Interview with Author Bonnie Pryor and Special eBook Offer

Bonnie Pryor is the author of several of Enslow's historical fiction books, including the Hannah Pritchard trilogy. She took some time recently to talk to us about how she combines historical facts with her fictional characters. 

Bonnie Pryor

Enslow:  What is your favorite childhood memory about books?

Bonnie:  My favorite memories are about reading and my favorite places to read were…sitting in a crook of an old plum tree, under my covers at night, inside my math book at school, and under the dining room table when I was supposed to be dusting….any place I had a book.

Enslow:   How has your upbringing influenced your writing?

Bonnie:  I suppose I had a fairly sheltered childhood with strict parents, so I have trouble imagining bad characters.

Enslow:  When did your interest in writing historical fiction start?

Hannah Pritchard: Pirate of the
Revolution (Book  1)

Bonnie:  I’ve always enjoyed reading historical fiction, but, for some reason or other, I didn’t think of it until about fifteen years ago when an editor (knowing I liked historical fiction) suggested I try writing some.

Enslow:  What was your biggest challenge when writing The Hannah Pritchard trilogy?

Bonnie:  Fitting what was going on in the real world at that time into my story – for instance, John Paul Jones being in Portsmouth, NH, and Paul Revere in Boston.

Enslow:  What is your favorite trait of your female pirate character, Hannah Pritchard?

Bonnie:  Hannah is strong and independent. She figures things out and takes care of them on her own.

Enslow:   Hannah finds herself aboard an American privateer ship during the Revolutionary War and has to hide her female identity to be able to work as a cabin boy. How do you think this reflects the roles of women during this time period?

Pirate Hannah Pritchard:
Captured  (Book 2)

Bonnie:  Except for a few female pirates, who were not very nice characters, women were considered bad luck on a ship. Although women worked as hard and as well as men, they were restricted by the society of the times as to what they could and couldn’t do.

Enslow:  Hannah and her friends must complete some important missions for the Continental navy and outsmart an enemy pirate in a race to bring home the buried treasure. What’s your secret to writing fabulous adventures while still referencing real people and real historical events?

Bonnie:  I did a lot of research to get the timelines correct in my head. The events that were actually happening then were exciting, so it wasn’t hard to fit them into the story.

Captain Hannah Pritchard:
The Hunt for Pirate Gold
(Book 3)

Enslow:  What do you and Hannah have in common?

Bonnie:  Like Hannah, I’m an independent person with a mind of my own and I’ve always been fairly interested in having adventures.

Enslow:  If you could trade places for a day with one historical character, who would it be and why?

Bonnie:  It would be Margaret Mead. Growing up I admired her and her amazing adventures as an anthropologist and actually thought about going into that field.

About the Author: 

Bonnie Pryor claims she was ‘born loving books’ and it certainly seems as if books are the warp and weft upon which the threads of her life are woven.

Thirty years after the publication of her first book, Grandpa Bear, she has written and had published a total of thirty-seven books for children and young adults. Though her first love is picture books, she has written easy-to-read books, chapter books, mysteries, and historical fiction. Many of her books have been translated into different languages and are sold in countries around the world.

REVIEW

"The 'Real History Behind the Story' section is a great addition to this historical fiction series. These would be excellent books for teachers to use in their classrooms, because they intertwine American history with realistic tales."
     –Library Media Connection, March 2008

SPECIAL EBOOK OFFER FOR A LIMTED TIME ONLY!
Consumers can take advantage of a SPECIAL OFFER on the eBook versions of the Hannah Pritchard trilogy from their favorite eBook retailers including Amazon and Kobo. For a limited time, Hannah Pritchard: Pirate of the Revolution (Book 1) is only 99 cents and Pirate Hannah Pritchard: Captured (Book 2) is just $3.49. Captain Hannah Pritchard: The Hunt for Pirate Gold (Book 3) is also available for $7.69.

The Cost of Making eBooks (Part 1)

Navigating the eBook Highway 

The Cost of Making eBooks (Part 1)

 

Hi. I’m the Digital Production Developer at Enslow Publishers. My name is Kurt Weber and I’ve been asked to write up a series of blog entries about the more technical side of eBooks. I'll do my best to not bore you, but I have that affect when I try to talk technical. Or talk anything, really. My position didn't exist before the company’s decision to make eBooks some time ago and it's been an evolutionary process. Prior to this, I spent 10 years as a graphic designer on the Production Department staff.  Using desktop software, I was responsible for creating the page and cover layouts of our printed books. Now I am responsible for taking those same layouts and getting them converted into a friendly, eBook format that can be read anywhere in the world.

