Brave New World of e-books

1. Write book on typewriter

2. Send to typesetter

3. Receive galley proof

4. Mark up galley proof

5. Create layout       

6. Corrected proof arrives      

7. Paste type to boards (including page numbers)

8. Send boards to printer      

9. Correct blueline proof        

 10. Print        

11. Distribute

Sound crazy? Back in the day, publishing had a slow, relentless tempo, like a sacred choral work. Individual voices rose in gestalt to make a whole. Books were planned a year in advance. The minute there was a cover, the sales force courted bookstores and distributors. Editors and proofreaders checked every dangling participle and questionable fact. Copywriters wrote sales pitches and back covers. The art department assembled the physical object. Finally, the book was printed, boxed and sent out into the world. Licenses were handed out to foreign publishers and the process repeated. The Heirarchy of publishing grew around this process; writers, publishers, editors, copy writers, art directors, proof-readers, traffic controllers, marketers, publicists, salespeople, etc. Each job, an off-shoot of the vast wheel of  publishing. 

Then the Internet changed everything.

Blogs, social media and e books erupted. What took weeks, now took hours. What took years of planning and networking could be syndicated at the press of a button. And what took a company of people, could be done by one person at home on a PC. The tempo changed. The march of hours grew frenetic. Instead of a slow Adagio, publishing on the Internet was more like a Charlie Parker solo, less about formal arrangement and more about riffing. A different skill set was needed. Being meticulous about writing, editing and proofreading wasn’t enough, you had to be quirky, playful and adaptive to engage readers. The wall between writer and readers was suddenly removed. Feedback was immediate and the pulse of the world could be gauged by a Google search.

So when my friend and colleague Alix Sloan and I decided to make an e-book and publish  Pet Sitter: A Jenna Stack Mystery, we found out the hard way — the brave new world of publishing was a lot of work.  

Remember all those jobs I mentioned? They still need to get done, so either you pay someone to edit, proofread, design the cover and figure out the basics of the internet, or you do everything yourself. (FYI. Out of all those jobs, the one you need most is an editor. The writing process is so internal, feedback is essential.)

Once the book is up, the next stage of work begins; publicity and marketing. As a writer, this is not the easiest job, but the reality is writers need to connect to readers. Marketing a novel means writing advertising copy, sizing images, managing a blog and engaging in social media along with gaining a rudimentary grasp of SEO.

Which brings me to where we are now, our grand experiment.

KDP or Kindle Direct Publishing has a few options and one is KDP Select. In return for Amazon eBook exclusivity for ninety days, Amazon allows an author to promote a book free for up to five days. (The book is also free everyday to Kindle Prime customers.)

We offered Pet Sitter: A Jenna Stack Mystery  free on the KDP Select program. By the 5th day, we reached over 13,000 downloads and cracked the Kindle top 100 list, making it to #2 in Mysteries and Thrillers, which is astounding. We also got reviews which are invaluable.

We promoted the book on a few of the following sites where readers look for giveaways:

Free Sites to promote your book

We also gave the book away at Goodreads, the amazing community of voracious readers who are whip smart, so be ready for feedback.

There are arguments for and against offering books for free. The Internet is transforming publishing, but the process is in its infancy, so there’s a lot of blowback. Some people suggest book giveaways undermine the bestseller lists.

But before the Internet was a major player, publishers influenced the NYT Bestseller List by arranging book tours at the stores reporting to the Times. Those stores ordered books for signing and voila, the book became a best seller. In fact JK Rowling threw the NY Book Review  into a tizzy by capturing the top four spots on the list month after month. Eventually a children’s list was created to accomodate the Harry Potter Phenomenon so Rowling’s books wouldn’t drive down the rankings of titles publishers were trying to promote.

So it’s hard to those complaints seriously. 

What are the positives about offering an e book free for 5 days?

1. Connecting writers to readers

2. SEO  (every download ends up on the “also bought” lists within the Amazon system)

3. Feedback for writers

4. Potential of word of mouth

I don’t think it’s particularly healthy for writers to live in a vacuum. I love the history and tradition of publishing, but I also love the vibrancy and the dynamic power of the Internet. I wonder what would have happened if John Kennedy Toole had been an Indie writer on the Internet? He was repeatedly rejected and ended up committing suicide (winning a Pulitzer Prize posthumously for The Confederacy of Dunces). Could Toole have survived by connecting directly to readers?  I think he would have had a fighting chance.

Online publishing is powerful and amazing, a gift, the new Gutenberg Press. Will it make a big mess? Of course. But as a writer, connecting to readers is miraculous. Their insights and reactions are a revelation. If you’re a writer, why let anything stop you?

So bring it on, brave new world of e-books. Bring it on.