The new year is traditionally a time for looking ahead and anyone in or trying to be in the writing business right now would have to have their heads in the sand not to be aware of the potential–good and bad–of e-publishing.
It’s becoming more and more easy to just put your books out there for people to download to their various e-readers at whatever price you set. This is both good and bad. There’s no way anyone can keep you from publishing your stories, now. There’s an end-run around the gate keepers of traditional publishing. Of course, this also means that a lot that probably shouldn’t be published will be and the readers will have to find a way to sort through the slush pile that agents and editors cull for them in traditional publishing.
I haven’t begun to really get a grasp of what all e-publishing will mean to the future of publishing or for me personally. I know a couple of people who are experimenting with it–even making sales and garnering good reviews from readers.
I really want a career as a traditionally published author. I confess, however, that I’m a little tempted. And more than a little frightened at the same time.
My first book, THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, rightfully got no interest at all from agents. From the perspective of a year and a half later, I’m glad. It wasn’t ready. There’s a good chance that it will see a rewrite sometime in the next year, or so, but as it stands, it really isn’t good enough. But my third book, BLOOD WILL TELL, I truly believe is. It got only a little interest when I queried it, but I believe in that one still. It’s tempting to think of e-publishing it and finding out if it really does have wings (like some of its characters). But, will I still feel the same way about it a year from now? Or would I wish I could pull all those e-copies back?
Well, this year, I intend to make a decision on that, one way or the other. I’m not jumping off into the deep end just yet, but I am giving myself a deadline. This year, I mean to learn a lot more about e-publishing, maybe stick a toe in with something much shorter, and make up my mind.
Fortune favors the brave, or so they say.
I have seen this very same condition play out in the music world: instead of waiting and hoping for a record company to offer a contract, many bands are incurring the cost of recording equipment and releasing CDs and/or MP3s themselves. Yes, without the ‘protection’ of the traditional gatekeepers, there’s lots of unbearable noise out there, but some of these chance-taking bands are attracting fans that would never have discovered them otherwise. And, besides…one man’s noise…!
The same condition will happen in the publishing world. Yes, there will be plenty more worthless words to wade through, but those readers looking for something other than what the big publishing companies think is good will be well rewarded for their searching efforts.
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The thing that scares me the most about epublishing is that I’ve heard that your odds of publishing your next book in the traditional way could hinge on your sales figures of a previously published book.
If you epublish without the marketing might of a big house behind you, your sales figures are going to be very low, even if every single reader loves your book. Individuals rarely have the marketing budget to actually compete, and word of mouth only goes so far.
Then, when you try to go the traditional route, potential agents and editors will look at your low numbers on the ebook and would be more likely to predict more of the same from your current MS.
If I ever do epublish on my own, it will be after I’ve achieved traditional success. After I’ve learned what the market likes enough that I can confidently say that the traditional agents and editors are blind to the value of my current MS–and that it’s not just my own narcissism speaking. 🙂
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One of the many things I’ll have to take into consideration before taking the leap.
There’s a lot about this that I know I need to learn before I do anything more than think about it.
Plus, of course, I’m hoping that I won’t have to. That an agent will love MAGE STORM and sell it and . . .
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Of course, there’s one very simple solution to that problem, Robin. E-publish under a psuedonym. How are the agents and editors going to know it’s really you, if you don’t tell them?
That might or might not work. But it’s worth thinking about.
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NB price competitiveness of ebooks may well drive their sales past regular publishing houses– I can”t see how main stream publishers will ever have the time to read all manuscripts through -we know from Academic experience that they don’t– – Now I noticed Borders in Australia has very very competitive prices this magic figure of 19:95 is very popular and even less for other ebooks But they have been placed in the hands of receivers –Not sure what happened there. Plus there must be real benefits on future carbon taxes on ebooks that use no paper or downloads.Exciting times ahead.Now if I can just find a tech group somewhere on this planet that can turn our web site into strictly ebook download only I would be relived.Our material is non hierarchical and caues alot of interest and also fear in the traditional hierarchical worlds of business and education.Please have a look – betterbusinessandeducation.com.au
-Regards John G Kyneur President and Managing Director
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ATTENTION every reader publisher and agent–BORDERS books Australia has crashed– they are finished plus a subsidiary as I have just been told what a shame indeed. they are out of all the malls etc gone– johngkyneur
Brisbane Australia–Its the REDGROUP apparently maybe there is something on the web about this catstrophe-???-I am annoyed because I could get books previously from the USA via BORDERS AUSTRALIA for a meree consideration mailwise–and they turned up in less than a week –amazing as it was -cheers– oh lets go global and be done with it– yippee..
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