Crochet Bouquet has gone digital!

About a month ago, Amanda Carestio of Lark Books wrote to me with exciting news. Crochet Bouquet is now available as a digital book!

“We know that the knitting and crochet community has a large presence online,” Amanda said, later adding, “We’re doing our best to anticipate the market and to provide what crafters want in the format they want it.”

You can buy an e-copy of Crochet Bouquet at Zinio.com. Here’s the link.

When you buy a book from Zinio, you download the Zinio reader program, which is like a pdf, only more secure. The e-book pages look just like the paper book pages, with photos and illustrations.

At the moment, Amanda told me, digital readers like Kindle or the Nook do not support photography or illustrations. So for now, you’ll need to crochet at your computer. It’s a great solution for readers who like their craft books to lie flat. The computer screen is the next best thing to spiral binding!

And it looks like Crochet Bouquet is in good company. The March 17, 2010 issue of The New York Times said that best-selling author John Grisham has finally allowed his books to be issued as e-books. Before now, he was concerned about “piracy, pricing and the effect of digital editions on physical bookstores.” (“Arts, Briefly,” compiled by Dave Itzkoff, piece contributed by Motoko Rich)

I can’t comment intelligently about piracy, but the suggested retail price of the e-version Crochet Bouquet is the same as the paper version. Also, I think physical bookstores will be around for a long time yet. They’ve survived the onslaught of audio books and online discount bookstores, so they’ll most likely adapt and survive the e-book trend, too.

To my mind, the more ways a book can be available to readers, the better!