Who Knows What You'll Find Here

I don't want to link to Huffington Post and I didn't want to go there but some "famous" guy I never heard of, Jason Pinter, wrote an article about all the wonderful things we writers will miss with the adoption of epublishing.  This link will get you there.  

Spoiler:

You will miss lovely book signings where fans fawn all over you.  Or in the case of the vast majority of writers you will miss sitting in a bookstore all day and being ignored, and signing no books and also selling no books.

You will miss seeing your book in the bookstores.  Or if you have a situation like mine with The Complete Idiots Guide (I was the idiot) to Knitting Patterns, NOT seeing it in any stores.

So go there I guess if you want to snort your morning beverage through your nose because you need a new keyboard.

http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/33674

Seems to me a ridiculous take on what we'll miss.  I'll miss not making any money.  I'll miss being treated shabbily.  Yeah right.

Let me tell you about this experience I had.  I was in Santa Barbara at the Shakespeare & Co. bookstore and they actually had a copy of my gingerbread book.  No, I don't remember the title.  It could be Gingerbread: Things to Make and Bake which goes down in the annals of publishing history as one of the stupidest titles ever.  But then the editor was about 19 years old so what can you expect?  I wanted it titled Gingerbread:  Homes For The Holidays.  But as I've said many times, I'm just an idiot writer who is quickly dismissed and discounted when it comes to really important decisions.

So I pick up this book and bring it to the counter and say "I'm the author.  Would you like me to sign it?"

They were appalled.  How dare I suggest defacing this book?!  NO!!!  Cross.  Garlic.  Uzi submachine gun pulled out to scare me off.

I sold used books for a while and I can assure you that having an author inscription is added value, not a case of defacing a product.

Speaking of inscriptions, third day in a row, I admit to being confused.  There's a site/company that for a fee enables you to sign your ebooks.  Why must one pay for someone to do this?  Is this something readers are clammoring for?  Why don't we all just "sign" our books at the beginning of the process?  No, it won't be personalized but are you trying to tell me there is added value in a digital product being fake signed? 

You can create a jpg in under 5 minutes.  I wouldn't pay for the service.