Unread Books

Guest Author: Elaine White

This article is by Elaine White. All opinions are her own.

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Recently, I read this article - People are Not Reading the e-Books they Buy Anymore And, you know what? It's true.

Why?

Well, personally, it's because I have no time. I see all these great books that I want to read, but have absolutely no time to sit down and read them. This is probably because I'm an author. I have books to write, edit and prepare for publication, which is my job. But, if you consider the fact that I'm disabled and unable to work a "real" job (as soon people would put it) I'm not different to anyone else in the world. Writing is my job, so I spent nearly my entire day writing/plotting/editing or making posters that all relate to my work.

"There is growing research data that is supporting the notion that people are not reading the digital titles they buy online and for the most part, they are never even opened."

Yes, also true. I buy the books when I have money or when they're on sale/free, but that doesn't mean I have time to read them. So, I wait until I do. Which means, I don't randomly open them. I only open the book when I'm ready to read it.

Honestly, unless you intend to actually sit down to read the book, why would you open it? Fair enough, if you plan to sit and read it, open it and then get interrupted, that makes sense. But with Amazon's new policy of paying authors per page read, you can't actually just flick through pages of the book and have the author paid for that. Amazon have a system, that can tell if you're really reading the book or not, so flicking as soon as you buy it isn't helping anyone.

Besides, if you flick through a book, as soon as you buy it, you're just wasting time that could be spending reading it, right?

"At Book Expo America last April, Kobo dived deep into global reading behavior and analyzed the data.  They found that 60% of e-books that are purchased from their complete line of apps, e-readers, tablets and via the web are never opened. Interestingly, the more expensive the book was, the more likely the reader would at least start it."

I can totally agree with this. If you're willing to spend a lot on an e-book - which, let's face it, can cost anything from £0.45 to £15 - it probably means that you're already a fan of the author and their writing style and that you're desperate to read it. You wouldn't pay that amount on an unknown author (to you), because most of us would wait until it was reduced or free, to try out something we don't know. It's human nature. Unless we've seen some super-recommendation or read an excerpt that we're dying to find out more about, spending over-the-odds on an e-book means that you're more likely to SET ASIDE the time to read it. You paid good money for that book, so you're going to make sure you get the time to read it. You probably couldn't say the same about a free book.

And, honestly, I download dozens of free e-books from Amazon every WEEK, because of the cover, the author or the blurb. I can't possibly read the all, as soon as I get them. But I get them because I do want to read them, eventually. Let's face it - we all like to get something for nothing.

"Jellybooks has found that 40 to 45% of e-books never get opened across the board, but certain genres tend to fluctuate. Some books glue readers to the page with completion rates at 70 to 90%—well above the norm—whereas, for other books, it might be 20 to 40%. Readers are generally more likely to finish a plot-driven genre novel than they are a literary one."

I'd also agree with this one. A plot-driven genre novel is more likely to suck you into the story and keep you captivated enough to read it in one sitting, than a literary one. I can't explain why, but I've experienced the same thing myself. When reading a literary piece, I tend to drift or get easily distracted, but once I'm sucked into a plot-driven book, especially M/M or paranormal, I'm 100% more likely to finish it in one sitting, if left alone long enough.

But that's the real rub, isn't it? Being left in peace, to read as long as you want. Without work, life, the phone, the doorbell or anything else getting in your way.

Which, personally, is why I have thousands of e-books sitting unopened on my Amazon cloud and probably just as many that have been purchased from other online stores, sitting on my hard drive.

Life will always get in the way and reading will never be the TOP priority of anyone's life, when they work and family life get into the mix, but we all wish it could be, right?