Alternative Publishing 2008

By Edna Curry

 

            I've published six electronic books so far, two with Hard Shell Word Factory, one with Fiction Works and three with Diskus Publishing.

            I'm talking here about the independent e-publishers, not the NY publishing house branches, like SS, iWarner or eHarlequin, which is a whole different ballgame. So far, the NY publishers are mostly just reprinting their print books or their back lists in electronic form, not publishing original e-books. Though some are now bringing out their books in various electronic and Kindle formats at the same time the print books come out. Great trend.

            First of all, let me say that this is about alternative publishing -- that is, I'm talking about ways to go with manuscripts that don't fit the NY publishers' guidelines, or are 'outside the box.' I'm not suggesting that e-publishing, small press short print runs or Print On Demand (POD)are, or should be, your first or best choice. The big money is still in NY and probably will be for several more years, except for erotica, which is doing very well online.. On the other hand, your e-book will stay on the shelf for years, instead of a few weeks like with some NY print publishers like Harlequin or Silhouette. Though even those publishers are now keeping their electronic versions available much longer than before.

            E-publishing isn't that different in that you have to check out your publishers. There are scams in e-publishing the same as there are in print publishing and vanity publishing. So check them out and be careful. A good rule of thumb is, if they ask you for money, run. They pay you, you don't pay them.

            The various publishers like and publish different types of books. You check them out the same way you check out the NY publishers, you go to their sites and look at what kinds of books they publish. If you want to submit to one, you read some of their books to see what they like. You wouldn't submit to Harlequin or Avon without reading some of their books, would you?

            Also, go to their sites and download their submission guidelines and contracts, to see what you're getting into before submitting. The Association of Electronic Publishers (AEP) has a list of their members who follow certain guidelines. But, there's been some squabbling, so not all the top e-pubs belong to that association.

            The first thing I'm usually asked about e-publishing is "What is different about it?" Most of the steps are the same as with print publishers. That is, you submit, then wait forever for a decision. You may or may not be asked to do revisions. Then there are copyedits, galleys, cover suggestions, etc.

            Differences are: most contacts with your publisher are by e-mail instead of snail mail. They send you "the call" by e-mail as well as your cover, etc. I even got one of my POD contracts by e-mail.

            And you submit the manuscript by e-mail with most of them.  Be sure to download a copy of their latest guidelines if you plan to submit to them. Some close to submissions when they get behind in reading them.

            Their guidelines will tell you which format to submit your manuscript in. Most require an e-mail attachment in Word or RTF format. Usually they want single spacing and italics instead of underlining for internal thoughts, etc.

            Another nice difference is that most e-publishers publish their contract on their website, so you can read it and see if you like their terms before you submit to them. Don't expect any fast answers except from the very newest and untried and thus most risky, publishers.

            Probably the most important difference is the contracts themselves. NY publishers usually (with a couple of exceptions), require you to give them all rights to your manuscript for a number of years, I've often heard seven years, but that probably varies. Then, you have to demand your rights back to get them, and often show that your book has been out of print for a certain period of time.

            With most independent e-publishers, you only 'lease' them electronic rights for one year, renewable by mutual consent. You keep all your other rights, such as audio, hardcover, paperback, movie, etc. and many authors have sold these separately. Most contracts also have a nice 'out' clause in case you're unhappy. Either you or your publisher can give the other written notice to cancel your contract within 90 days.

            Then, there are royalties. E-publishing standard is to get a statement every quarter instead of twice a year. The standard rates are 30-50% of the download price. Again, this may vary a bit from publisher to publisher. And there's usually a clause saying you get less if your book is sold through a bookstore because there, the bookstore gets a big cut. In that case, the company usually splits the 'net' price that they get from the bookstore with you. The same with print on demand (POD) contracts, though the royalty rate on the print contracts is usually only 10-20% because of the higher cost of print books.

            Another nice difference is that you usually get to have a lot more say in your cover (some artistic people have even done their own), you can write your own back cover blurb (though they may change it) and you usually get to keep your own title.

            Hard Shell sent my galleys by snail mail. The other two did theirs by e-mail. I don't like that as well, because the editor had already made the changes she wanted and it was impossible to see what she'd changed without comparing the original word for word.

