Who Really Benefits in the Growing Ebook/Epublishing World?

Not you. Not me.

Unless we're already successful published writers.

I've had 14 books published, but I'm still struggling to produce what Donald Maas calls the "breakout novel".



J.A. Konrath is a successful mystery writer. He has recently blogged about his experience in ebook publishing. He's made some serious cash at publishing his backlog. Enough cash that if it were me, I'd quit my day job over it.

A few years ago, horror and fantasy master Stephen King experimented with publishing a story on line. Interested readers had to pay $1.00 to read a story called "The Plant". He wrote the story in installments. He made over $100,000 on the venture. He never finished it (at least as far as I know), and I don't think he's doing this any more.



I recently read an article about a successful writer who is self-publishing all his new work through Lulu. I can't remember his name at this moment.

Ah . . . . do you see the rubs in the above paragraphs?

"J.A. Konrath is a successful mystery writer."

". . .horror and fantasy master Stephen King . . . ."

". . . successful writer who is self-publishing . . . ."

And that, boys and girls, is the secret to being successful in the fledging ebook publishing market--at least for now.

J.A. Konrath can do it. Stephen King can do it. That other guy whose name I can't remember can do it. Dean Koontz can do it. Lois Lowery can do it.



Hell, even Edgar Allen Poe can do it, and he was dead 160 years before e-publishing even entered the English lexicon.

Highly successful traditionally published writers will be highly successful published ebook writers because

1. they already have a fan base;
2. they have instant brand name recognition;
3. they have a backlog of previously published material they can offer that fan base in a new format--like when LPs gave way to 8-tracks,8-tracks to cassettes, cassettes to CDs, CDs to iPods, et cetera;
4. they are full-time writers who have had great success in their careers and that success gives them time to do the heavy promotion necessary to be successful in the ebook publishing arena;
5. AND, they usually have a BIG PUBLISHING HOUSE behind them, providing them with professionally designed texts, artfully designed covers, and professional editors to re-edit their works--and all that valuable and indispensable help COSTS THEM NOTHING!

So, when you and I read about their successes, that they made enough money from ebooks that would allow most of us to quit our day jobs, we salivate.

And we think, "Why not me?"

Why not?

Because most of us haven't "arrived" yet, that's why.

Sure, I know what you're thinking: Ha, I can show that Garmon some success stories of unknown writers who went on to be successful ebook writers!

Really? Off the top of your head? Or, must you do a Google search first? And just how many? In the digits, the tens, the dozens, the hundreds, the thousands?

Yeah, right.

Here's a good article to support what I'm talking about: Tick Here.

You and I have the same ancient desire of all writers throughout the history of the written language: to be published and to be read.

With the advent of Lulu, Authonomy, Booklocker, BookRix, Awe-Struck Ebooks, Tate Publishing, and a multitude of other POD and epublishers, "publishing" has never been easier for those of us craving "publication".

Of course, what is the very definition of "being published"?

Is being able to upload your opus with a simple tick of your Enter key or left mouse button to one of the hundreds of epublishers really "being published"?

Is garnering a few reviews from fellow writers, friends, lovers, and/or children the mark of a "successful" writing career?

For better or for worse, whether I like it not, the model for being a "successful" and a "published" writer still lies with the model that has existed since the 18th Century:

A reputable publishing house (micro, small, or large; regional, national, or international) buys your novel, pays you an advance and (hopefully) continuous royalties, puts your book cover on its own website, Amazon, et cetera.

Why is this still the best and only real measure of a "successful" writer?

Because each traditional publishing house--Random House, Penguin, Crickhallow, 4-RV, Simon & Schuster, Knoft, et al--operates FIRST as a BUSINESS and never as a STROKER OF EGOS, which is what Lulu, Authonomy, Booklocker, BookRix, Tate Publishing, and the hundreds of other PODs and self-publishing epublishers do.

More years will have to pass before the as-yet-discovered great writer is discovered solely through epublishing and such a model is the norm rather than the exception.

And when I am, it won't be through one of the hundreds of ego-stroking PODs and self-publishers (i.e., vanity presses), but through the epublishing divisions of Random House, Penguin, Crickhallow, 4-RV, Simon & Schuster, Knoft, et al.

See you on the bookselves.

Or, perhaps on the Kindle!



