My first novel is now out for the Kindle and the Nook.

[Pab Sungenis]

I have decided that I have no future in the "publishing biz" and will never have a publisher or agent who will ever pick up anything I've ever written again, so I have gone to the dark side and e-published.



I wrote the first draft of Go To Hell over a period of 21 days during February and March of 2009. I was asked to write it by my then-agent, who wanted a story about a reformed bully to take to an editor specifically looking for such a story. When I sent her the first draft, the agent read the first five pages before passing on it. I spent the next two years in rewrites and polishes, and now despairing of ever getting it sold, I've put it out for those who want to read it.

The blurb is as follows:

Not only is there life after death, there is employment.

When high school senior, football star, and all around jerk Ryan Harper is accidentally killed, the man he thought was a talent scout hands him a card: “Go to Hell, go directly to Hell, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.00.”

Once there, he is offered a fascinating opportunity: instead of burning down below, he can opt to join a new employment program they’re launching to compete with the whole “guardian angel” thing. He tentatively agrees, and wakes up in a new body, transferred to a new school, and with his first assignment: just stay close to his new classmate Amanda. That’s all he has to do, just stay close and let things happen naturally.

However, as he fends off bullies who make his new life as difficult as he made other kids’ before, deals with a bunch of goth kids who fawn all over him when he drops a pamphlet entitled “So You’re Dead, Now What?” near them accidentally, and faces the unintended consequences of a budding romance with his assignment, he discovers that he might just be along the wrong career path. Only Heaven, and a few lucky Community Chest cards, can save him now.

I've put it in the Kindle and Nook stores for those who want to give it a try. If it sells well enough maybe I'll put out my other unsold books (Mall Bats and The Sidekick) and maybe even consider writing another one.

It's not fun when dreams, like mine of being a published author, die. But maybe I can pick up some of the pieces here.

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Welcome to the world of self-published e-books!

I made that move last year, and I have no regrets.

Have you considered Smashwords? That gets your book into a number of other outlets, as well -- Apple, Sony, Kobo, and one or two others.

[yellerpup]

2. Good for you.

The publishing world has changed. I wish you the best of luck with your new book and all your other books.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Well, that is the future

in some ways the industry is shooting itself on foot.

Anyway, going on vacation... so just loaded it on the Nook. Five hour flight... instead of readying some hard nosed US History...

:-)

Perhaps when I am done with the heavy rework of the Future Nexus World... characters were really asking... and doing the rewrite away from the sci fi for gaming fiction. So let's just say this is far darker.

Male rape and it's effects, yep... torture... absolutely... aliens, why not? Let's just say it is a comment on the bush years set in the 35th century

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Maybe it's now the present

Amazon just said that they're now selling 105 Kindle e-books for every 100 print books (hardcover & softcover combined).

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Yep...

and the industry has not renewed their stables. I went to the Maui Writers in 2003 and one of the agents was predicting a dire future... for the American industry. Nobody is grooming the next Stephen King.... for example...

My BIL went to the San Diego Writers, lets see if next year I can finally go... one reason or the other... but from what he has told me, things have gotten far worst.

So pretty much "new talent" will be stuck to self publish now as well.

[SheilaT]

6. Wow. 105 to 100. That's a huge difference

isn't it?

No, it's a bare plurality. And I am not exactly the only reader in North America without a Kindle. In fact, I don't buy a lot of books these days because I currently can't afford to. I go to the library. THAT'S a novel idea, isn't it? Checking books out instead of buying them. And DON'T bother to point out that I can check out books on my Kindle because I DON'T HAVE A KINDLE AND I DON'T INTEND TO GET ONE. What part of that are the Everything is Electronic All Print Is Obsolete people having trouble understanding. Print is not obsolete. It's got a very very very long time if ever before it is.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Print is, has become obsolete, for a percentage of the population

I could not carry half the book I am currently carrying in the IPAD (plus PDFs) physically on a trip.

This does not mean that print is dead... but print is NO LONGER the dominant form... it is a FORM of distribution.

Now you may not have a kindle, but my local library system also loans ebook readers, as in the actual hardware. And now the publishers have to come with ways for libraries to handle that side. It will be transparent to you... but not to the libraries.

[SheilaT]

8. But that percentage is still less than

50 percent of the population. I get riled up by those who say: Print is Dead. And those who won't put out books in print form. Just wait until the format changes and your current Kindle is no good anymore. Meanwhile, any ordinary print book is still totally accessible so long as you can read the language it's printed in.

