Impulse Buying

Thursday morning, I attended and presented at UVU’s Book Academy. It was a good day  visiting with friends, talking with other writers, and finding out the state of the publishing industry here in Utah.

After lunch, the authors signed copies of their books for attendees. At one table sat an author I’d never heard of. I spoke with several people who had his books, and they had good things to say about his books.

I was intrigued. I happened to have my Kindle, and so I pulled open the store and searched for his name.

No dice. He books weren’t in the Kindle store.

It suddenly clicked. I realized why studies have shown that people with Kindles tend to read more, as well as buy more books. Had his books been in the store, I would have bought it, right then and there. Instead, think of what I need to do now to buy his book. First, I have to remember his name. It was different, I’m not good with names, and I’ve already forgotten it. So now I must write to one of my friends and ask what it was.

Once I get his name, I could buy the book online, but then I have to pay for shipping (or buy more stuff to get free shipping), and I’m kind of cheap. So instead, I will wait until the next time I go to a book store. I confess, I don’t go to book stores often. I go to the library much more often than I go to the book store.

If the library has the book, instead of purchasing it, I’ll just check it out. Unless the book is really good, I probably won’t buy it after I’ve read it.

The point of all this is that when you have an e-reader, the whole world becomes your end cap. If a friend tells you about a book, you can buy it right there, and be reading in a flash.

And I guess the point of this for authors is that if your books aren’t available in e-book format, they need to be. Really. You’re losing sales.