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Local Authors on a Mission to Prove People Still Read

JACKSONVILLE FREE PRESS — Contrary to popular belief, Americans still consume books – they just do it differently now. According to Pew Research, Most (67 percent) have read a print book. Fewer have read an e-book (26 percent) and while readers of digital books have plateaued, audio book listeners have grown to an all-time high.

Published

6 years ago

September 9, 2019

Jacksonville Free Press

Shown l-r are authors: Dr. V. Brooks Dunbar (Diva Decisions: ‘How to get from smart to intelligent by claiming your power of choice), Ajeanna Greene (Girl Power – Uncensored), Rhonda Stansberry (Numbers 35&53: The Case of the Brown Paper Bag) and Patrice Ross, (Face of Uterine Fibroids).

By The Jacksonville Free Press

Contrary to popular belief, Americans still consume books – they just do it differently now.

According to Pew Research, Most (67 percent) have read a print book. Fewer have read an e-book (26 percent) and while readers of digital books have plateaued, audio book listeners have grown to an all-time high.

These statistics haven’t deterred local authors from bringing their love of literacy and art of storytelling to the mainstream.

Four authors recently shared their journey as writers at Breeezy’s interview series. Interviews authors included Patrice Ross, Ajeanna Greene, Dr. V. Dunbar and Rhonda Stansberry.

Stansberry’s book details the life of her father, Frank Price ‘Chico’ Baker, a well known Jacksonville numbers runner. Her motivation was to create a tribute to her father, “I always wanted to make my father proud. Writing this book has given me clarity on his business. I was a little girl absorbing his career with the Negro league and his quest to be the best father ever,”she said.

Today’s authors are are also privy to the options of self and/or group publishing. They find themselves with a story to tell and self publishing gives then that voice.

Author Patrice Ross’ book shares her experience with uterine fibroids and informs reader that,“life does go on.”

Guests were interviewed by Lynn & Friends TV host Lynn Jones and accepted questions from the audience. Author Dr. Brooks Dunbar shared that, “you have a choice to be a diva and a choice to be successful in all areas of your life.”

Overall, a quarter of Americans (24 percent) say they did not read a book in the past year.

Four in 10 Americans (39 percent) say they read only print books. Three in 10 (29 percent) read both print and digital, which includes both e-books and audio books. Fewer (7 percent) read only digital formats.

Perhaps not surprisingly, education played the biggest role in who was a reader and who was not. Among college graduates, 92 percent say they read a book in any format in the past 12 months.

As an author. it is up to you to determine how you profit from your book deal and distribution. The market is wide open with receptive readers. For some people, just publishing a book is enough to warrant them the title of author. Many authors would like to earn cash for their words, yet in today’s current literary world, there’s an author on every corner and the story you tell and how its marketed is up to you.

This article originally appeared in the Jacksonville Free Press.