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Ahead on a sultry weekend: Getting your girlfriend into e-books—plus a few freebie ideas for both of you
June 7, 2008 | 11:16 am
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By David Rothman
So you love e-books and your SO doesn’t? But you’d like to convert her?
I’ll share a few ideas this weekend in the TeleBlog, and then I’ll welcome others’ advice. No infallibility at this end. Carly, my wife and eternal GF, still isn’t entirely sold on E, so maybe this can be a Learning Experience for me, too, complete with reactions from Jane and Jayne, who, come to think of it, may have tips for drawing reluctant men into e-books. Also on the way will be a few freebie ideas, including the book shown at left, in case your SO is into romances. Lit snobbery? Fergit.
Wherever you are, I hope the weather will show more mercy than here. This weekend it’s to reach almost 100 degrees, with humidity galore, in the Washington, D.C. area, giving us a triple-digit heat index. Pre-air-conditioning days, didn’t some U.K. diplomats regarded D.C. as a hardship post in terms of the climate? Time to move the U.S. capital to Telluride and read E with your SO in a skiing lodge?
Question about that book cover: Are Spanish billionaires really more wicked than the other variety? Ethnic slur? Or just good clean fun with stereotypes?
Technorati Tags: romance,girlfriends,boyfriends,Telluride,Colorado,skiing,Kate Walker,Spanish Billionaire
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Comments:
There is a part of the Harlequin empire that specializes in “Latin/Greek” billionaires. Most of this is done out of the Mills and Boon office in England (acquired by Harlequin in 1971). You’ll see more Italians than Spaniards, and lots of Greeks as well. Despite Italy being a republic pretty much since the overthrow of Mussolini you’ll see lots of Italian Counts. Greeks are pretty much all tycoons. The women are pretty much all virgin secretaries.
The Harlequin Presents/Mills and Boon line is always among the biggest money-makers and best-selling lines Harlequin offers. Yes, they do start with the stereotype of the domineering macho male (beast) being tamed by the virginal but sexy female (beauty).
There is, as they say, a certain amount of fantasy involved. Then again, there’s also a certain amount of fantasy involved in any novel, isn’t there.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
So, Rob, what about regional stereotypes within the U.S.? Is the American South our domestic Italy, as far as Harlequin goes? Being from Virginia, although no billionaire, I’m sensitive to these things.
Thanks. David
Ante-bellum-South historicals were big years ago. The rich plantation owners were our local equivalent of nobility. Authors somehow managed to ignore the ‘peculiar institution’ that underlaid the supposed culture.
Perhaps the region that inspires more romances today is the west–with ranchers. Ranchers have the whole wealth thing, plus they have rugged independence, and the myth of rural freedom from the evils of the city.
Also military heroes are big–and lots of military heroes come from the south (at least in romance). But David, bad news–you’d better stick with your wife because romance readers (or at least the NY editors) aren’t looking for baby-boom era heroes. We’re both way too old to be heroes. (Naturally there are ePublishers who address different ages as well as different regions. Maybe there are even some that have non-rich heroes although that tends to cut into the fantasy pretty seriously).
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
Ahem. In my family, I’m the only person who’s dedicated to reading and buying e-books regularly. I’d love to convert family members to the medium, but what would it take?
My husband’s eyesight would have to worsen enough that reading War and Peace on his old PDA would become untenable. He’d also need more leisure time to enjoy something other than snippet-reading public domain works in check-out lines. If he had some way to get the contents of Science News magazine on his PDA, we’d be one step closer, but otherwise it’ll be some time before he’s paying consumer.
For my son, D&D and GURPS books would have to be available in reflowable formats. Currently, he does buy PDFs, but we all know the current problem viewing PDFs on a reading unit. Purist that he is, he wants enjoy a full immersion in the reading experience — which means that the books’ design and illustrations have to be preserved.
It’ll be hardest to convert my daughter. She’s a busy college student in a competitive school and has little time for pleasure reading. Right now, she limits herself to on-line comics, humor, and blogs. As long as she had a broadband connection and full-time course load, she’s not likely to change her habits.
But everyone would also need a cheaper unit that what’s available now. It’s one thing for the biggest book nerd of the family to be the early adopter; it’s another for them to follow suit. New technology has yet to woo them away from their current avenues of reading, and it’s largely because the price is still too high and too little of what they read is easily ported to a dedicated reader.