Happy first day of summer!

I don’t know about where you live, but it’s already felt like summer for quite a while here in Texas. Sunny. Bright. Hot. People are sharing photos of their vacation trips to the lake, beach, campground, and more.

Sometimes the vacation spot is as near as your own backyard, sitting in the shade with a book while burgers sizzle on the grill. 

Now more than ever before, readers have a wide variety of books to choose from. The question is: do you want paper or digital? Or both? 

Curl up with a mystery, a romance, a thriller, or a book that whisks you away to another time period. 

If you’re a reader, you might not know that in the last several years, some publishers have tightened their belts, canceled fiction book lines, or downsized them. Other larger houses have “bought out” smaller houses. For us authors, news like that makes us a little disappointed because this means fewer publishing “spots” through those avenus.

However, the news isn’t all bad. Especially for you readers. 

Reader friends, there are plenty of books for us all to read and plenty of ways for authors to share their words, their fictional worlds with anyone who wants to read. They can do it themselves.

Now, writers can (and do) squawk about quality, with good reason. There’s nothing worse than reading a book full of grammatical and formatting errors, punctuation, plotting plots, pudgy prose in need of discreet trimming. People in a hurry to get their work “out there” before it’s ready. But even the big guys who put thousands of dollars behind a book before it goes to press are fallible. There can be typos, printing errors, even–gasp–dangling participles!

However, all that aside, reader friends, the world of publishing is an exciting world to visit. You can still browse the shelves of a brick ‘n mortar bookstore, or click through the pages of the online bookstore world. You’ll find something exciting, uplifting, and heartfelt to read. 

One lament I hear about traditional bookstores (sometimes from a reader trying to find one of my books) is that “I can’t find a book by so-and-so to read. Why don’t the stores carry all of them?” Well, that’s impossible.

But did you know you can go to a regular bookstore and ask them to order a book for you, if you don’t see it on the shelf? They’ll find it. Just ask. 

So before you head to the mountains, beach, on a road trip, or even to the family reunion, load up on books.

What are you planning to read this summer? 

What new-to-you author have you discovered that you’d love to share about?

What excites you about this current world of books?

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Lynette Sowell writes fiction for the inspirational market, from contemporary romance to mysteries. She’s always looking for the perfect recipe for a story–or a great dish–and is always up for a Texas road trip.