The powers that be at Amazon.com have put Head in the Sand on sale temporarily … and of course, like any author, I’m totally out of the loop on how long the sale will last. I just noticed it myself purely by accident. (The author is always the last to know….)

Right now, the book’s listed at  $8.60  at Amazon.com: 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1452813418/ref=oss_product

So, if you’ve been waffling about buying the book, NOW is the time! We could all wake up tomorrow and be back in the Land of Full Retail Price, so hurry and get them while they last!

And truly, Jeff Bezos did this without asking me first. He’s just crazy like that.

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so let’s just wrap up the National Novel Writing Month discussion with a picture:

The story’s not done yet, but I hit the NaNoWriMo monthly goal of 50,000 words. Somehow I managed to get enough writing in even during that final week—which included Thanksgiving, a trip back to my home town for a class reunion, and time with my girls—to fall across the finish line around 8 p.m. on November 30.  I’ll pick the story back up in January, along with two other novels that need some serious revision. I’m thinking 2010 will be a year of revision and editing rather than more new writing (aside from finishing the 2009 NaNo). Time to get these puppies out there in the world!

In other news …

KINDLE UPDATE: ONE YEAR OUT

I’ve had my Amazon Kindle for about a year now. I’ve tried to make note of any book-buying patterns that have changed since getting the Kindle. And, as you might expect, there are some:

First, when I see a book I’d like to read/own, I see if a Kindle edition is available. Usually, there is. Assuming there is a Kindle edition, I then ask myself a series of questions about that particular book:

1. Do I need to have it immediately? Like, really immediately? 1 vote for the Kindle edition. (Available in about 30 seconds.)

2. Is it available only in Kindle and mass market paperback? 1 vote for the Kindle edition. (I hate mass market paperbacks—hard on the ol’ eyes.)

3. Do I want the physical copy taking up ever-dwindling shelf space in my house? 1 vote for the Kindle edition.

4. Will I want to lend the book to anyone else in the future? 1 vote for the dead-tree copy. (Still not possible to lend Kindle books, which doesn’t really bother me. I don’t lend out books all that often anyway.)

5. Will I want a first edition copy or a hard copy that the author might someday autograph? 1 vote for the dead-tree copy. (Still kinda hard to autograph the Kindle edition of a book, which goes without saying, although apparently I said it anyway.)

6. What is the price comparison between the two editions? If all other variables are not relevant, then 1 vote for the cheaper edition, if it is a LOT cheaper. (Sometimes Kindle editions are oddly high-priced, even near the price of print editions, and this puzzles me, since I so often hear about the high cost of paper, ink, and book production in general.) 

Let’s use a book I bought just this morning as an example: Robert Sawyer’s Flashforward.  Trade paperback edition: $8.51.  Kindle edition: $7.99. 

The prices of the two editions are unusually close for a book that’s not a current bestseller. Which one did I purchase? Going through my list of questions, I decided that I didn’t need the physical edition of the book taking up room on my shelves. I also didn’t see myself lending the book out, and I doubt I’ll run into Mr. Sawyer while carrying a copy of the book, to give me the opportunity to get it autographed. Plus, I was extremely curious to start reading it … soon. Like, right now.

The Kindle edition won, and I had the book on my Kindle before I could get across the room to pick it up.

In the past year, I’ve found the Kindle to be indispensible for traveling and for leisurely reading in my wing chair at night. Having just purchased Stephen King’s 1,000-page Under the Dome in first edition hardcover (the Kindle edition isn’t due out for a few more weeks), I was immediately reminded of two of the Kindle’s best features: It’s easy to prop up and read without the weight of a large book or the annoyance of the pages flipping backwards if you shift in the chair. And, the adjustable font size is a balm to my eyes (having recently been diagnosed with ocular rosacea as well as the omnipresent chronic dry eye). And, if I’m not done with King’s tome by the time the Kindle edition comes out, I might purchase that edition too just to continue to read in more comfort. And yes, I know that’s precisely what the publishers want me to do. For some authors, such as King and also Diana Gabaldon, I’ll keep buying first edition hardcovers no matter what. The Kindle editions are merely icing on the cake.

A year later, I’m still buying print books—probably too many for my own good—but the Kindle has given me options for many of my future purchases. All told, I’m buying more book content than I did pre-Kindle. And I know I’m reading a lot more than I did a year ago. Happily so. For hours on end when I  can manage it.

And that can only be a good thing.

I should have been clearer in my earlier post about the Amazon Kindle that I will never give up actual books. In many ways, I still prefer them. And, I didn’t buy the Kindle so I could supplant my dead tree library of beloved books. It is a common mistake for folks to assume that e-reader owners now never buy or read “real” books. The same week I bought my Kindle I also spent $40 at Barnes & Noble on dead tree books (and enjoyed every browsing minute of it).

