12:45 PM

Interesting Article...

Not only am I posting most of this week, but twice in one day. I'm on a roll! LOL!

But, I wanted to pass on this article that was posted in one of my publisher groups. It's a very interesting article on the future of publishing whether it be a big, or small house. The comments are intersting too, along with other prospectives that are out there. The sum of it is that e-publishers have a chance to step up and show their stuff.

http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/01/06/breaking-the-sky-is-falling-will-publishing-innovate-or-deteriorate/

I must admit that at one point in my life I didn't buy e-books. This was some years back. I only wanted the one I could hold in my hand, bound and flip the pages. At one point I tried to get published with the big publishing houses, and of course was rejected. I didn't know beans about writing a cover letter, a synopsis, about the no-no's of head hopping, etc, heck, I didn't know beans about e-books, or what they were. All I knew was I had just written and loved on this book and sent it out.

Well, I belonged to a critique group and the ladies in that group were published, or soon-to-be published with e-book publishers. Anyway, I worked hard with this group and soon I had submitted to my first e-book publisher, and was...rejected. LOL!

I kept working and another year later I got my first signed contract. I was thrilled. You couldn't have pulled me off the sealing with a spatula if you tried, and the thing was - I couldn't have been more thrilled than if I had been holding a contract from a big NY publisher.

My writing has grown and other opportunities have come my way and I'm really looking forward to this year as my new series is launched and another that will be re-released with Linden Bay.

I guess the point I'm trying to make in all this rambling is that there's a lot of "tension" between the two publishering entities, but I read more new author e-books than I ever do off the sheves in a store. There are many talented men and women out there that are trying to get their stories read. We write because it's in us. A writer can't help but write. It's what we do, otherwise the people in our heard can turn on you. LOL! Without e-books there may not have been that opportunity for them, or me for that matter; considering only a small amout get published with the big houses and out of those numbers, only a smaller percentage of them are pushed to stardom. (You can read that in the article)

I'm not a star and I'm not a blockbuster, NY bestselling author, but I do have fans and readers that enjoy my books. I would like to only write for a living one day. No day job to go to to slow me down in what I yearn to do. I love hearing from a reader that has enjoyed something I've put to paper. To love the characters as much as I do. You can't pay a higher compliment than that. I know that one day I will get there and I don't care if I'm every rich, granted I'd like to be comfortable...you know what I mean.

It does surprise me though the number of people that still don't know, or understand e-books, yet at the same time it's a growing market and it's still growing by leaps and bounds. I think that is tremendous. Things may change on how we get a good book, as technology and time goes, but the point remains that there are still good books out there to read and that's whats important. We shouldn't scale poeple back to write only a certain way cause that's what's selling right now. Everyone's voice should be different and as long as we let our heart lead the way (with some thought to it, don't want to go charging off over cliffs if we let too much emotion rule us) we can't go wrong.

Wow! I only meant to put a little bit here and I've gone off on a tangent. Oops! Sorry...I hope I didn't offend anyone. Trust me, I have my favorite authors out there that I will stand in a line to get, but I guess from my lengthy letter here I wanted to express. :-)

Ann

1 comments:

J.K. Coi said...

Nice blog, Ann. I think with e-technology it's important to keep in mind that in the grand scheme of things this is still relatively new, still growing and developing. But it's exciting to be on the innovative side of the fence, don't you think? When people start coming around to seeing what this could really mean--in terms of functionality, convenience, environmental responsibility, financial viability, etc... we'll be the ones already reaping those rewards.

:)