Larry Mike Garmon

The Fickle Finger of Fate, Agents, Editors, & Lovers

What' I'm reading now: Dashiell Hammett's short story anthology The Continental Op.

My wish list for the week:

1. A coffee cup that refills itself.
2. Ten more hours in my day.
3. Two sets of hands and two computers so I can type my story with one set of hands and one computer while I write my blog, network, grade student papers, critique my buddies' stories, and troll the Internet with the other pair of hands and the second computer.

Fickle is a good word to describe the pleasures of agents, editors, and publishers. At times I think "arbitrary and capricious" are more fitting.

In the days of old, an agent and the publisher would actually help to build a writer's career. A writer wrote, an agent sold, and a publisher published two or three or five small, good but unimportant novels to help the writer become known and established (much like 1960's groups pressing local and regional 45 rpm records). This is how a writer learned his craft and earned his chops --the pre-digital world's version of platform building.

Because that process is expensively prohibited now days, writers spend much time in college creative writing classes, attending seminars, participating in workshops, gathering at conferences, and workshopping with critique buddies to hone their craft and earn their chops.

Nowadays, each agent and each editor seek that next blockbuster novel and series rather than take a writer under his/her wing and develop him/her into a blockbuster writer.

Plus, every writer is trying to write that next blockbuster novel and series instead of just writing good stories as he/she learns her craft.

Serious writers spend much time researching agents and editors to learn what they are buying to sell.

Serious writers spend much time in market research to see what the public is buying from the sellers.

Then I read a comment like this from one of my favorite agent bloggers: "It's really all subjective when you get right down to it. I might not like your submission today, but if I had gotten it two weeks later, I might ask to see the entire manuscript."

Sometimes I feel as though they just walk outside and hold their fingers to the wind. Or, just toss up several slush pile queries and the one that lands face up, they ask the harried writer to send the entire manuscript.

In reality, I know agents and editors are just like me and you--we love books and we love to tell stories. A writer who approaches the agent and editor side of writing as though the agent and the editor are sharks or worms or haters of books had best become good friends with Lulu or AuthorHouse.

As with you and many other writers, I read several agent and editor blogs, and several of the agents and editors post queries, making comments about what they like and what they don't like about the hundreds of submitted queries and such.

From their comments, I surmise they are indeed at times "arbitrary and capricious" -- some even admit to breaking their own submission rules to accept a query's idea because they like the story's premise.

One even admitted, "There really aren't any rules" despite her agency's "strict submission rules" on her website.

Learning this is like learning Santa doesn't really exist--confusion, mistrust, frustration, and even anger swirl through me like small dust devils on a hot Southwest Oklahoma afternoon. (How's that for a mixed metaphor, eh?)

Perhaps it's the hundreds of thousands of years of male evolution screaming out from within me, but I like rules, and I like when the rules are followed. Makes my life so much easier..

Sometimes I feel like I'm riding a commuter train in India and the editors and agents are the conductors, all of whom are grabbing at the controls because each believes he/she knows how to drive better than the other; yet, few actually have a conductor's license.

As with you, I enter any contest that puts me closer to an editor, agent, and publisher.

I haven't made any of the winning lists yet--win, place, or show.

However, the same novel I have submitted to these monthly contests from which I have yet to receive a win, place, or show I have also submitted to agents and editors over the past few weeks.

So far, three out of five agents to whom I submitted this same novel have asked to see the entire manuscript and are reading it now (I hope I haven't just jinxed myself).

One of the agents who is reading my novel for representation was a judge in one of those contests that I didn't win, place, or show. I didn't even make the top 20 list.

But, now she's reading the same novel I had submitted to her for the contest because she found it to be a "unique and interesting idea" as well as "witty with a strong voice and well written."

Interesting, huh?

Writers and Agents are Lovers groping for each other in the dark--trying to figure out how to please his/her partner while not abandoning his/her own desires in the process.

See you on the bookshelves.

Larry Mike Garmon

PS: This blog was inspired by writing friend Helen Robertson who recently placed third in a monthly submission contest with an entry I had read and helped critique last fall--it's a very good story and will see print one day. Helen had submitted her entry to another contest and was soundly rejected by that one. She wrote to our Yahoo Group to show how fickle this whole business really is, and, thus, inspired me to blog about it.