            Just like in print publishing, unless you're a big name, you have to do some of your own self-promotion. Most e-publishers have a list of places they send your book to for reviews. You can send your own galleys to more places if you want. There are lots of places both print and online who do reviews. So, depending on your personality, you can do as much or as little promotion as you like.

            E-publishing is still very new. Sales are still slow, although I know of a few people who've sold in the thousands.  Sales should improve as more people get used to reading on their computers, Iphones or PDA’s. Amazon's new Kindle came out in November, 2007 and they haven't caught up to demand yet. Amazon has 125,000 books available now in Kindle format and is adding to that number daily. The ease of buying a book with one click any time, any place you have a Sprint Whispernet connection is really catching on. And the idea of reading a free sample chapter first to see if you like the book is also a great feature. I'm sure they will soon work out putting college textbooks on a similar reader. That's when ebooks will really take off.

            Some new e-readers have a combination of the features of e-readers and the PDAs. Whether they catch on and take the place of Palm pilots out there now remains to be seen. They're still a couple hundred dollars, but that hasn't stopped 7 million people from buying the PDAs like the Palm pilots. And these have more uses and the price will come down, just like it did for VCRs.

            They have modems to download books from anywhere you have a phone line, which is nice if you're traveling and don't want to pack a lot of books, or if you like to read your own newspaper or the WSJ or TV guide or magazines. So they'll probably appeal to the traveling business people crowd. Some e-readers can also play audio books and music, but of course, since voice and music take a lot more memory than text does, you are limited by the amount of memory they have.

My original Rocket ebook held about 20 full novels. Now I have an Amazon Kindle that can hold hundreds and a million books or more if I use memory cards. Text doesn't take a lot of space and memory cards measure their space in gigabytes these days. So you can carry your whole library in your purse or satchel. 

 Also, I can convert any of my own .doc, .txt, .prc or HTML files to the encrypted Kindle format by sending it to my Amazon account to be converted in minutes. For 10 cents each, they will send it directly to your Kindle or it's free if you email it back to your computer and sent it to your Kindle yourself via USB cord. Extra steps, but simple to do and only takes seconds once you know how.

Mobipocket has similar free software on their website. You can convert the millions of free classic, out of copyright, books out there to your Kindle format.

            The biggest problem with the e-readers so far is the same problem VCRs and early word processors had when they first came out. Each company makes them differently. As soon as they all accept one language, more people will accept them as well, I'm sure.

@Copyright Edna Curry

            The following lists are by no means complete, but consider them a place to start your research on this subject. Remember that I'm not endorsing these. Always do your research. Check them out at Epic http://www.epic.compreditors and editors,  as well as look up their authors and talk to them about any problems. What may be acceptable to someone else may not be for you.

E-publishers

 

 http://www.amberquill.com/

http://www.awe-struck.net

http://www.cerridwenpress.com/index.asp

http://www.ellorascave.com/

http://www.diskuspublishing.com

http://www.fictionworks.com

http://www.hardshell.com

http://www.ltdbooks.com/

http://www.newconceptspublishing.com

http://www.wickedvelvet.com/

http://www.wings-press.com/

http://www.zumayapublications.com/

 

 

Book Stores that sell e-books:

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.fictionwise.com

www.ereader.com

http://www.bookbooters.com

http://ebookad.com/

http://www.powells.com

 

E-Reader info:

The Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/kindle

Sony reader:  http://www.sony.com

 

Palm Pilot: http://www.palmpilot.com

http://www.ereader.com/welcome/whatisereader.html

Here's a video demo of the new Iliad: It has a price tag of $699!! and seems
to work very similar to my old Rocketebook. (Though it has a larger screen
and will accept PDF documents, which seem to want.) Looks like this one may
work for textbooks.

http://blip.tv/file/741384

Compare features and current prices for Palm pilots, ebook readers and pocket pcs made by various companies at http://www.buy.com.

The End.

                   

 

"It is impossible as well as egotistical to think you can invent any plot which has not reverberated throughout history hundreds of times."--F. A. Rockwell.

 

"Happiness is like a butterfly.  The more you chase it, the more it will elude you.  But if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and softly sits on your shoulder." --Anonymous.