A Great Time to Be a Reader

Reader problem: Finding a good read wasn’t always easy.

I remember a time not too long ago where if you wanted a book, you had to actually walk into a book store and buy one. Maybe a fellow reader recommended a book to you. Or maybe you looked at the spines on the shelves, some covers in a display, and that’s how you got your next read. It wasn’t cheap, either, especially if you had to buy the hardback because the paperback wouldn’t be releasing for another 11 1/2 months.

Each treasured book took up valuable space, too, on your shelf, your table, your purse. Going on vacation meant having to choose between taking more books and another change of clothes (books always won with me, resulting in occasional inappropriate attire in certain situations).

In waiting rooms, people judged you by the cover of the book you held in your hands. Unless you were reading something “respectable” and “scholarly”, you’d invariably receive a few disapproving looks.

But no more.

Reader, the times, they have a-changed.

Now we can download digital content with the single click of the mouse. We can test the limits of storage by loading up our Kindles, Nooks, and iPads with free and 99 cent books. We can carry around thousands of titles in our purses & backpacks. And if we pick up a cover for our device, nobody knows about that secret, guilty pleasure we like to indulge in.

How awesome is that?

But it’s not just a great time to be a reader. It’s a great time to be an author as well. With the ease of self-publishing, many of us closet scribblers now have the chance to get our stories out there. We are no longer at the whim of an overworked agent, or the subjective judgment of someone who doesn’t share similar tastes and likes.

Agatha Christie, my all-time favorite mystery writer, was rejected for five years before someone got their head out of their … dark place… and signed her. After a dozen rejections, J.K. Rowling was advised to ‘get a day job’ because ‘she had little chance of making money’ writing books. Someone else told another of my favorite authors, Dan Brown, that The Da Vinci Code was ‘badly written’.

If those incredibly talented authors were rejected, what chance did wanna-bes like me have?

Can you imagine how many fabulous, iconic books we don’t have now because the choice was not left up to those who really matter – i.e., the readers?

A better place to be.

The good news is, the literary world is evolving. It’s a much bigger, much more varied place than it used to be. Romance, suspense, non-fiction. Clean or a little dirty. Known or new. Whatever floats your boat, it’s out there. It’s easily accessible. And it’s affordable. Whether you are a reader, an author, or both, your choices are seemingly endless.

And you can carry it all in your purse with no one the wiser ?

Bask in the freedom, kindred souls

? Abbie

[source of rejected author info = www.litrejections.com]