Since I began this journey well over a year ago, eBooks have broken into the mainstream. As eReader devices become more common, more people are discovering the merits of reading an electronic book. Those same people are just venturing out into the eBook marketplace and many are suffering sticker shock. In that time, I’ve been hearing the same question over and over again, “Why do eBooks cost so much?” Or, more to the point, “Why isn’t every single eBook dirt cheap? There’s no paper, no printing, no warehouse, no trucking, no physical costs at all, so why would an eBook ever be more expensive than a printed book? It’s just an electronic file, like an e-mail, right?”

It is true that there is no physical inventory to deal with, but there are physical expenses. After all, an eBook is still a physical object, albeit a digital one. I’ll go into those physical expenses more a bit later, but just because an eBook can’t be put in a store window or gift wrapped, doesn’t mean that it didn’t take time, effort, and money to create and deliver it to you, the reader.  Just because an eBook is an electronic file that CAN be e-mailed around the world in a flash, doesn’t mean that is how we get it to you. Not to get off topic too much, but your email has costs, too. Maybe not to you, but Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, or more accurately, their advertisers, are paying for your ‘free-mail.’ 

One idea that my decade of print experience has reinforced, is that it takes a lot of people to make a book. Any book. (Before you jump up and say, “Self-Publish!” please replace the word ‘people’ with the word ‘time’ in the previous statement and any further reference to ‘people’ and ‘staff’ mentioned below.) That reality check will answer the first question:



Since an eBook is always hidden in your reading device,
it's easy to forget about the hidden costs to make it!



Q: Why do eBooks cost so much? (I won’t go into actual dollar figures, but for some relative perspective, see this detailed two-part article.)

A: It takes a lot of people to make an eBook! Many of the same people who spend time making a printed book and getting it to market are now spending time making the eBook and getting it to market.

Before I dissect the issue, let’s assume that the book has already been written and even printed, but is now just being converted into a digital version. That will exclude the normal costs of author advances, editing, fact-checking, proof reading, photo research, securing photos and/or artwork, etc. So my example is really just addressing the argument, “If the printed book is already done and paid for, the only thing left to do is click SEND!” If only.

Let’s take the producers of the actual eBook file:

1. There is processing staff that track down and prepare the existing layout files for conversion.
2. There is production staff who take the existing layout file and translate it into HTML, XHTML, or XML code, and generate an EPUB file. There are automated programs that do this, but they have often been described as ‘meat-grinders.’ Get the idea?
3. There is proofing staff that check for errors, line by line. Yes, we do proofread our eBooks because things do get lost or mixed up in the conversion! They also proof the code.
4. Revise, revise, revise.

Already, you can see that a good number of people are involved in making the ‘physical’ eBook. All of this staffing and processing cost time. And as the old adage claims, Time=Money. (Yes, you self-publishers know what I'm talking about now!) I haven’t even gone into the hardware needs for processing and storing all of this digital information. I’ll save that for my next entry.

"The United States at War" Titles Now Available as eBooks!

We are excited to announce that our series "The United States at War" has now been added to our growing list of eBooks. They can be purchased from all of your favorite eBook retailers including:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Apple

Kobo

Library editions of "The United States at War" series are available from Enslow Publishers or your preferred vendor.

This series provides an interesting look at American wars through well-researched text, vivid color and black-and-white photographs, and detailed maps. Young readers will not only learn about the important battles and military leaders, but what life was like on the home front for women and children, and the legacy these wars have today.

To learn more about "The United States at War" series click.here.

E-books available for purchase

Over the next few days we hope to introduce you to some of our new e-books. We will be adding more to the retailers sites as they are ready.

The Holocaust Through Primary Sources series, targeted toward the middle school reader, captures a variety of major events of the Holocaust, using first-person accounts. Through the words of the victims, bystanders, and perpetrators, individual experiences are told in detail. Unknown as well as well-known Holocaust figures are also looked at.

All six titles in this series (Auschwitz, Kristallnacht, Liberation, Rescuing the Danish Jews, Saving Children from the Holocaust, and The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) are available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Kobo.

The library and paperback versions of these titles are also available on enslow.com or through your preferred vendor.