If this blog was an object and not just cyber coding, it would have an inch of dust and dog hair. So why the return? Beside the fact that I am only talking to myself right now (and do I really need to write here in order to update myself), I am joining the world of ebooks.
Maybe.
I am seriously considering publishing my novel Strong Enough as an ebook. Of course the first question is, have I tried to publish it traditionally?
I have a small pile of rejections from an earlier draft. Since then I have revised my novel and, much like the manner in which I blog, the writing focus was inconsistent until two years ago. Though I must say, at my best, I am not as dedicated or prolific as some writers currently hitting the ebook market. WOW.
Determined to give my best effort, I've been researching agents and preparing my cover letters as I finalize my novel. So why am I now thinking about ebooks?
The mid-list novel.
I am an unknown author with a mid-list novel and that makes everything even more difficult. If only I liked vampires!!!!! (It is my belief that all those buggers need to be staked out in the sun, but I only think that as a reader. As a supporter of my peers I say, write! Write those vampire novels! Sink your teeth into the tweenies!)
Why not POD, then? My book would still be in print that way. See, POD was my back-up plan. My "if nothing good comes of my agent list after one year, I will turn POD" plan. But then I read an article about ebooks. Now I am sucking up blog posts by Amanda Hocking and Joe Konrath like the biggest, baddest undead blood sucker in the universe.
eReaders have finally come into their own. 2009 will be known as the year the world changed. Or something less self-congratulatory. But right now it seems to me that the eReader opportunity is primed for mid-list nobodies. There are only so many books available in ebooks and they're cheap. It also seems to me that if you own an eReader, you are chugging prose like a fraternity vampire at a blood kegger. What does that mean to me? There is an isolated group of hungry readers out there who could notice my little book!!!
See, getting my book onto a physical bookshelf amongst all the J.D. Robbs, Pattersons, and Classics in reprint is akin to being crowned Miss America without ever winning a prior pageant. (Okay, that was not my best.) Still, the likelihood of ever getting my book on a shelf so a roaming reader could stumble across me feels massively underwhelming.
Regardless of how I publish my book, be it traditional, POD, or ebook, I will have to work like a dog to get it noticed and read. Why not take my sweet little mid-list and enter her in the smaller pageant? She could earn a little respect in her talent competition and then we'll go home and drink a toast to each other.
So get ready folks for the debut of "Strong Enough" a wonderful work of women's fiction that will blow your mind. Or maybe, for a few hours, engage you with some quirky characters who prefer martinis to blood.