I know libraries can lend books on kindle. But there are still drawbacks to the electronic form. For instance a while back someone here posted a link to Life Magazines, all of which have been scanned and can be looked at on-line. Great. Except that quite a few photographs that they print are printed across two pages. And you can only look at one page at a time. Looking at half a photograph just doesn't work very well for me.

I also like the ability to flip back and forth between different sections of a physical book, something that really isn't as easy to do on a screen

Because there are still millions and millions of physical books out there, they are going to remain useful and usable through many different iterations of the electronic versions. And if, god forbid, we ever have an EMP that wipes clean all sorts of electronics, your kindle will be nothing more than a paperweight. While I can continue reading all my real books.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. And that's why everyone should chisel books by hand

on rocks.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Why I wrote IT IS ONE FORMAT OF DISTRIBUTION

That said, within a generation academic textbooks will mostly be electronic. So that generation will not care for paper.

The industry knows the age of the trade is coming to an end... Ten to fifteen years trades will be rare, and hard covers will be it. I can foresee print on demand trades though.

[SheilaT]

12. About thirty years ago

when credit cards were becoming increasingly common, the imminent demise of cash money was widely predicted.

I still use the stuff every single day.

If print books go out of existence, then millions of people in this country alone will lose access to books. As quaint as this may sound, not everyone can afford a new fancy electronic devise just to read books.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Nobody has said they will disappear.

But TRADE paperbacks are on the way out.

This is not me saying it...it's the industry saying this...


That does not mean books will be gone. None is saying this... But trades will at the very least go down severely in print runs. Trades are your cheap editions, your cheap books. Hard covers will remain, FYI.

Libraries are now using ebook distribution, and you already own a fancy readying device. We call it a computer. All fancy electronic devices have put out readers formatted for windows, Mac, iPad, android and a few in linux. Yes, you can read that kindle book on your computer right now. This is why sales of electronic books have already outpaced paper books in the us ( and abroad).

As to credit cards... Yes we still use cash... But I don't know about you, but I still use that fancy bank card every darn day too. This is what is happening. And as I am concerned, for reasons that are very specific to how the industry has not supported a new generation of writers...yes there is a crisis coming, I will look at foreign markets and yes, both print on demand and electronic distribution. One Sam Clemens used the technology of his time to self publish huck Finn. that is what pab is talking about. Of course there is also a good reason why oh British books are written for adults and American not so much anymore, and why American authors writing for both markets write very different books.

[Tansy_Gold]

16. That "bare plurality" has developed in just a few years

Technology changes all the time. I've got a cabinet full of vinyl and no working turntable, but you don't hear me cursing the CD, the iPod, the MP3 (even though I hardly know what those last two are). I have a marvelous SLR that I paid $400 for when $400 was a helluva lot of money. Am I whining over the rise of the digital camera? Hell no!

And I have a house full of books. Thousands of them (literally). And if I could trade them in for e-versions tomorrow, I'd do so. I'm already downloading free and inexpensive e-versions of some of them.

As far as technology making itself obsolete, the e-publishing industry has a vested interest in making sure formats are upgradable. Hell, I just accessed some digital documents I created six computers ago in a DOS-version of Word Perfect. But my WP X4 opened 'em right up like they were brand new. Remember, if the e-readers become obsolete, so do all the digital books in the publishers' and booksellers' inventory. There might be some consolidation over the next few years and you might see the demise of one or two of the current crop -- Kindle, Nook, Kobo and Sony are the dominant brands now and they may not all be around for long -- but there will be conversions available. (Remember the 8-track tape? The Betamax?)

Access to reading material is not just a matter of being able to read. Many people can't use a library because they don't have the leisure time or the transportation or they don't live in an area served by one. Imagine if they had access to a device that allowed them to read (but not "own") any book in their local "public" library? The cost will continue to go down, just as it did for cell phones and iPhones and laptop computers. (For comparison's sake, I bought my first PC clone in 1986. It had 256K memory, two 5 1/4 floppy drives, no hard drive, no graphics, no sound, monochrome monitor and it cost $2,200.

Kindle has a free application for your PC. Try it. You might like it.


TG, who did and does

[spinbaby]

11. Let us know how it goes

I've considered publishing for Kindle to get some kind of a second career going if I should lose my job as a corporate writer.

[TuxedoKat]

13. Good luck

with your book. It sounds intriguing and I will get it for my Nook. Happy to support a DU author.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. Congratulations!

[Tansy_Gold]

17. So, how's it doing? n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. I have to read it one of these days

I did get it.

:-)