Real Books Hit the Comeback Trail.

I read in the press the other day that “real books” are making something of a comeback. Phew! I’m pleased about that, seeing as my profession is one of being a bookseller. I have now more than 12,000 titles in stock, yes in the house, and please don’t ask me where they all are, because they are everywhere! Well, maybe not in the loo, for obvious reasons. Users might run out of tissue and grab pages from a nearby title and that would be an unmitigated disaster. There are limits!

   And I can honestly say that I have never sold an ebook for any other writer, (yes, I do sell them written by yours truly) which is almost the complete opposite of actual books where I sell every day by any number of writers, but not so many of my own – weep weep!

   When ebooks and ereaders first appeared I stupidly went on record in saying that they would never catch on, - the machines wouldn’t work in the sunlight, they would forever be running out of juice, and would make readers cross-eyed, all predictions way off the mark that couldn’t have been more wrong and I am happy to set the record straight now.

   Today, I sell ten ebooks for every one “real book” and the odd thing is that though I sell the ebooks for a quarter of the price of an actual book, I make more on an ebook, and I guess that makes sense when you take into account there are no printing costs, no packing and no postage costs, and the buyer receives the ebook within seconds, so there is rarely a problem on delivery.

   So, it’s good to read that “real books” are making a comeback. Personally, I don’t think they ever really went away, for there is something truly special about the feel and smell of a freshly printed book, something that a sterile ereader can never reproduce, though I am now becoming very wary of dissing technology, for before you know it some boffin will invent a smell-o-vision app that can release occasional odours of new book and fresh print, God forbid. Is nothing sacred?