Angela James is the Executive Editor of Carina Press.
We live in an age of want-it-now, get-it-now technology, an age where people are used to being able to adapt their entertainment to suit their schedules: DVRs, movies on demand, iTunes, game systems that provide immediate access to products, other gamers, and even movies. Consumers expect news the instant it happens, online banking from wherever they are, and the option to pre-order pizza from any location. In addition to all this, there are digital books. Shopping and immediate availability for your reading pleasure, 24/7.
In truth, romance readers have been taking advantage of the convenience of digital books for years. Though it’s only recently that the larger traditional publishers have made books available in digital format, smaller publishers have been giving readers the opportunity to access content instantly, at any time of the day or night, for over a decade. The romance reader is an avid reader, often a woman on-the-go, juggling not only her own busy schedule, but those of her children, her spouse, and maybe a parent or other loved one. She has a passion for reading, but it’s a passion she has to make time for, whether it’s while standing in line at the grocery store, waiting to pick up a prescription, or late at night while everyone else is in bed.
Digital books allow romance readers—and now fans of all genres—to not only find the time to read when they want to, but to also buy books when they want to. Digital books are a customized experience: read when you want to, buy books when you want to, wherever and whenever you want to. Our children are growing up in an age of want-it-now, get-it-now technology and publishing is just one of many industries that will be called upon to grow and change in order to meet the demands of upcoming generations who aren’t going to want to wait for the book to be ordered in store, or shipped to them from online retailers.
The challenges faced by publishing in meeting these demands and moving into the digital age aren’t going to be easy ones, as we’ve already seen—pricing, format, DRM, and the timing of when to release the digital copy in relation to the print copy are only a few of the issues still being debated with no clear solution that satisfies all parties. One thing that makes these challenges even more interesting is that consumers are no longer content to have these decisions made for them—they want to be part of the decisions and have their voices (and purchasing power) be heard.
Digital-first publishers are in a unique position of having more direct contact with their customers—the readers—because most sell not just through third-party retailers, but also direct to readers. Whereas traditional publishing houses may see many parties as their “customer,” from the reader individually to the resellers as a group, digital-first publishers recognize the reader as the first and primary customer who must be served: any time, any place, so long as that service is immediate. We are living in an age of entertainment on demand, and digital-first publishers like Carina Press are positioning themselves to be wherever the readers are, with the content readers want, and content they can access on any device, at any time.
