Blog | Alison Morton's Thrillers

Let's hear it for print books!

Print vs ebook - Roman soldier image

Are ebooks and print books in some sort of fierce battle to the death with one another in which the only outcome is total dominance?

Will ebooks soon drive their dinosaur cousin to extinction or will print books will see ebooks off and show the whole digital phenomenon to be a mere flash in the pan?

Neither of these outcomes is likely

I’m a typical fence-sitting Libran and love both; I don’t see it as a battle to be ‘won’, but as providing a choice.

Once a story is written and edited, an ebook version can be produced relatively easily, and then uploaded to a digital retail outlet within minutes. Stories in some genres, such as romance and science fiction, are often only produced in this format. Authors often use a short story or novella in digital format to test out a series idea or to supplement an established series.

If the ebook sells well, then it can be produced in print format (after reformatting) either as a print run of a few hundred or thousand or individually as print-on-demand. And this is not the exclusive domain of indie authors/publishers; some traditional publishing houses have adopted print-on-demand.

From the reader’s point of view

Limiting your book to one format cuts your potential audience. Readers may have a strong preference for one format or other. Writers shouldn’t assume they know how the reader wants to read their books.

Hybrid readers may enjoy a physical book relaxing at home then switch to an e-reader while travelling, especially if they have cabin luggage only. When I was younger in pre-digital times, my brother and I were rationed to six books each for a holiday of three weeks; I was usually done within the first ten days – horrendous. If only ebooks had existed then!

Physical books take up space and are heavy. But a book chosen at an event and signed by an author is very special. I’m there in the queue and literary festivals and conferences waiting for my minute with the star author. The smell of fresh paper and the crisp pages all contained in a beautiful cover – heaven! Woman reading on a sofa

Ebooks may not be the miracle they’re cracked up to be

Backlit e-readers are said to have an adverse impact on overall health, alertness and the circadian clock, which synchronises the daily rhythm of sleep to external environmental time cues. People go to bed later and are much tireder the next day. And when sleeping, they spend less time in REM sleep. Even though they were still getting eight hours of sleep, they feel significantly less rested than when they read a print book. And apparently we remember less about stories we read on ereaders than those read from a hard copy.

Frontlight technology (the vast majority of e-readers today) projects light onto the screen from the front, mainly used in E Ink readers and tablets and are more eye-friendly. Light is distributed across the screen via a guide layer. LEDs sit around the bezel or frame and shine light down across the surface of the screen, mimicking reflected light. This reduces direct glare which helps minimise fatigue. This approach creates a paper-like viewing effect without shining directly into the eyes. It significantly reduces blue light, making it ideal for comfortable reading in various lighting conditions.

However, while ebooks can’t be loaned or shared and the e-reader needs charging, ebooks are much cheaper than print books. Ebooks can be bought instantly from your desk or armchair and you’re reading in seconds. Unlike printed books, ebooks don’t require trees for paper and petroleum for ink.

I should say that very many people read now on their phone or tablet such as iPad. I really should do a survey on this!

However…

The joy of spending time wandering round a bookshop

You can feel books, look at a beautiful cover design spread over the front and back, dip in, settle down in a chair (at the best bookshops!) and find a new world. Taking a new book home with you is one of life’s pleasures. I am incapable of walking past a bookshop in any town. I must go in and browse.

In print books, maps, place names, cast of characters, glossaries, etc. are far easier to access – you just flick back – and they are in full (readable) size. It’s so frustrating when on my e-reader they don’t expand and I end up squinting at tiny print and often give up. I included all of the above additional elements in, for instance, JULIA PRIMA, and because of the squinting problem, I ensured the maps were readable in the ebook format. I wish every publisher did that!

At literary festivals and conferences, I love to browse the speakers’ books after I’ve heard their presentations. There’s the added bonus of having a personalised signature from the author as well!

As an author, I love it when somebody buys a print book I’ve written and asks me to sign it. I always personalise it to make it special to that reader.

Shelves of books are like piles of treasure you can explore on a rainy day and re-discover that book you enjoyed on a holiday or bought at a special time. An ebook doesn’t do that for me.

So each format has its pros and cons

My woolly wandering around the topic shows how unclear the whole thing is. When the Kindle came out, minor tech nerd me bought one straight away, even before my major tech nerds husband and son. Ha!

I’ve heard anecdotally that sales of print books are increasing especially by Millennium and GenZ readers. This is very good news!

