Do older people like computers and ebooks?

I was just reading a transcript of #followreader on Twitter. It was a chat for readers to express to publishers what they like and dislike about books. Two things struck me as commentable: 1) Why do the readers seem to think ebooks are all $10.00 and above, as expensive or more expensive than paper books? 2) Why do the readers think that people my age (I'm almost 50) and older, don't as a big group like ebooks or computers? First, not all ebooks are $10.00 and higher. I don't know in what universe these people got their information. Oh, I'm sure there are some ebooks that cost that much and more, but most? NOT my publishers. For example, my novel length book "Shipwrecked" at Total-E-Bound costs $5.08. "Friction" an anthology of 7 stories, cost $9.67 - But that's a lot of stories and more words than an ordinary novel. At Ellora's Cave my novel "American Beauty" costs $5.95 in e-format. The print version, which is coupled with "Better Than IceCream" is called "Sweet & Sticky" costs $12.99. Truth, Justice & The Vampire Way at Ellora's Cave costs $5.20. Sex Kittens, an anthology at Ellora's Cave costs $6.99 in e-format. The print book costs $11.99. Have I convinced you yet that a lot of ebooks are affordable and less than print books? What about the other question? Is it fair to assume that the majority of people 50 and older are not computer literate? Or that they don't like computers or ebooks? I'm not sure. Maybe we should take a poll. I'm almost 50 and I like to think I'm pretty computer literate. I'm very comfortable with Excel, Word, Power Point, and the Internet. I love to read ebooks. I think being tech savvy is cool. At my day job, my coworkers in my department who are in their 40's and 50's are also computer literate. They love to play and work on the computer as much as I do. However, the majority of the people who are 60 and older, are not into the computer. One of them dives in and seems to like it. The rest seem hesitant, even scared of computers. It seems like a lot of the people who call us and are older, tell us they don't have a computer or don't like computers. Some are very indignant when we mention the word "computer" or "Internet". However, I have at least two friends in other departments who are in their 60's who love the computer and are also very good with it. My father who is 80, was a computer programmer and an electrical engineer who designed at least one computer. He's very good with computers - but it amazes me, he's not really into the Internet. He'd prefer to look up a phone number in the old fashioned phone book rather than pop onto Whitepages.com. I don't get it at all. My kids have no problems reading ebooks. They seek out stories on line all the time. Strangely, they're not into Facebook or Twitter like me. Maybe age makes no difference to whether or not someone likes computers, ebooks, or different applications, just the individual. It's generally not fair to make assumptions even about one person much less large groups of people. Who's making this assumption? Do they have any data to back it up? I'd be interested to see data if it exists.

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

A rose by any other name

When people buy a song or a collection of music by a recording artist, do they quibble if it's a "real" song because it's on an MP3 format versus a CD or a cassette tape or an 8-track tape or a 45 record or an album or a 78 record? Not that I've ever heard. But the debate has raged for more than a decade now that books aren't "books" unless they're printed on paper. Oh! Let me take that back and be more specific. "POD books" although printed on paper, that you can hold in your hands, are not considered "real books" by many either. Of course they're real books! The real discussion is whether readers believe they hold the same quality as books published by so and so publisher. Face it. Some people are being snobs. They're looking down their noses at small and new publishers, at writers with these houses and saying "you're not good enough" to be published with the big boys. Maybe. Maybe not. Every case is different. Everyone's career path is different. Everyone's desire is different. It's not only writers or readers who say "My publisher is better than your publisher," or "My book is better than your book". It's the same old story. Stuffy literary writers look down their noses at sci-fi and romance writers. Sci fi writers look down their noses at romance writers. Romance writers look down their noses at writers with a different publisher and so on and so forth ad nauseum. No, I don't mean that ALL writers or ALL people do this. But some, enough to be annoying. It's not restricted to writers. People look down on people for all sorts of arbitrary reasons: skin color, religion, and net worth are some of the usual suspects. However, snobbery also happens just about everywhere, unfortunately. There's a schism between Directors and the peon employees at the day job. Jocks versus non jocks in high school. The rich kids versus the non-rich kids in high school. Varsity players versus junior varsity players. Boys versus girls (my daughter says the female principal at her high school only talks about the boys sports teams and never the girls even when the girls win big championships). Black belts versus white belts. Does it ever end? Sadly, with some people, no. Fortunately, it's not true of all people. I'm blessed to know a lot of people who won't play the snobbery game or I'd truly go insane. But I run into enough mention of it to get annoyed from time to time. Obviously, I was reminded of it today, and also yesterday, voila this post. Yesterday my younger daughter brought it up. She sees it from two perspectives that are different from my perspectives. She's a female jock, a softball player. The last couple years she was Junior Varsity. Her experience was that a couple of the varsity players and even an ex-coach was snobby towards the varsity. One coach (no longer our school's coach btw for this reason) pretty much ignored the JV and hardly scheduled them for any games while he doted on the Varsity players. Meanwhile, even when the JV and Varsity both got big victories, the administration ignored it while they'd dote on the boys. My daughter's other perspective is that she's in a multicultural, multiracial group of friends. They love each other dearly and spend several hours and sleep overs with each other weekly. She's so grateful she has them and that she lives in a time when she won't get a lot of flack for it. I'm glad, too. I still hear people my age and older, however, make racial slurs. Get over it already. I was trying to teach my daughter and come up with a reason why people are this way. At least some of the time, it's probably due to the person's insecurity. They need to inflate their own egos to feel good about themself and the way they go about it is to try to make others look insignificant or worse in comparison. Oi! The only person any of us need to be in competition with is ourself. I only need to improve myself (and my minor kids). I need to make my current book better than my last book. I need to learn to be a better manager at the day job than I was the day before. I need to learn and grow and build upon my own experiences and constructive wisdom imparted from others. It's definitely not going to help me to diss anyone else. In the long run, and even in the short run, it would hurt me as much or more than I would hur the other person, to do so. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)