I'm spending my President's Day fleshing out the next couple of short stories and novel that I want to work on. And I'm doing it while sitting in the cafe of a Barnes & Noble Store, which is ironic for a couple of reasons.I like to work in places where there is noise, not necessarily distractions, just ambient background noises- music playing, people talking, cash registers ringing, espresso machines churning. You get the idea. I've written about it before. But of all the places I could choose to go, I choose a Barnes and Noble. It could be the free Wi-fi or the venti Chai latte. But, it's not. I'm here because I like the feeling of being surrounded by books.
Now for the irony.
First, I manage a bookstore. Not a Barnes & Noble. But my own bookstore isn't that inviting. There is no cafe, there are only three uncomfortable chairs to sit in, and well, when I'm there, I feel stressed out. So, I go to a bookstore, not my own, in order to relax and work.
Even more ironic is surrounding myself with tens of thousands of paper books. Why, you might ask, is that ironic since you manage a bookstore and are working on writing books and short stories? Because, I've made a decision about getting published- I am publishing everything I write from now on in an e-format: books, short stories, essays, and of course, blog posts.
This is not due to the fact that I've had myriad rejection letters, in fact, I've only ever received three rejections. It's more in response to the way the market is shifting. More and more ebooks are showing up on bestseller lists, more and more people are buying Kindles, iPads, Nooks, Sony eReaders, etc. Last year, of all the books sold in the United States, nearly 10% were ebooks, with estimates for 2011 being as high as 20%.
A good friend of mine, who is a publisher sales representative for one of the major New York houses has said to me repeatedly, "This books business of ours, it's on the cutting edge of the 16th century." And he's right. Paper and ink have been around for a very long time with very little change in the methods of printing, distributing and selling. A major shift is taking place in how we publish, buy, and read books, and I would rather get ahead of the change rather than let it run me over. Do I think paper books will go away? No, not for a long time. But, the electronic format will soon be the primary way we access the information in the medium we have for so long called a book.
A few days ago, for the very first time, I released a short story in this format for both the Kindle and Nook. The story, "Once Was Lost...," has sold a few copies via Amazon (thanks to all of you who have spent the ninety-nine cents), and as of yet, none for the Nook. Am I going to make a living on one short story in an eformat? No. But, I've already made more money from the "ebook" than I have by trying to sell it to magazine (in fact, if you count printing and postage, I'm in the hole trying to sell it to magazines).
My own observations of the book publishing and selling industries, as well as reading blogs from both Mike Cane and J.A. Konrath, have convinced me to go this direction. Will it be the right one? I think so. What about you?