"To put it bluntly, I'm not very technologically savvy," writes Erika Dreifus, the writing guru over at The Practicing Writer, explaining how an e-book company opened new doors for her career: "Even I could follow the instructions for getting started, and with my first e-book manuscript ready to go, I was able to publish it-- and begin selling it--within minutes."
Since signing up with a growing e-book company called Lulu, Dreifus has published a series of eight writing handbooks. Each volume explores a different kind of writing market, and she revises her text as the market evolves.
After checking out her digital library--ranging from the ultra-tough poetry market to the challenging world of literary contests--I picked Dreifus for my my deceptively simple feature: Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web publishing.
Jason Boog:
You have used ebooks to publish many different kinds of writing handbooks. What have you learned about ebooks and ebook readers? Would you recommend this method of publishing? Why?
Erika Dreifus:
As I've written elsewhere, I came to e-books through an experience publishing a hard copy of a writing handbook, a directory of what I call "no-cost contests" (competitions that don't charge reading/application/processing fees). I did this with the assistance of a print-on-demand company; the company automatically offered an e-book version on the sales page. The sales figures soon demonstrated that the e-books appealed to readers (perhaps because the e-book version was significantly cheaper than the hard copy).
And I soon realized that for material that needs to be revised on a regular basis (like my writing resource guides, which require frequent updates to keep market information current), e-books offer an attractive option, mainly because the process of publishing new "editions" is vastly simplified.
As with so many other aspects of writing (and life), e-publishing (and here I'll offer comments that I think apply to both print-on-demand and e-book options) has its advantages and disadvantages.
Among the advantages, I'd include:
1) Maintaining control over the content and appearance of your work, as well as over the marketing (and, generally, the pricing) of it.
2) Speed. You'll find that in most cases, electronic publishing allows you to publish your work much faster than traditional means.
3) Royalties will typically be higher than those paid in traditional contracts.
4) Editing ease makes e-book publishing a good option for writers whose work requires fairly frequent, subsequent editions.
Among some disadvantages, I'd note:
1) "Maintaining control" can be a good thing for some people, but others might be overwhelmed to have so much responsibility (including virtually all the marketing) beyond the actual writing of the text.
2) For many people--particularly those outside the author's circle of friends and family--books published through print-on-demand or other electronic means simply don't possess the same prestige or status as those published through traditional means. Most traditional review outlets don't review them.
3) I'm not sure how many readers actually prefer reading an e-book to the more traditional option, especially when the text is a long one.
In the end, I think each writer needs to decide for him or herself how appropriate or desirable an option e-publishing is for the work in question.
» Five Easy Questions, Erika Dreifus, Part Three from ThePublishingSpot
"To put it bluntly, I'm not very technologically savvy," writes Erika Dreifus, the writing guru over at The Practicing Writer, explaining how an e-book company rescued her fledgling career: "Even I could follow the instructions fo... [Read More]
Tracked on: April 20, 2006 7:57 AM | Permalink to Trackback