It’s been a few months
since I advertently plugged my own books.
I intend to do so, but I will be subtle about it — partially burying my
shamelessness through the clever mention of other authors.
I am often inspired by the posts on the lively and
informative blog Murderati. Some of the more recent posts center on
e-books — the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of their increasing dominance. An article in the most recent Mystery Scene Magazine by writer/blogger
Kevin Burton Smith (also master of
The Thrilling Detective web site and blog) talks about living writers whose
early works are being reissued in electronic formats. I would add that in some
cases even new books are being released only in digital formats — increasingly
so by traditional publishers as well.
 |
| Life Death & Fog Books |
It makes sense in both cases. Why would a business create an expensive
product, one that requires considerable upfront expense and then, if it works,
redo it in a format that demands much, much less expense? A traditional publisher might do it that way
if they have a brand name author with predictable sales. But, for the most part, it seems
backward. It is much smarter when the
book is a bit risky, it seems to me, to see if the story works before buying
the paper, turning on expensive presses, setting the distribution channels in motion and preparing
for significant returns of unsold copies. If the e-book soars, the publisher
can always release it as a trade paperback.
And from my conversations with book store owners, new and used, it’s the
hardback that is dying.
This, I believe, is also the attraction of e-books when
reissuing the works of popular authors, but whose work has, one never appeared
in electronic format, and two, though vetted and extremely worthwhile, might
not find room on store bookshelves reserved for the branded best sellers. The new technology provides at least three
electronic approaches for the author:
One is do it yourself. This is
what I did. I set up Life Death and Fog Books and released the early Shanahans
(1990-1995) and one never-before-published novella. And this is what others have done. Two, do some
of publishing work yourself and work with a group of award-winning writers
who share your interests and vision to promote each other’s books. Top Suspense Group is a fine example of a band of talented writers getting together
to offer mutual support for the reissue of previous books and, in some cases,
to promote new ones. The third way is to
connect with an innovative traditional publisher who is willing to bring these
writers into the stable and make these ebooks available in the ebook
format. Mysterious Press, with Open Road Integrated Media, has pioneered
this method and is reissuing the work of some highly praised mystery writers
never before available for Nook or Kindle readers.
 |
| Top Suspense Group |
As readers, we have always had access to the legends. Hammett, Chandler, Stout, Christie, MacDonald
and many of the others, are always in print or, at worst, they are periodically
reissued in new covers. It hasn’t always
been possible to get the not-quite-yet legendary writers that way. Some of our best, and still-living crime fiction authors — Gar Anthony Haywood, Janet
Dawson, Ed Gorman, Jeremiah Healy to name a very few —
provide great reads. Fortunately, ebooks
can make their early novels available again and damn near forever.
The advantage for readers in this process is that it affords
us a way to combat the unrelenting onslaught of self-published dreck, which in
no way suggests that all self-published books are in that category. And there is some adventure in the random
sampling of books by unknown authors.
There are, no doubt, some diamonds among the glass. I expect they will
rise in their own way. But, for all
those who might berate traditional publishers, they do some things most readers
appreciate. First, they filter out work that has always given “vanity” press a
bad name. Second, and most important,
they EDIT. If novel passes through the
hands and eyes of professionals, it’s not as likely to be a sloppy book. The books listed by the Top Suspense Group
and Mysterious Press are not just two avenues for writers, they help narrow the
field to a more manageable size from which the reader can select.
I strongly suspect that the smart, new writers, including
those who wish to self-publish in some fashion, will approach the e-book market
this way as well. In addition to their
likely comfort with the “new media” in terms of marketing, they will find ways
to make sure there are not only means by which their work can be discovered,
but also processes that will insure the product is a good one, at least qualitatively.
 |
| From Mysterious Press |
Meanwhile, I don’t believe there is a single, right approach
to meet the changing marketplace and the demands of a wide variety of
readers. Just as innovative publishers
will find a way to deal with technology, so too will innovative libraries and
bookstores.
On the other hand, as writers, there is a craving for more freedom,
some of us anyway. We can now write
longer or shorter works instead of being coerced into writing books based on
publisher-imposed guidelines. And in
fact, the idea of varying lengths of fiction and the application of
appropriate, variable pricing can make this approach more appealing to the
readers. If I want a book to get me from
O’Hare to LaGuardia, I might want a novella, not a short story and not a
500-page blockbuster that I would consider for Maui beach reading. On the other hand, if I’m commuting from San
Francisco to Palo Alto on the train, a short story is just fine for 99 cents.
Personally, I want to be on the bookshelves of libraries and
bookstores and on the e-book bestseller list.
I also want to work with publishers who know the process and the
marketplace to extend my reach. AND I
want to be able to strike out on my own to take the book from the first
sentence to something I can hold in my hand.
This can be good news for the reader as well as publishers, bookstores
and libraries who adjust to the changing times.
We all have more options.
1 comment:
You'll always be at the very top of my best-seller list.
Post a Comment