I’ll be buying and reading both for the foreseeable future.

Which do you prefer? Or are you another hybrid reader?

Do leave a comment and tell me why. I’m intrigued by what you think.

__________________

And the INCEPTIO 10th Anniversary special hardback with bonus material!

Not forgetting the Mélisende ‘Doubles’ crime thriller series

All the individual Roma Nova books and the Mélisende Doubles thrillers are available in paperback through bookshops, libraries or from online retailers. To buy, select the book of your choice on the Books page to find direct links to various retailers for that book. If you prefer to buy at a book shop, just order quoting the ISBN number you can find on each book page.

Or stroll down to your local library and if it’s not there, put in a request and they’ll get it for you.

______________

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. JULIA PRIMA and EXSILIUM, set in the late 4th century, tell the story of Roma Nova’s foundation. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, Double Pursuit and Double Stakes form a new contemporary thriller series. A new collection of Roma Nova short stories, HEROICA, is now out.

Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. As a result, you’ll be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

Print the Legend! HNS 2026

(Photo courtesy of Sophie Perinot)

The (in)famous green jacket and I went to the very green island of Ireland for this year’s three-day Historical Novel Society conference.

West of Dublin, Maynooth University is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland and combines historical roots with modern technology – perfect for our conference.

I was delighted to contribute a talk on alternative history on the Saturday – more below!

Never having visited it, I enthusiastically went on the Friday excursion to the Newgrange complex of ancient monuments (UNESCO World Heritage Site).

Set on a rise in a curve of the river Boyne, it dates from 3,100 BC making it older than Stonehenge or the pyramids in Egypt.

First off though was nearby Knowth, the site of numerous passage tombs, but containing the largest passage tomb ever built. Next on to Newgrange itself which is massive!

We were allowed inside for a few minutes and stood under 5,000 tons of Neolithic stone. Then the guide switched the lights out. Spooky, but in a positive way. A simulation of the midwinter sun piercing the chamber gave us an eerie connection back to people thousands of years ago.

Newgrange, Ireland

A supper in the Pugin Hall (reminded me of Hogwarts) restored our strength ready for the conference proper on Saturday. Full Saturday programme here, but some sessions need a special mention. After the organising team was introduced – an excellent touch! – Professor Terence Dooley gave us an informative and lively guide to tracing the eventful and tragic life of Hermione, 5th Duchess of Leinster (1864-95) by means of estate papers.

We all took notes during BooksGoSocial‘s marketing expert Laurence O’Bryan’s presentation. I always learn something new from Laurence!

My own presentation ‘Alternative history – the stuff of legend or made-up twaddle?‘ was the first after a delicious sandwich lunch. (The food was outstanding during the conference: salad boxes and wraps, and pastries with tea and coffee in the breaks.) I was amazed and rather pleased that so many people came. They just kept filing in! And they looked interested, even when I kept referring to the Romans!

After explaining how althist worked and highlighting things to consider when writing stories in this framework, I gave some examples. People were surprised at the range of writers who had tackled them from Livy to Kingsley Amis, Kazuo Ishiguro, C J Sansom to Robert Harris. Great questions afterwards and I think that we may have some new althist readers…

The Gala Dinner on Saturday was lively, friendly and noisy! When you have hundreds of people in one room all eagerly talking, you’re bound to not hear everything above the hubbub.

Left to right: Laura Morelli, Jessica Bell, me, Jean Gill, Clare Flynn, Amie McCracken (Photo courtesy of Jessica Bell)

But we all quietened down for Justin Hill and Matthew Harffy’s dynamic duo after dinner speech. I stayed for a few minutes of joyful Irish music which followed, but I was quite tired by this stage, so called it a night.

Three highlights from Sunday

Vaseem Khan’s Who Owns the Legend, an insightful talk delivered with sharp insights, balance and occasional wry humour
Jean Gill, Justin Hill and Matthew Harffy’s panel on Beyond Kings and Queens: Giving Voice to the Hidden Folk, mostly in the Viking and Medieval periods
Essie Fox and Karen Sullivan (publisher) on Gothic Legends for Today’s Readers

Left to right: Tracey Warr (chair), Justin Hill, Jean Gill, Matthew Harffy

Full Sunday programme here

But I particularly enjoyed Confronting the Legend with Christopher Cevasco (participating chair), Sophie Perinot and Michelle Moran. How do writers manage reader expectations for a book that seeks to be faithful to ‘history’ when that history is merely a familiar legend or a beloved pop-cultural depictions of characters? Then I asked about Robin Hood… 😉

Alison Morton with Christopher Cevasco HNS 2026 (I have no idea why the blue elephant is in the foyer but it adds to the photo.)

