The Digital Revolution

A couple of interesting things I’ve come across in the last month to do with self-publishing & eBooks sales:
eBook Sales have tripled in the last year. – Which is fantastic news for all authors – well, those of us who have embraced going digital. For those who haven’t, well, eventually a tipping point will come… and they’ll be left playing serious catch up.

I also have to agree with what Mike Stackpole said in a recent blog post: Trade Publishers: By clinging to the traditional distribution model, they have fallen seriously behind the curve. Their suppliers (authors) and their true customers (readers) realize they don’t need them anymore. The idea that they serve as gatekeepers has fallen to the wayside and has been replaced by free sample chapters so readers can make their own decisions. The “legitimacy” offered by Trade Publishers has also vanished because they’ve turned around and offered contracts to self-published digital stars so the traditional publishers won’t seem so terribly out of touch. It’s akin to some segregated country club electing an African-American club president so it can seem that they’re not still mired in the past. That doesn’t mean the writers aren’t good, it just means that Traditional Publishing’s crown is seriously tarnished. Traditional publishers lack the money, personnel, vision and drive to become players in the digital market. There is no way they are going to move it in a different direction.

Mike has been preaching the digital revolution for years and years – he saw this coming & no one would listen at first. Or rather, very few did. I must admit I was guilty of not listening at first. Give up paper books? NEVER! My tune changed when I received a Nook for Christmas. 6 months later I find I turn to my Nook 90% of the time now. In fact, I get down right IRATE if a book I want to read isn’t offered digitally (I’m looking at you HARRY POTTER!)

You guys – I’m not the exception. I’m the norm here – people are embracing the ebook format. Paper books are going to very quickly become a niche market.

Let’s close this short post out with a fantastic blog post from Mike Stackpole: Why Digital Self-Publishing frightens some authors

My favorite quote from it (shoot, I could practically quote the whole blog post!): Yes, if you digitally self-publish, you have to take responsibility for your work. If the cover looks like crap, you’re the one putting it on there. You have to fix it. If you want reviewers to post reviews of your book, you need to find them and send them copies. You need to blog about these things, get the word out on the social networks, and do that over and over again.

Basically, you have to do all the things you complained that the publishers never did for you. And while there may be a science to marketing, it ain’t rocket science. It continually boggles my mind that writers who can research technology or history and imagine whole worlds some how believe they can’t, with the same sort of study, learn how to do all this marketing stuff. That proposition is unbelievable; and when folks pretend they don’t know anyone who would help them will all this, well, then it all gets ridiculous.

Y’all, if you are even remotely considering writing/publishing (or already are) you NEED to read that article!