A Day in My Techi-Challenged Life

As an author, one of my most-frustrating traits is my lack of technology expertise. Thankfully, I have people to whom I regularly go for help.

It isn’t that I don’t want to be able to do these tasks, it’s that social media and other tech issues change so rapidly in our world today, by the time I get something down pat, it’s changed yet again. Insert a heavy sigh.

Here is only one example. A couple of days ago I grabbed my Kindle. This is my third one and the one I prefer since it is like a tablet and is in color. It is much preferred even if my Paperwhite is glare-free. Truthfully, don’t you prefer to see the covers of books, even ebooks, in living color rather than in black and white? I couldn’t live in a black-and-white world. It just isn’t who I am.

I had no idea how many books were on my e-reader. I went into my library to search for that information.  Do you know how to find this information? It was a challenge for me. I knew it was there somewhere as Hubs had mentioned his 200+ books earlier this week. First, I had enough sense to ask Hubby where I would find that. He told me and I looked for that on my newest Kindle.

You already know I didn’t find where he told me. Nope. Not on mine. Frustrated, I walked away and began clicking on all the little icons on there. I have no clue how I found it, but eventually, I wound up at filters which is where he’d told me to go.

A Day in My Techie-Challenged Life @DDuPreeWilliams #writing #technology Share on X

YIKES!

Seriously?

1,505 unread books and only 103 read ones. For a total of 1,608 books!

All I could see was dollar signs before my face. Let’s do the math, rounded to the nearest 1,600. Say the average price of a Kindle book these days is around $3 to $4, that would total $6,400 if I used the higher figure. Oh, the things I could do with that money!

Pickled Bricks! To quote Charlotte Graves in my mystery series. That’s a whole lot of hushpuppies. But then . . . books!

Thankfully, my husband reminded me that some had been gifts. Many I obtained from BookBub when they were offered for free. Some had come by way of being on book launches.

Well, that made me feel a bit better.

But how does that impact those authors for whose books I didn’t have to pay, thanks to BB?

What a moral dilemma.

Then, my oh-so-logical-money-minded-numbers-expert Hubby reminded me that giving those books away is a marketing tool. It draws attention to that author with the presumption that one free book will draw more readers to that author thereby increasing their loyal fan base and in turn, their revenue.

WHEW!

That was a blessed relief.

But there is still the issue of so many unread books and so many stories I’m missing out on. In the meantime, I try to do as many book launches as I possibly can. (I was recently simultaneously on three!) I love supporting my friends and even authors I’ve admired for years but have never met. All those unread books will eventually be read. And I will write a review.

If you need someone who will read every single word in your book, I’m your girl. I don’t skip anything. And I catch typos and grammar mistakes, etc. (unless it’s in my books—then I hire the best editor I can find.)

READ!

I’m off to finish the last book I started reading on my Kindle, Down Where My Love Lives by Charles Martin. It’s very good, by the way. I love his writing. There is one scene in the early chapters that took my breath away. I handed my Kindle to Hubby and had him read it. His response echoed my own—Powerful!

All this said, how many books do you have in your Kindle or your TBR pile? Don’t think about the money. Think about the joy you’re bringing to that author, especially after you write a glowing review. And oh, what journeys you will take. The places you’ll go, the people you will meet. Right in the comfort of your favorite reading spot.

That’s why we have so many we’ve yet to read. This feeling right here. We can’t chance missing one, so click and in it goes.

I will gladly take my non-techie life as long as I have good friends and family who will always come to my aid . . . and plenty of good books in the queue.

 

As you are choosing books to read, remember, God’s Word, the Bible should be the one you read every day. It has words to bring you life eternal.

Blessings, y’all!

 

I pray this blesses you. One of my favorites. Nothing to do with this post, just a blessing to you. Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.