Guest blog and giveaway with Jerri Corgiat

•  Sing Me Home— Lil O’Malley falls for the children of rehabilitated country star Jonathan Van Castle, leading her to accept his proposal for a marriage of convenience that ultimately allows him to win her heart.

 

 

 

• Follow Me Home — When Alcea O’Malley Addams’s husband betrays her, luxury and self-worth go out the window…until an old flame comes into town, leading her to reevaluate her past, her value and her future.

 

 

 

Home at Last — Marigold (Mari) O’Malley returns home to lick her wounds after a big-city career sinks under the weight of a relationship with her boss. Her broken heart begins to mend when she reconnects with a bad boy from her past who teaches her how to trust and take chances at the same time.

 

 

• Home by Starlight — Widow Patsy O’Malley remains fiercely independent until a broken ankle  and an itinerant musician (from Jonathan Van Castle’s band) both knock her off her feet.

 

 

 

• Take Me Home — Florida Jones thinks she has the perfect fiance and the perfect life planned until a car accident results in injuries that threaten her sight. An unlikely helpmate guides her to recovery, where she ultimately “sees” the love that is most important in her life.

 

 

 

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My Books Killed Borders? by Jerri Corgiat

My timing sucks. My timing…

Sorry. Let me start over. Here they are again—ta-da!—my books. All five of them. All spiffed up, innards re-examined, out looking for new audiences.

All in the same week Borders announces their liquidation.

I mean, I’m excited, massively excited about the reissuance of my books. I’ve been working toward giving these books, this series, new life since, oh, maybe a minute, minute and a half, tops, after their first publisher decided to move in a different direction, in order to more closely follow the trends the market was, uh, trending at the time.

Then along came Amazon and Kindles and B&N and Nooks. Kobo and Samsung and Sony. Oh my. Suddenly, my dream is again within reach. Suddenly…

Borders closes for good. No new buyer. No renaissance like my books get. Readers mourn. Writers mourn. I include myself. I spent hours at my neighborhood Borders, and they were very good to me as an author.

Employees mourn. Especially employees. And my heart goes out to them.

This week, though. This week, I’ve heard from three readers who love my books that they hate ebooks because ebooks caused Borders’s downfall. A check on my Facebook page and on a few blogs reveals some similar thoughts, and so I’m here to tell you not so much about my books, but to tell you not to actively hate them because I assure you they didn’t cause Borders demise. Nor did anyone else’s. And it didn’t happen so suddenly.

I did some research. Seems there’s lots of reasons for Borders’s situation: Their massive CD inventory which served them (and us) so well into the late nineties took a hit in the double-oughts, but the space allotted to them didn’t.

They signed leaseholds that financial types—including their past CEO—call too large and too expensive and too ill-positioned. They didn’t adequately invest or respond to the upsurge of Target and Costco and Wal-Mart, nor to the e-tailing trend, instead outsourcing their online book sales to… Amazon…from 2001 to 2007.

Barnes & Noble sought synergy; they got Starbucks. Also cited in Borders’s debit column is an overinvestment in inventory and an inefficient supply chain, both of which were apparently initially advantageous, but when the market shifted, they weren’t quick enough to shift, too.

Their troubles didn’t start with the surge of ereaders and ebooks in 2010.

And their fall, as well as our reactions to it, reminds me some of when independent stores closed one after the other when Borders and Barnes & Noble moved in. I don’t know if you were around then to see that, but I had up-close exposure as an employee of one of those indies.

Some of those indies still exist, though. Some repositioned themselves and got on with it. Some big box stores still exist. B&N and Books-A-Million continue to reposition themselves to get on with it.

As for ebooks? In 2010, ebooks accounted for $441 million in sales. That’s a whole hunk of cash. $11.67 billion is a whole hunk of a lot more. $11.67 billion is the amount (according to the Association of American Publishers) spent on all books of all flavors and formats in that same year. I get lost in all those zeroes, but doesn’t that last number almost make that first number seem trivial? It’s not—at least not where I’m sitting—and it’s growing. But will it kick everything old and honored out of the way?

 

There are people who predict such things. I don’t know who they are, but I’m guessing they’re the types who manage my stock portfolio or would if I had one. Around 2014 to 2015, these people say the ebook surge will plateau, and print and ebooks will co-exist, each with about a 50 percent share. Ebooks have a ways to go to hit that $5.8 billion mark.

But I’m betting my books they’re here to stay—at least as long as we both continue to adjust to the market, as long as we continue to make the old new again.

And—more important than where we buy a book, what book we buy, and in what format—as long as we continue to read.

 

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Thank you, Romance Readers at Heart, for asking me to guest here. I’m thrilled to be “back.”

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Thinking of the last book you purchased, I’d be interested to hear where you bought it and in what format? Do you prefer print books over ebooks or vice versa? Do you think the format impacts your reading experience to the degree you can’t enjoy a book if it isn’t in your preferred format? That’s a mouthful, but I really am interested!

 

ABOUT JERRI CORGIAT

Award-winning author, editor and former bookseller Jerri Corgiat lives in the Midwest with her husband, son, dog Rosie—and the true queen of the house, their cat, Princess Piggy-Britches.  Their home is located in rolling woodlands reminiscent of the Ozarks, where she spent her childhood summers and where the Love Finds a Home series took root in her imagination. She is currently working on her sixth book. Her website is: http://www.jerricorgiat.com

 

 

 

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A big thank you to Jerri for visiting with us today!

Jerri will be giving away two books (reader’s choice!) from her Love Finds A Home series  to one lucky commenter. Good luck! 😀