Welcome To The 21st Century

You'd think I'd be more up with current technology. I admit, I'm kind of 20th century.

Until recently I've pretty much had a one-track mind as far as my writing career goes.

1. Write lots of books. Good books. Fun books.

2. Get an agent.

3. Get a publisher and get published.

4. Become international best selling author. Or at least scrape by a living at it.

No problem, right?

Heh.

I mean, I can handle the first one. But the rest? It's pretty much the luck of the draw. There are loads of really good authors who can't get there work published. There are loads of absolutely rubbish books that do get published. (Trust me. I've tried to read some of them. Egads.)

That doesn't mean I will ever give up. I feel about writing and books the way I feel about chocolate. Which is: I'd give it up, but I'm no quitter.

But I digress.

The point is that I've been considering more and more going the e-book route. My 20th century brain is totally obsessed with print books and seeing my name on the shiny cover in Waterstones or B & N. The problem is, 21st century reality is that e-books are slowly taking over the planet. Not that print books will ever go away altogether. We humans are tactile creatures and there will always be those of us who love the print, but e-books are here to stay. And e-readers are so very Star Trek. I do love the thought of them.

I think I want to go the publisher route rather than self-publish. I just think there's a lot of benefit with having a publisher, especially for a newbie, and there are some really great e-publishers out there with proven track records.

I also think it's important to research. A lot. It's crucial to understand your craft, your medium, your market, and everything that goes along with it so that you can make informed decisions and plan for future success.

So, I've been reading up a lot on the internetz. Some of it's gobbledygook, but I've come across a few people who know quite a lot about e-books and the e-pub business and who are happy to share their knowledge with newbies.

Piers Anthony (Yes, THAT Piers Anthony.) has a fantastic resource on his website. Basically he's done something similar to what Preditors & Editors has done and provided non-biased feedback on several different publishers both traditional and e-pub. His information is invaluable and he most kindly answered via email some questions I had about e-publishing. In fact, I was surprised at how quickly he answered my query and I'm most grateful.

Voirey Linger is the author of erotic romance e-books published by Ellora's Cave. She's a smart, savvy lady who is more than happy to share her experiences and knowledge. I came across Voirey through a thread on Nanowrimo's forum about e-books and e-publishing. Her comments are thoughtful, informative and well presented. I definitely found her information to be helpful. I haven't read her e-books yet, but they're definitely on my to-be-read list now!

It's writers like these, those who take their time to help a virtual nobody, who make me so proud of this profession, this craft, this obsession.