Re-post: It's Electric!

Actually it’s electronic. The E-Book is growing in popularity. There are both positives and negatives to that.

Most people still like holding a real book in their hands. On the other hand, publishers are more apt to give new writers a chance if they don’t have the huge outlay associated with traditional print publishing. The past few years have seen retail sales going down while the cost of raw materials continues to edge up. Even some of the larger “New York houses” are beginning to give the E-Book a whirl.

As aspiring authors we have a whole new venue open to us and royalties can be as high as 70%. Turn around is often much quicker, usually just a few weeks or months compared to a year or more for print publishing. A publisher is also more willing to let your book remain on the market even if it takes a while to really get selling. Writers still have their choice of finding a publisher to produce their works or r-publishing their books themselves. Each will have to weigh the benefits of control versus experience, the potential for piracy versus greater profits.

There is also the gratification of an immediate sale, akin to being able to walk into a bookstore and buying a book off of the shelf, instead of ordering a book from an online retailer and having to wait for delivery. As an added bonus, the availability of the book via the internet makes it available without the high cost of postage anywhere in the world. While there are specific E-Book readers ranging in price from about $200 and up, all you really need is a computer to begin enjoying the words of your favorite authors.

You’ve written your story and you are ready to look for a publisher. Or perhaps you were old fashioned and went straight to Random House or its ilk and you found you couldn’t even get them to read your work. Investigate ebook publishers – just like any other publisher, big house or small press, you want to publish with a name you can trust and a name that has a good reputation. Download a book or two from the publisher you are considering – and read it.

How is the quality of the work? Is it riddled with grammatical and spelling errors? Is it an easy and comfortable read that seems well laid out? Was it easy to download the book? Take a look at the list of author’s names and check out their websites if available – see what they said in their blogs about their publishing experience. The main thing is that you want an epublisher who will treat your book seriously; stay away from the publisher who seems to print anything without even reading it through.

Read the submission guidelines, these are always found on the main publishing site. Like any other publisher, they listed the procedure for submission because they expect you to follow their directions. Self-edit and re-edit your work to eliminate possible errors – ask a trusted friend to go through it for another pair of eyes – always look to submit your very best work. Thinking positively, once you receive word that your book is accepted, start promoting it. (You should have already been promoting yourself as an author)

Whether you are being published in print or ebook (or both as my publisher does), you should still find your target audience – look for their forums and chat groups. Find the blogs of other writers in your genre and visit their sites to leave comments. Remember though as with all social networking don’t make it all one long continuous advertisement – social networking is always give and take (with the emphasis on giving). Look also for bloggers who will host you as you travel a virtual blog tour – and don’t make every blog stop just more of the same.

You can use the electronic age to both publish your book and to market it.
                         ****(update) 2016 Author Earnings Report


Writing exercise: Research multiple ebook publishers on the internet and scan their titles. Make a personal “directory” of at least five by listing two to three sentences each the specialties if any and genres they publish.


Writing prompt: 1) List five individual words to describe how you want your writing to be remembered. 2) List five individual words to describe how you want others to view your marketing process. 3) List five individual words describing how you want to be remembered as a writer amongst writers.