Why the E-Book Revolution is Great for Boomers
If you're reading this blog, you're probably pretty
tech-savvy. But as we head into the holidays, we're going to run into the inevitable
friends and relations who are hostile to the whole idea of social media, ebooks
and e-readers.
I've got some Boomer friends who think the e-reader is
robbing us of our cultural heritage. I understand where they're coming from. I
worked in bookstores for much of my life. Every time a bookstore goes out of business
I feel a sense of personal loss.
Plus I love being surrounded by tangible, hard-copy reading
material. My house looks like a library. Books are my best friends. (My mother
tells me that when I learned to read, I said, "Now I'll never have to be lonely
again.") I don't think I'll ever
stop buying paper books. When I adore something I've read on my Kindle, I
sometimes buy it in paper too—so I can really "have" it.
Electronics can die and get glitchy—and nothing's more
infuriating when you're engrossed in a book than to get that "low
battery" message plastered across the page.
Paper feels "real." You can touch it and hold it
and yes, sniff it. (Much fun is made of "book-sniffers" but
scientists say the smell
of old books is related to the smell of vanilla, and stimulates a comfort
zone in your brain.) You can also keep a new paper book waiting on your night
stand and study the cover art, read the blurbs, and anticipate it in a way you
can't with a list of titles on your e-reader. Plus you can loan a beloved paper
book to as many friends as you like.
But I urge even my book-sniffing Boomer friends to welcome
the age of the e-book.
Why?
1) Learning new
technology keeps us young.
I know a lot of Boomers avoid technology. They may use a
computer for email and shopping, and they might even have a smart phone—but
they're mostly annoyed by all of it. The digital age confounds them and they're
irritated by the rapid changes that are catapulting us into a scary new era.
Yes, change can be terrifying, but it's what keeps us alive.
As Dylan said, "He who is not busy being born is busy dying."
There's scientific data to back this up. Doctors tell us
that embracing
the new keeps our brains active and healthy.
And let's face it, nothing says "geezer" like
complaining about "newfangled gadgets" and waxing nostalgic about the
good old days. All the hair dye, yoga, and kale smoothies in the world won't
make you seem vibrant and healthy if you have a negative attitude and a sour
expression on your face.
Besides, if you're a Boomer, you belong to a generation that
has always embraced change.
As Mark Penn said in his 2007 book Microtrends, "Boomers reinvented youth in the 1960s and
economic success in the 1980s; they are not about to do their senior years by
someone else’s formula. According to a 2005 survey by Merrill Lynch, more than
3 in 4 boomers say they have no intention of seeking traditional
retirement."
2) The e-book
revolution is ending age discrimination against older authors.
Traditional publishing has always dictated that young
authors are the most desirable. Even when I was in my forties, I was advised to
keep my age secret when querying, because publishers don't want to invest money
building a "brand name" for an author who doesn't have a potential
forty-year trajectory for churning out product.
But this eliminates a huge number of writers—especially writers
with wisdom and life experience to share. As social
media guru Kristen Lamb says. "A large percentage of writers have
waited until the kids are out of the home and out of college to begin pursuing
their dreams of being authors."
But ebooks and social media are changing all that. We now live in an age when there is infinite
"shelf" space, and "long
tail" niche marketing reigns in social media.
New genres like Boomer Lit can appeal to specific demographics
now that every book published doesn’t have to be a potential blockbuster of one-size-fits-all
scope. Whether you self-publish, go with a small traditional press or a digital
press, you can find your niche market online.
3) Older readers get
to read books about their own issues instead of endlessly reliving high school.
For some time now, traditional publishing has dictated that female
protagonists in popular fiction have to be under thirty. Men can be a little
older, but the main characters have to be young people with young problems.
Not surprising, since for the last few decades, the
"gatekeepers" of traditional publishing have been 22-year-old interns
at New York literary agencies.
(And I can't help wondering if some editors weren't scarred
by being forced to read Silas Marner
in high school. George Eliot's aged curmudgeon has a lot to answer for.)
Thing is: older people have more time to read. And most of
us are hungry for books that address our own life situations, not just who's
going to get to go to the prom with a hunky vampire.
As Kristen Lamb says, older authors are "writing
books they’d like to read: romance novels with a sixty-year-old
protagonist finding love, not a twenty-two-year-old….Now there are options.
Seventy is getting younger every day and the emerging e-commerce marketplace
doesn’t care how old we are or how many books we write."
4) E-readers offer
physical advantages to the older reader.
·
Adjustable
fonts. I'm getting to the stage where I can't read books with tiny fonts,
and I'd be much more comfortable with large-print books, if I weren't too
embarrassed to be seen reading them. With an e-reader, all it takes is the
click of a button to adjust the font to our own vision requirements.
·
Lightweight.
A friend told me she stopped enjoying reading hard-cover books a few years ago
because of arthritis in her hands. But she loves that e-readers are easy to hold
and getting lighter all the time. The new Nook GlowLight weighs only 6.2 ounces.
·
Immediate
new books. When I finish a book I love, I get an empty feeling. I often
want to read another book by that author immediately, especially if it's the
next in a series. But as we age, getting out to a bookstore can be more of a
hassle. (And I stopped night driving when I realized it felt like driving by
Braille on dark winter nights.) With an e-reader, you can have the new book in
minutes.
The E-Age may seem scary to those of us who remember when the
most tech-heavy thing a writer had to do was change a typewriter ribbon, but
it's one of the best times in history to be a writer—or a reader—so we need to
learn to embrace the new technology.
What about you? Did you have to be dragged kicking and
screaming into the digital age? What advantages are you finding to reading
electronic books? Do you have Luddite friends and family who don't
"get" e-books?
About the Author
Anne
R. Allen is the author of the bestselling Camilla Randall rom-com mystery
series, including The Best Revenge,
Ghostwriters in the Sky, Sherwood, Ltd, and No Place like Home. She's also the author of BoomerLit comedies Food of Love, the Gatsby Game and the upcoming
Lady of the Lakewood Diner. She has
collaborated with Catherine Ryan Hyde on a nonfiction book for writers, How to be a Writer in the E-Age: a Self-Help
Guide.
Anne's blog, where she partners with NYT bestseller Ruth Harris was named one of Writer's Digest's Best 101 Websites for Writers. Anne and Ruth are
collaborating on a BoomerLit two-fer due later this month, combining Ruth's The
Chanel Caper and Anne's The Gatsby
Game.
Connect with Anne
