Thursday, March 31, 2011

Traditional vs. e-publishing: War or peace?

I love the feel of a print book in my hand and I haven't gotten an e-reader. Yet. But that's me as a reader. As a writer, though, I have to look at the whole e-publishing thing through different eyes.

I'm not technologically challenged. I love my laptop and my iPhone, but I've been viewing e-publishing and traditional publishing as an either/or thing. My passion for books and libraries sways me towards print and I have this nagging feeling of betrayal if I choose to e-publish. After all, a core theme in GUARDIAN CATS is the saving of books and libraries. But my arguments against e-publishing are diminishing as I've discovered Overdrive, supplier of digital content to libraries and schools. Seems like a smart thing to include in an e-publish marketing plan.

If you're following the buzz, the whole publishing world seems to be up for grabs. If you've been buried in your WIP (good for you!) and haven't been paying attention, here's what happening in a nutshell. Established writers are going 'indie' while new authors, using the 'e-book first' strategy, are getting noticed and offered contracts by traditional publishers. (See the link to Jane Friedman's post below.)

I haven't seen any statistics on this. But I'm following a lot of authors, agents and bookish friends on my Twitter and blog feeds and watching the trends closely.

For instance:
If, like me, you are pondering publishing options, it's pretty crazy out there and things are changing quickly. If you haven't gone 'Twitter', I would highly recommend it. My Tweeps are 90% writers, agents, publishers, and what I call 'bookish' friends who keep up with the publishing world on a minute by minute basis.

It's mind blowing, but a really exciting time to be at this juncture in the publishing industry. For sane and respected advice you are probably already aware of, read the Pros blogs, many listed on my side bar.
Now I'm thinking that there's room for it all. Why would more options for reading be a bad thing? Upon closer examination, it doesn't appear to be the tug-of-war as I first thought. But then I'm a child of the 60's who still believes that somehow it's possible that we can 'work it out'.

I'm still researching e-readers, waiting until one of them jumps out at me and screams 'Take me! I'm yours!' 

Follow my 'bookish' Tweets. I'll follow you back. It'll be fun.

 









5 comments:

  1. I'm all for getting along and living together side by side!! :-) I think the publishing world is a more vibrant place with both formats in place! Take care
    x

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  2. This is a great post. It's definitely interesting (and somewhat encouraging) hearing all this recent news about e-books.

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  3. Kitty: I agree.

    Jennifer: Great to hear from you. Hope your editing business is going well. I'm almost finished with my final draft. Again. :)

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  4. I know that "Again" bit. lol.

    Thanks for this article. I have seen so much about self publishing this last week or so due to an indie published novelist lashing out at a reviewer and because of the fact of who pays the editor. I am self publishing because of the numbers of books that sit in a publishing houses slush pile and never get read, as well as having heard of a writer who sent in a manuscript of famously published works and received the usual denial letter, as if the houses did not look at the manuscript at all. I realize publishers have their hands over full and cannot do it all. However, I simply don't want to wait for nobody to read my work. I wish I had the links to back up my comments, but #amwriting. :)

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  5. Hi Debbie: Nice to see you followed me over here from Twitter. It's a great place for keeping up with the whole publishing industry currently in applecart upset mode. It'll be interesting to see what it looks like this time next year.

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