Ebook Secret: Heaving Bosoms

Male politicians aren't the only ones using tech to explore their sexual fantasies.?

Women are quietly using ebooks more and more, devouring lusty titles like "Maid for the Billionaire," "Outcast," "My Horizontal Life" and "Cotillion" -- among the current bestselling ebooks for Amazon's Kindle.

It's a trend that has made magazine publishers and companies like Barnes & Noble sit up and take notice: Women like ebooks, and women like romance novels, a lot. So say goodbye to your stereotypes. New technology sales aren't always driven by four-eyed nerds with too much disposable income on their hands. This new wave of electronic books looks like it's being driven by women who are more interested in the content than, er, screen sizes.

This technological trend may reflect the sexual differences between men and women, which have been well documented since Kinsey. One recent study suggests just how those differences have been transposed onto our digital lives, particularly online. Published last month by two cognitive researchers, "A Billion Wicked Thoughts" analyses millions of online searches by men and women. It also looked at the content of erotic Web sites, who visited them, and the comments they left (politicians beware!).

The unsurprising results: men go straight for graphic porn online while women covet stories whose plot lines are leavened with heaving bosoms -- and where men have "chiseled features" and "powerful thighs." That's raising hopes among magazine and book publishers.

Women's magazines, for example, are experiencing something of a digital renaissance, particularly on Barnes & Noble's Nook ereader. The top magazines on the Nook Color include US Weekly, Shape, and Women’s Health, and sales of female-oriented titles like Cosmo and O are reportedly exceeding sales on Apple's competing iPad.

So are men iPads and women Nooks?

Nook are smaller, lighter, and fit in a purse more comfortably, which might account for some female preferences. And ereaders also don't have those telltale Fabio covers that show everyone in the coffee shop what you're reading. Conversely, iPads are big and heavy and make statement: I'm into tech.

Although ereader companies don't reveal specific sales numbers, there is some evidence of this trend. Men account for 56 percent of tablet owners, according to Forrester Research, while women account for 55 percent of ereader owners. There's also a clear trend at libraries that now offer ebooks.

According to the New York Public Library, which has the highest circulating ebook library in the U.S., ebook loans are up 36 percent compared to the same time last year. And while general fiction accounts for the vast majority of loans, electric romance stores are the most popular genre by far, more than double the number of the next most popular genre, mysteries. The library also notes that most ebook checkouts take place on weekend nights.

Does that mean Miss Lonelyhearts are the biggest borrowers? Perhaps, but it's also the one time when people have free time and the physical libraries are closed.

So make all the jokes you want about heaving bosoms and chiseled chins. At at time when most consumer electronics companies and publishers are desperately looking for hits, salacious chick lit may be just the ticket. Most titles are quick reads -- perfect for the ereader format -- and also usually come in a series. Consequently, fans tend to read them like they eat potato chips, in rapid succession (so they buy more).?

In other words, once is not enough.

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Newest Thriller by National Bestselling Author Keith Raffel Leverages Top Secret Experience in D.C.Drop By Drop ...

National bestselling author Keith Raffel has published his latest thriller as an ebook original. Raffel, a former counsel to the Senate Intelligence Commitee, draws on his four years as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Commitee in a novel fraught with political intrigue and covert activities.

Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) June 02, 2011

In his latest thriller, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and bestselling novelist Keith Raffel draws on his four years with top secret clearance as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Raffel’s third novel, Drop by Drop, is an ebook original available for download on Amazon.com and Smashwords. As the story opens, Stanford Professor Sam Rockman loses his wife in a shattering terrorist incident. He leaves Palo Alto for a job on the intelligence committee staff and finds himself in classified briefings at CIA headquarters, high-level negotiations with the Russians on terrorism, a clandestine visit to the world’s largest nuclear reprocessing plant, and an on-the-ground survey of a disaster much worse than at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant.

“It’s been years since I worked in Washington,” Raffel said. “I was worried about being able to call up memories of what it was like, but once I started writing, I was back there again, looking at that byzantine world through the eyes of Professor Rockman.”

“The more things change, the more things stay the same,” Raffel continued. “When I was on Capitol Hill, the CIA was focused on a war in Afghanistan. In those days though, it was the Soviet Union supporting a regime in Kabul against insurgents in the countryside.”

Raffel’s first two mystery-thrillers, Dot Dead and the national bestseller Smasher, are still available in trade paper format. Drop by Drop is being published as an ebook original for $2.99 and, for a limited time, Smasher will be downloadable for 99￠.

“I’m a Silicon Valley guy and wanted to give this new model of ebook originals a try with Drop by Drop,” Raffel said. “I’m hoping it will encourage a much broader audience to read my novels. But I’m not giving up on traditional publishing. I’m just doing a little literary portfolio diversification. My agent has a manuscript of mine he’s circulating in New York for publication in a paper-and-ink book.”
Raffel visited over 50 bookstores in tours for his earlier books. Since Drop by Drop is an ebook original, no signings are scheduled.

“I love bookstore signings,” Raffel said. “Unfortunately, no one yet has come up with a viable way to inscribe a download.”

After his stint on the Intelligence Committee, Raffel spent over twenty years working for high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. His high tech career culminated in the founding of UpShot Corporation, the pioneer in cloud-computing whose example Salesforce.com and other companies emulated. UpShot was ultimately acquired by Siebel Systems and is now a core part of Oracle Corporation’s cloud computing strategy.

Raffel has deep roots in Silicon Valley. His father was an engineer at Ampex Corporation in Redwood City who worked on the first videotape recorders half a century ago. While Raffel serves as a board member and advisor to a number of companies and non-profits, his primary focus since leaving Oracle in 2008 has been writing mysteries and thrillers. His first novel, the best-selling Dot Dead, was deemed “[W]ithout question the most impressive mystery debut of the year” by Bookreporter.com.

For additional information, email this address: dropbydrop2011-pr(at)yahoo.com

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Keith Raffel
kraffel@yahoo.com
6505208465
Email Information

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