Thursday I posted that Seth Godin has decided to self-publish. A friend sent me to a link to the blog of another author, Lee Goldberg (writer of the Monk series, books and TV) who is also pondering the self-publishing route. That led to another author, Joe Konrath, who is a fairly famous thriller writer — again, talking about self-publishing. Seems that I’ve hit upon a pretty big movement.
In fact, the traditional publishing industry may be eroding faster than I first suspected. Konrath in particular talks about publishers who may be on the brink of extinction and bookstores closing down locations. He also points to the rise of the ebook — apparently he’s been selling 1,000 ebooks per day for the Kindle. Those are pretty exciting numbers.
Scroll down through some of the 404 (and counting) comments he has, and you’ll quickly see that its not all roses. New authors are still having a hard time breaking in. Indeed, the established authors — especially those with larger back catalogues — will seemingly be the biggest winners as the number of Kindle readers (and others) grows, and people are looking for cheaper books. Konrath sells his for $2.99 he says, and gets much more than if he sold through a publisher at $5.99, because his percentage is less and fewer people buy books at that price.
Put it that way, and it almost (almost) sounds silly to find a publisher.
I’m not convinced either way, though I am questioning whether finding a publisher is the way to go. I still love the lure and romanticism of having someone else publish your book. But is it foolhardy to do if the money is better on your own?
Good writing session today, though the word count doesn’t reflect it (I thought I was chugging along at a good clip). The story is starting to pull together, as are the characters and the voice. I’m also working on a… I don’t know, literary device? Shtick? …that conveys one of the main themes of the book. It’s hard because it is something that hasn’t really been dealt with in literature before. I don’t want that to sound high and mighty — I’m not trying to redefine literature by any means. But the subject matter is new, let’s put it that way. And I’m trying to find ways of conveying that in a fresh new way. (Actually, borrowing elements of the New Journalism is helping in that respect…)
Anyway, it’s coming along. Writing these scenes or vignettes is helping with that. I still need to figure out an ending though. That might not come until the outlining stage. I’ll wait and see.
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you stick to your resolutions. And if you don’t, hope they crash and burn in the most spectacular way. There’s always a good story in that.
~Graham
Novel Writing Totals
Hours Today: 1
Words Today: 1,139
Hours Total: 76.5
Words Total: 105,192
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