or not is another thing entirely though. With the economy the way that it is, books are a “want” not a “need.”
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Hollywood Version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Fails to Make a Mark

I’m sure you’ve already heard. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo didn’t do so well at the box office:

It is part of one of the biggest-selling literary franchises of the past decade. But Hollywood is struggling to tap into the success of Stieg Larsson’s acclaimed thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

And I wonder why that is? How many of you all skipped it? The poor box office receipts were somewhat of a surprise to me. Everyone around me that saw the film raved about it. Granted the movie promised to be dark in content (sexual abuse, etc). There’s the European version that many people have already seen and liked. Maybe people having already read the book didn’t think they’d care to see the film because of the violence. Who knows. The fact is people stayed home or watched something else. Speculation is that the filming of the sequels seems doubtful. Am I torn up over that? Not really, no.

Source: The Daily Mail (UK 2012)

The Commercialization of Scandinavian Writers

Washington Post: “The Leopard” is a bloated, near-total disaster. ”

The Washington Post review of The Leopard written by Jo Nesbø, is the eighth book in the Harry Hole series, written by Patrick Anderson (a review I don’t agree with) highlights a problem I see coming with the commercialization of Scandinavian writers for U.S. audiences. Just to quickly pick on the review: I read the review and thought it quite harsh and incorrect. For starters, his dismissive tone or remarks about the “pointless memories of people’s childhoods” ignores a key aspect to the pathos that is Harry Hole. A man who is beset with demons and who uses alcohol to chase them away. His past is a significant part of his character development and that to me is not “pointless.”

Moving on. Admittedly, I have enjoyed other books in the Harry Hole series more but The Leopard was not a near total disaster but then that is my opinion of course. Was it the best in the series? Probably not. Patrick Anderson is welcome to his opinion and I don’t dispute many of his claims of how far afield Jo Nesbo’s plots have strayed from the rest of his other titles. Reading the criticism in the review does bring to mind a fear that I have in that Scandinavian writers will probably lose much of what made them different and respected in the first place if they are to succeed in a U.S. market. I say that with scant evidence to back it up and am only going by what I perceive and I am no industry insider. I am just a reader with an opinion. Continue reading →