What did I take away from the conference?

A lot of very positive memories. The silken cord running through was warmth and friendship. I reconnected with many historical fiction friends from both sides of the Atlantic and made new ones from even further afield. Much socialising occurred at Brady’s Pub a couple of streets away in Maynooth as well as at the hotel itself.

Even though I’ve been going to HNS conferences since 2012, including one in the USA in 2015, I always learn something from the other speakers.

You share experiences, meet fellow sufferers, celebrate with colleagues, discuss writing and publishing with people whose eyes don’t glaze over when you mention the ‘W’ word. And in our solitary creative life, that’s immensely valuable.

Coffee Pot Book Club members at HNS 2026

Left to right: Nancy Jardine, Anna Belfrage, Carolyn Hughes, Linnea Tanna, Cathie Dunn, me. (Photo courtesy of Cathie Dunn)

How did Romans cope with eclipses?

Map of eclipses AD 381-400

Yesterday, the world jostled, thrilled and was overcome with excitement by the total eclipse of the sun by the moon. We’ve had scientific explanations, videos of eclipse-chasers setting out, scenes from Burgos in Spain where rooms and hotels had been booked for months, even years to see the 100% eclipse. News headlines and social media are filled today with stunning photos.

But how did ancient peoples see it?

I wanted to include a scene with an eclipse in my novel EXSILIUM to invoke a sense of dark things to come, but I doubted one was happening at the time. A storm would have to do. But I was thrilled when I discovered from research that an eclipse actually occurred at the time I needed! And the information came from NASA in the form of a map. I could hardly believe it! Rome wasn’t 100% in its path as Burgos in Spain was yesterday, but the effect would be enough.

So here’s what Lucius Apulius experienced…

Rome, AD 393

In late November, I was trudging down the hill mid morning towards the Senate House when the freezing wind that had forced me to pull my hood up and gather my cloak closer around me suddenly ceased. Although the sun was shining with that bright winter light when I set out, the sky seemed to grow darker. I cursed, thinking a storm was about to roll in, hopefully not hail or sleet. But there was no cloud in the sky, yet it became steadily darker.

Chatter and shouting around me quietened and people stopped in the street to stare upwards. Even mules stopped braying and chickens squawking. Instead of people leaning out of windows and making rude remarks about people passing below, old men and young women were equally hushed. Some gave the Christos sign across their chests, others brought hands to their mouths and staggered against walls as if for protection. Women started to cry; children huddled into their mothers’ skirts. Even a schoolmaster instructing children in a group on the steps of an abandoned temple near me fell silent.

We all watched, transfixed by the bright sun vanishing behind a black disc. I shivered as an ethereal twilight took hold. I knew in my mind it was an eclipse and astronomers could even predict their timings, but I was overwhelmed by the thought it could presage a portentous event as it had for the Divine Julius and Augustus’s deaths. Was Theodosius or Eugenius about to die? Or did it foreshadow ten years of war, or that the barbarians were about to pour over the Danube in overwhelming numbers?

I knew in my mind it would pass – at least, that was what I remembered from my tutor in mathematics many years ago. But he had never seen such a phenomenon and only remembered it as a story from his grandfather. My heart was thudding. I was finding it viscerally disturbing as if Helios himself was dying or losing a war with Luna. How long I stood there, I don’t know. Aside from those whimpering and softly wailing, and those sending prayers and supplications to their gods, every other human being seemed crushed into silence by this force of nature.

The black disc slid inexorably across the sun to leave only an intensely bright ring around it – the only light in the dark day. Gasps and cries now rippled through the crowd, many now on their knees or crouched on the ground as if in their mother’s womb. I could scarcely breathe as I laboured to convince myself that this was not the end of days.

Then slowly, painfully, the black disc moved and sunlight was released. A collective sigh rose from the crowd. Tears rolled down faces, fear turned into relief. Some bent down and helped others to stand. People broke into excited talking and Rome became once more a city of noise. I leant back against a wall and let out a long breath as the sun’s warmth touched my face. The sun, the life-giver, had returned, but I couldn’t rid myself of the feeling in my bones that this eclipse had been a messenger of doom or at the very least of extreme danger.

But for whom?

EXSILIUM, Chapter XV