Q & A with Brian Francis Heffron - Colorado Mandala discussion

When you purchase a new novel, will you typically buy an e-book or a hard copy?

eBook. Finance dictates and they're usually cheaper, but if I can find a decent used, hard copy then I'll get that. btw: Thanks for the group invite, Brian.

Hi Conrad: Always a pleasure to chat with another person who has been to sea! I agree that e-books are moving to center stage because of their afford-ability and the ease of transporting a library in one device. But I also love and collect antique books so this change is a tiny bit disheartening overall. But, I'm no Luddite, so I do have a maxim about it: "In our future, anything that can be delivered to the customer digitally, WILL be delivered to the customer digitally!" Do you ever go on to buy the hard copy of an e-book you especially enjoyed?

Brian wrote: "Hi Conrad: Always a pleasure to chat with another person who has been to sea! I agree that e-books are moving to center stage because of their afford-ability and the ease of transporting a library ..."

Not unless I can find it really, really cheap somewhere, Brian. I, too, have a vast collection of classics in my personal library--enough to keep me busy for a long time. No more reading at sea for me, though. These days, I just own a 15 foot Montgomery sailboat that I use for day cruising.

"Daysailers" have really made a come back! So much fun to just get out on the water for a few hours with out all the fuss of a giant "yacht" (like finding crew:). I envy you!

Hola Brian, I've been buying hard print books for the last 6 months. I just love the feel of the pages, I like to hold them and sometimes I just sit and stare at all my books. I get all giddy inside. I was taught to read with a book and I been in love every since. I do have lots of eBooks also. I can't leaf through them though.

Hi Bonita: Could not agree more. I collect old art books from the 1800s and the smell of the old high quality paper is like perfume for me...and I am afraid that if all books become electrons instead of letters on paper what will happen if the electricity runs out? No power no literature?

Brian wrote: "Hi Bonita: Could not agree more. I collect old art books from the 1800s and the smell of the old high quality paper is like perfume for me...and I am afraid that if all books become electrons inste..."

By that time, Brian, we'll have developed memory implant chips that give you the reading 'experience'. Total Recall.

Yes,Conrad! Our future seems to be arriving quicker and quicker each morning! They can now "print out" three dimensional objects in plastic. Very Jetsons! That is also another reason to collect old books, there are less and less of them around every year...so this growing scarcity will breed value! I love my kindle for somethings, especially exploring a book to see if I want to purchase the hard copy, but a real book on a rainy night can be a true, warm comfort. (Although the Kindle Fire warms up a bit too :)

Brian: 3D printing was this morning. Now they're working on 4D printing. Check this out:

http://www.ted.com/talks/skylar_tibbi...

Thanks, Conrad. I'll have to check it out tomorrow. I am calling it a day. Good night for now.

If the price is right, I'll go with an e-book but lately I've noticed the pricing of e-books is as great as, or higher than the paperback and if I have to pay paperback prices, I want the actual book.

Hi Brian Greetings and Good will from this Chi-town girl. Grateful to be included. I have yet to turn digital but believe that is the future. I have been cash strapped and buy books when I can at readings, (love getting a personal note) otherwise I buy second hand. there is nothing like the feel of a good book the paper, the cover, the computer can not replace for me. But the future...Happy poetry month!

Hi Brian, Typically I will buy a hardcover or paperback. However I have also bought e-books but much prefer to hold the book in my hand and have the knowledge that it will be around for probably a lot longer than e-book for reference sake. I guess my old collecting habits and reading habits die hard!

Hi C.l.: What is the average price of an ebook, and I do agree that if it is the same as a paperback, a paperback is better. But some of the features of an ebook, like "quoting" from it as a tweet, or FB post, are pretty cool.

Hi Donna Rae: Well, we will have to send you a personal note with your copy of Colorado Mandala. I actually believe that in this new world of publishing it is up to the author to build a relationship with the reader. So hand signed books, bookmarks, postcards biz cards etc should all be part of an author's tools to reach out to his audience of readers and make a friend.

Hi Laura:

I, too, am currently split between collecting antique books from the 1800s and the Kindle Fire! An odd mix yes, but I also collect art and found that many antique book sellers were having to drop their prices as the old tomes that academia needs to study went up on line.Professors stopped buying the antique books so they were suddenly within my price range. I have a book of Poetry published in 1834 and hand signed by JMW Turner, who did the illustrations. It was one of the first books with text and illustration mixed on the same page and required two plates to print each page.

So how can a Kindle compete with that?!?

But on my Kindle I have several books on art conservation that are purely manuals and perfect for the Kindle. So each one has its place.

Hi Brian, Since we are moving in a few years I have stopped buying books and always download to my Kindle. I dream of someday having a space of my own with lots of bookshelves so I can buy the type of books I want to use as references. We have a great house, but alas, no room for a real home office for me. :)

Hi Ellen:

Sorry it took so long to get back to you! My self and my wonderful proofreader and copy editor, Ms. Wrexie Bardaglio (You'd love her), have been doing the final proofing of Colorado Mandala. This time based on the first hard copy proof of Colorado Mandala (instead of an electronic file copy) that we got about a week ago. We did our job and just re-submitted the "Specification Manuscript" back to the publisher for printing of the (hopefully) last proof. So now we are now within 10 days of publication! Yeah Team! :)

Anyway, on to you question: It seems we are in the middle of a shift to more and more e-books being more and more convenient for more and more book readers of all ilks. Why? For various reasons, ease of storage, type of content more suitable to electronic reading (i.e. Manuals), electronic features of an e-book such as quoting, place holding, etc.

So the e-book is clearly here to stay, but there also remains a much larger space still being filled for readers by hard copy books. The texture and feel, the sense of a book object becoming a precious object as you absorb its contents, and just the shear romance of crying on the pages before you as characters break your heart :(...these experiences can only be found between paper covers.

So, like most things in life, the answer in a conundrum: Which is better hard copy book or e-book? Answer: BOTH.