Losing that bestseller appeal

Not the original

Every April through 1999 to 2010, I either found myself in a book store or waiting on an Amazon parcel, eager to get my hands on that year's Lee Child novel. I always bought the hardback because that was the only option. The books were consumed within 48 hours with a review posted to Amazon shortly after. Followed by weeks at least of the verbal 'have you read the latest...' buzz that accompanies the rise of any bestseller.

Save for these annual two day reading indulgences at the hand of Lee Child I'm seldom plugged into just one book at a time. I can barely recall a time these last two decades when I've not been humping two or three books around in some obscenely heavy slung over the shoulder bag. Although I admit half the contributing weight will have been a laptop and associated gadgetry. This weighty state of affairs was endured because there was no alternative, it was the only way to meet my insatiable need for reading and technology.

Reviewing my account history at Amazon I can see I ordered my first Kindle in August 2010. It was the 3rd generation Kindle and the first to be sold in the UK. It arrived in September and my reading perspective forever altered. The revelation was that reading no longer required hefting a stack of books with me during my lengthy daily commute, or keeping tabs on the books so I remembered to take them with me. I simply made sure I had a Kindle device at all times. As that increasingly encompassed my Smartphone, iPad, MacBook and work PC, I was never going to be without the book I wanted to read.

In 2011 it was Autumn that saw the release of Lee Child's latest book and I paid a few pence less than the cost of the hardback for the privilege of downloading it on the Kindle. It was on my device at midnight the day of launch and I was still reading it at 3AM. The review was written and posted the following day. I was more than a little put out the Kindle version was SO expensive - more than twice the price of a normal Lee Child Kindle edition. And through the subsequent year I missed being able to swing around in my chair and see the hardback amid my dedicated Reacher shelf. All of which contributed this year (2012) to me swapping back to the hardback, though this was mostly because it was CHEAPER than the Kindle edition. I deliberated this in my Crafty Bastards post back in June - it seemed Lee Child's publisher's were going out of their way to make me buy the hardback. I decided to see whether their desire for me to do this correlated with my reading needs as a fan and avid reader. 'A Wanted Man' hardback arrived at work and I managed to squeeze it into my narrower and less voluminous bag before heading home. I pulled it out and sat in my study and started reading that night.

The next morning I dropped my MacBook and iPad into my bag, checked the Kindle was in there and had the hardback in my hand before realising just how heavy it was in contrast to the other devices. It now seemed an excess akin to packing a mantel clock to check the time through the day. With barely a thought I left the book on the hallway table to read that night instead, a thought I repeated each morning for the rest of the week, always with a mind I'd catch-up with it that night. It was the weekend before Lee Child's latest Reacher got picked up again, spending the Saturday morning reading in the conservatory, where it stayed through several weeks as chance and the weather didn't bring me back. I looked for the hardback through the house but like many things outside of my main focus its whereabouts remained elusive. I later found it efficiently stacked in a pile of magazines and newspapers and at some point it got transported back to the hallway because I saw it there amid a different stack of letters and magazines. I have so far not finished it, not even picked it up to read since that Saturday morning. It's not that I don't want to read it, I really do, but my reading world is no longer focused around a single book. My perspective is all about a few devices that give me access to my whole library, whenever and wherever I am. My books effectively follow me, not the other way round. I will probably finish the Reacher novel the next time I'm at home for any length of time, which will probably be Christmas.

For me part of the fun of being a fan is reading a book on launch. I don't mind paying a premium to do this but paying twice the price isn't going to happen, not even for a Lee Child. If the publisher continues to do this it means there will be one less fan eagerly awaiting Lee Child's future book launches.

John Potter is the author of Chasing Innocence, a 3x award winning and bestselling Crime Thriller. UK US

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