Romantic suspense author Pamela Loewy shares her thoughts about our new wired universe and the challenges it poses to writers, publishers and booksellers. She'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic as well. Welcome, Pamela!As a newly-published author facing the daunting proposition of marketing my book in our 21st century virtual landscape, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of books and the publishing industry in general.
Ebooks increasingly dominate the market, and with the advent of POD (print-on-demand), self-publishing has grown exponentially. Even as they jump on the electronic bandwagon, conventional publishers must deal with a decreasing customer base, and many bookstores face that same problem. And public libraries – in the next decade or two, will such entities still exist, at least in physical form? For those of you who are Star Trek fans, think of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (to my mind the most philosophical of Enterprise captains) caressing that rarest of antiquities – a hardbound book.
Yesterday's talk about supporting others, hit counters, and the author ego led me to today's post. (And thanks for all the comments).A note – it's not a particularly 'fun' post today, although I don't mean it to come across as whining, but if you'd rather go off and play, here's a book cover challenge someone posted on Twitter. Enjoy (and if you play, feel free to post your results in the comments.)
Author egos tend to be fragile things. Every time we release something to the public, we fear it's going to crash and burn. So, here are some ego-wrinklers. Author J.A. Konrath swears that giving books or short stories away, including via piracy, is still good for the author. He cites his Kindle sales figures, saying he's now making more money than he ever did via his traditional publisher's advances and royalties.However, he had a strong-selling series of mass market books, and a hefty list of offerings. He's also the consummate promoter. I don't think he can generalize and say his route is the one to follow, because there are too many variables in the mix.
Ebooks increasingly dominate the market, and with the advent of POD (print-on-demand), self-publishing has grown exponentially. Even as they jump on the electronic bandwagon, conventional publishers must deal with a decreasing customer base, and many bookstores face that same problem. And public libraries – in the next decade or two, will such entities still exist, at least in physical form? For those of you who are Star Trek fans, think of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (to my mind the most philosophical of Enterprise captains) caressing that rarest of antiquities – a hardbound book.