But I now see a use for e-readers that I did not see six months ago. But yes, they’re not for everyone. And not for everyTHING. But for traveling, yes. For buying books that I don’t want to take up room on my already burgeoning bookshelves (such as current bestsellers), yes.

I’ll still always buy certain authors in hard copy (and probably hard cover too). And I like having the classics in print. (Note: Due to the lack of paper and printing costs, many classics are free as e-books because they are in the public domain. I have several hundred free e-books on my Kindle right now.)

But I can see a place now for e-books—they have a niche. I don’t see them replacing paper books. But I do see them supplementing them in cases when hard copy isn’t needed.

The Kindle also does newspapers and magazines, delivering them to your Kindle automatically. I think newspapers in real print are fading fast, and they seem to be a waste of paper and resources, considering how short a shelf life they have. Reading them on the Kindle is a nice option.

Also, there is talk of e-readers and e-books for students—no more lugging around 50 pounds of very expensive textbooks. And textbooks could be easily updated each year without having to reprint them (and make students buy new copies every year).

So, those are a few qualifiers to my earlier post. In my giddiness to get up some photos, I short-changed the actual post of some important information.

Also as a clarification: The black cover shown in the pictures is the OEM cover that comes with the Kindle. Other third-party manufacturers make lovely covers of all types, but for now I actually like the original cover. The elastic band that can hold it closed reminds me of my Moleskine notebook.

Oh, if I’ve talked you into purchasing a Kindle, please click on the Amazon link on the right-hand side of this page to purchase it (or anything else from Amazon, actually). A bunch of us Kindle owners joked about getting a commission from sales garnered from our loving gushiness … and it turns out, we actually can. But, now, our commercial break is over …

We now return you to our regularly scheduled Web site, already in progress….

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I’m a self-confessed gadget geek. It’s not a pretty sight, really. But I’m also relatively easy on my technology. (I finally gave up on the stereo I had as a teenager after I had been married a few years and had two kids. And I still have the computer my parents got me twelve years ago … and it still works.)

The writer in me has found plenty of gadgets to feed my habit over the years: AlphaSmarts (Neo, Dana, AS2000, AS3000), the Asus eeePC, the MobilePro 770 I got on eBay, the Apple eMate I can’t use because it won’t transfer data to my PC, inkjet printers, laser printers, multifunction printers, scanners, photocopiers, electric staplers and pencil sharpeners—it gets a little ridiculous after a while. Such devices feed both sides of my personality: the creative side and the nerdy/geeky side.

But what does a gadget-loving reader do to stoke the flames of geekihood? For years there has been talk of e-books taking over the planet, and so far those predictions have rung hollow. I tried reading e-books on my computer (even with the big, nice, LCD screen). Not encouraging, especially to someone diagnosed with chronic dry eye from too much computer use over the past few decades. I tried the portability of e-books on my Tungsten E2 PDA. Sure, convenient and portable, but again, eye strain galore after only a short while. Not a long-term solution.

And then, after hemming, hawing, and doing the pre-buying research I always do before a gadget purchase, I took the plunge in late October and bought the ultimate nerdy gadget for today’s prolific reader: the Amazon Kindle.

I can’t begin to tell you just how delightful it is to read books on my Kindle. Using it is a breeze. Downloading books is almost too easy. (You can transfer books with a USB cable, much like transferring music to an iPod, or you can do it directly from Amazon on the device itself using their Whispernet cell-phone technology, which is free.) The eye strain issue I’ve had even with some hard copy paper books is wholly gone with the Kindle, not just because of the amazing e-ink/e-paper technology (no backlighting, crystal clear lettering), but also because I can adjust the font size on the fly. If my eyes get weary late at night, I can increase the size of the text on the “page,” something I can’t do with my paper books.

And, when I go on vacation in two weeks, the Kindle will replace the five or six books I would have packed in my suitcase. I’ll have hundreds of books at my fingertips, in only 10.3 ounces.

Six months ago, my thoughts on e-readers in general were quite different. But now that I’ve taken the plunge and given myself an early Christmas present, I don’t have a single ounce of buyer’s remorse. (Usually I don’t with technology because I do my homework for a long time first.) I’m almost never an early adopter of technology (due to an inherent skinflint nature and not wanting to be an inadvertent “beta tester” with my hard-earned dollars), so my having bought Kindle 1.0 shocks even me. I am, though, so thoroughly thrilled with the device, the system under which it functions, and Amazon’s terrific customer support that I am now a devoted Kindle user.

Tune in next time for my thoughts as a writer on the topic of e-readers and e-books. . . .