Will Tablet Wars Help Sell Books?

If you have more bookstores there is a likelihood that more books will be sold. Well, basic logic dictates that as the bookstore moves online, having more ebook sellers may increase sales. Right?

Apple owns the tablet market that it single-handedly created. The iPad is a dream to many. Google is releasing a new tablet shortly and Microsoft is entering the market in the late fall. As these tablets offer the ability to buy and read ebooks – and not just depend on the Nook or Kindle, consumers will have more options.

On the other hand, the popularity of the tablets poses a danger to book publishers. As more eyeballs migrate to these devices, studies show users are doing many things online. According to the Online Publishers Association, tablet users, ages 8-64, will watch videos (54% do), check the weather (49%), get news (37%), get entertainment content (36%) and read newspaper content (32%).

31% of the Internet-using US population owns a tablet. Those 74 million users are up from 28 million a year ago. It is estimated 117 million will have a tablet by 2013.

Time will tell if the device will prove to give book publishing a boost or just more competition for mindshare. But it is a safe bet that authors and publishers should strategize on how to capitalize on this enormous and growing marketplace.

Interview With Fiction Author Rebecca Savage

1.      What is your new book about? My latest WIP is called Guard My Life, and it is the third of a series of six. I call it the Guard My Series: guard My Baby, Guard My Body, now Guard My Life. It is a story about a human trafficking ring. The heroine has been kidnapped and is being sold. The hero is an FBI agent working in connection with the local police force in St. Louis, MO. They knew each in the past because they were secondary character from one of previous book: Destination Ever After in which the hero, Blade, was a mercenary, and Rae, the heroine, was there in the jungle of Colombia, South America to find her wayward brother Mark and get him to end his endeavors as a drug dealer. Now they have to stop a human trafficking ring, and Rae is to be the bait for undercover agent Blade.

2.      What inspired you to write it? I write Contemporary Romantic Suspense, and I am a Social Studies Teacher, and I was in the Air Force as Morse Code Operator for 10 years, so I write things that grab my attention and problems that exist in the world today. Human trafficking happens, even here in the US. I want to make people aware of it, and maybe prevent it from happening to just one person. Knowledge is important.

3.      What was the writing process like for this book? My writing process is about the same each time. I am a 'fly by the seat of my pants sort of gal.' I start out with a general concept, a bit of a plot, and go from there. I write as much of the book as possible, and get to know the characters. When they become real to me, that's when I can get them to act properly, according to who they are. Then I go back and rewrite and fill in scenery if it isn't visual enough as far as setting goes and action goes from the first time around, and I check for any inconsistencies. Then I beg for critique partners to do read-throughs and help me fix my mess. LOL

4.      What are the rewards/challenges of writing in your genre? The rewards: It's just fun! It's entertaining! It's escapism, as much as if not more than reading for the readers. Writers get even more involved in a story. They have to. So it's escapism at its finest. The challenges: To make sure the story is never boring and the characters do the right things and re believable. And then to get someone else to read it!

5.      What advice do you have for struggling writers? Just keep going. Never let anything hold you down, Rise above it. It's the advice I give myself. Even if you never sell to a big publishing house, the journey should be your main reward. Especially since you truly may never become successful financially from writing. Success should be about more than that.

6.      Where do you see book publishing heading? I’d like to think, like most authors, that I’ll make it big someday and sell to a big publishing house and write for a living, but then again, most days, I like my day job as a high school teach, so…hard to say if I’d ever quit that, unless I had to to keep up with writing full time and could make it financially doing so. For now, I’m with e-book publishers, and I’ve conversed with several agents who like my writing but haven’t yet signed me, but I’m hopeful that someday one of them will, and then they’ll sell me to the highest bidder. lol

For more information, please consult: rebeccasavage.com

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person.