I never thought I’d say this, but I must confess I am a reading snob. And, I agree with every other e-book writer out here. I admit to having published not one, but four books digitally. And, one of them is a novel. There is nothing on paper unless I print on demand.
There is snobbery in the publishing business. Always has been–always will. They will always lean toward the blockbuster sure thing. However, that snobbery is not just in the publishing of a new writer, who in the end self-publishes, but there’s a kind of snobbery that comes with taking up an e-book for the first time and reading it.
My wife is not one of those people; she doesn’t see the need to keep books. She’s had two or three different e-readers. Me? Keep me out of book stores, library sales, etc. I’d always come home with several books. My dilemma was not how I was going to publish it more along the line of figuring out if already had this book at home. I wrestled long and hard with notion of even reading a book I couldn’t put on a shelf others could see. So, I was the snob.
Then, I wrote a novel. Got an agent who quit being an agent, and went back to writing. Got another agent who dropped out altogether and another (I don’t know what happened to him). For some reason, having nothing to do with my book, I seemed to have bad luck with agents.
Since my novel is science fiction, I sent the manuscript directly to the big science fiction publishing houses and was gently rejected, but one sent me a nice handwritten note about a page in length that really just said to keep writing and that hard science fiction and fantasy was the “dish of the day.” My novel is not hard science fiction. Technically, it is a dystopian novel with a sense of humor. Ironically, I’ve made so many changes recently to update the technology in it…
I had to publish quickly or the technology of today would overwhelm the technology in my book. It would be like writing a novel that took place in today, but there was only 1970’s technology in evidence. So, that meant self-publishing. For various reason, financial being one, I decided to publish it as an e-book. There was a learning curve. Still is. I began reading e-books, but only those written by the masters I already read in paper. I felt like a traitor. I wasn’t really. I was just a snob, a reading snob. Then, I had to broaden my list of writers because I would finish a book before the next one came out. I found myself struggling to find authors to read. Sometimes I would re-read a book; when it was on one my bookshelves, it was easier to tell if I had already read it or not, but in the e-book library, not so easy.
But then it happened. I found some free e-books and started reading them, too. If I didn’t like what I read, I deleted it. It was harder to actually throw away a hard copy. Mostly mentally. Honestly, some of the e-books weren’t as good as the best sellers, but I didn’t expect them to be, and I suspect it is because they may not have been as researched as much, copy edited as much, or have support and feedback of a major publisher. The e-book writers convince themselves that they are good enough to have been published by the major print players, but the world isn’t ready for them yet, or their story is out of sync (my particular favorite) with the market.
I read e-books now. So, I guess, I’m an equal opportunity snob. Don’t you love it when you ask someone why he or she doesn’t read e-books and the answer is: “I like the feel of paper when I read.” It sounds a bit perverted. Meanwhile, I’m trying to decide if I want to publish with Smashwords again or go with Amazon KDP. I think I’ll go with Amazon; they have a better mainstream reputation. I wish it were different, but it’s not.
The more you read e-books, the more likely it is that e-book authors will become more respectable. I don’t want paper published books to go away, but I do wish our youth would read more. I don’t care what format it’s in. Studies say we aren’t reading for entertainment anymore; however, gone with that also go one of the ways of developing and nourishing an interest in exploring the real world.
So, if you read e-books, regularly, and not just the blockbuster writers, maybe the big guys will give the new, little guys a chance. The big guys were quick to start e-publishing as soon as the e-readers became available. They couldn’t afford the revenue lost to digital books, but e-books, in fact, have not made a dent in the publishing empire; it is a corporate world after all. I have read some bad e-novels that were not my choice of a good read, but I also have read some that surprised and fascinated me.
Shaw's Reality 