I was talking to a friend at Christmas who says he hardly ever remembers an author’s name these days because he reads on kindle, and often picks up 99p or free books. When he picks up the kindle to read there is no book cover or spine to remind him what he is reading, or who it is by. He clicks it on, and it goes to the middle of the book. There, because of the flowing formatting, there is no author name on the left pages or title on the right. By the end of the book, he’s often forgotten what the title is, or who the book is by.
For an author, this is a big decrease in visibility, because if the reader can’t remember (and isn’t prompted by something visual) to make a note of the author, then if they enjoyed the book it makes it harder for them to register if another title by the same author comes their way. This means that the author is only visible once – at the start of the book. Do other readers have this problem? Can you remember the title/author of the ebook you are reading?
Now, I have no solution to this. We can’t insert ‘Hey, it’s me! I’m the author!’ in the middle of our books. But it is an interesting conundrum, especially for voracious readers who read lots of titles in a month.
What do you think?
