In the space of a few months Maltese author Tony C. Cutajar has published his second e-book in Maltese.
“Mewt lil Pinto” is an adventure set in the turbulent times of Grand Master Pinto in the 18th century. During his reign, full of intrigue and conspiracies, we come across the incident where Maltese slaves rebelled against the owners of Turkish galleys and managed to bring the vessels to Malta. This could have led to Turkish reprisals against Malta. Besides exciting and mysterious events the author gives some very interesting details, including the history of the Order of St. John, the Great Siege, the building of Valletta and the state of slavery.
This book is available both in a printed version and as an e-book, the latter being produced by the author’s son, Owen.
“The feedback on my first e-book ‘Nies Kbar … Meta Kienu Żgħażagħ’ was very promising but does indicate there’s still a way to go before the Maltese market really books in a digital format,” Mr Cutajar told i-Tech. “We definitely see a gap in the market for Maltese books, but time will tell whether this is because of a lack of Maltese books, or simply because there is little demand for them.”
He lamented the fact that the printed version of this book is now available at big online retailers like Amazon, but feels frustrated that the e-book version is still not available on Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader or the Apple iPad tablet simply because they don’t support the Maltese language.
“My focus however is not really on selling millions of copies. I have proceeded with the second book because this is the medium of the future and my aim is to provide variety and make my work as widely available as possible, especially among young adults who may have shown little or no interest in Maltese.
“My strategy is really to build an online portfolio of work, so when someone discovers they can read books in this format, they will have choices around what to read and will hopefully come back for more. This ‘long-tail’ effect is really what I’m after and I know I have lots of work ahead in proving that this medium is a viable one for the Maltese author,” he concluded.
http://www.cutajar.net/tony/pinto