Today, I decided to chronicle my journey from a paperback writer to the world of Kindle. Mind you, I am no expert on E-book publishing and am now just getting my feet wet on this new paradigm I know will dominate the book industry in the years to come. Actually, we may be talking months or a few short years. Amazon just announced that its Kindle book sales have overtaken its paperback sales for the months of January and February. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20029839-1.html.
Now, that's something to sink your author's teeth in. To think that only a few months ago, I was pooh-pooing the idea. E-books taking over? "Bah, it will never happen," I scoffed at a writer friend when he mentioned his intention of publishing with Kindle. "Total waste of time," I added. "People like to feel the paper, mark the book by folding the page. They love the smell of an old book, the crispness of a new one."
"You mean dinosaurs like you," he countered. "Look around you, man." He waved a stubby hand across the café whose tables were crowded with latte-sipping, tablet-toting, I-phone squinting Berkeley students. I followed his gaze. Almost every person in the room had an open laptop, netbook, or tablet.
My mind went bling! It was like a foreshadowing. The world was changing and I had been ignoring it all along. The plane was on the runway. If I didn't get on, I was in danger of getting left behind.
That night, I scoured Amazon's FAQs and set out to create a Kindle account. To my technology-challenged relief, the process was painless. Just follow the yellow brick road, the Kindle munchkin said. The system asks you to enter pertinent information such as the price of your book (I'll be damned if I'd price it at 99 cents like so many others have done, so I settled for $4.99), your preferred royalty arrangement, the account where you want your royalties sent, etc. Then you upload the book cover and the manuscript, and viola. You're published. You can even preview the book before it goes live.
Let's do this, I thought in glee. I was about to push the PUBLISH button when I stopped myself. Whoa, man! Think about this for a moment. What about your agent? What will she think? You see, I'm represented by a big literary agency in New York. Trident Media Group or TMG as they like to call themselves. There are certain things I'm not allowed to do contractually.
A short back story on this. When I entered A LIGHT IN THE CANE FIELDS in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award competition, it received a tour-de-force review from Publishers Weekly. The reviewer called it a masterful choreography, whatever that meant. The novel made it as a top semifinalist that year, receiving over forty five-star customer reviews, mostly from Amazon's Vine Reviewers. My soon-to-be agent must have seen dollar signs because she asked for the manuscript on the same day I queried her. Two days later, she tied me up with an extended four-year contract. Heck, I was seeing dollar signs too. Who wouldn't? In fact, another agent from Waxman Literary Agency also wanted to represent me but I already signed up with Trident (I wish I had gone with him). As you can imagine, that sent my heart soaring. I was in writer's heaven. Finally, finally, finally! I had scrabbled up graveled slopes and the summit was now in sight.
But the high was short-lived. When half a dozen editors passed on the novel for one reason or the other, I found myself falling off the proverbial cloud. When another half dozen editors passed, I knew the ache from the fall would be excruciating. It was. And it lingered. As the months dragged on, I fell into a funk. I couldn't write, I couldn't sleep. It was as if the creative energy had been sucked out of me. Each day that passed without positive news elicited a simmering condemnation of the publishing world. Negative thoughts assailed me. It confirmed to me that commercial editors were the clueless gods of the book world. They could make or unmake a writer with a wave of the scepter.
It has been two years since I signed up with Trident and the book remains unsold. The agent from Waxman promised to reconsider taking it on after I grovelled hat in hand. But should I fire my Trident agent? Is a bird in hand really better than two in the bush? In this case, I don't think it is. That's when an inner voice started making itself heard: "Pave your own way," it urged. "You can't wait forever."
It was with this frame of mind that I stared at Kindle's PUBLISH button that evening. Like a forbidden apple, it seemed to be enticing me. Do it, baby. Do it! it coaxed. I took a lungful of air. Should I? Come on now, baby. Don't be shy. Do it! I held my breath, ground my teeth, and pressed the PUBLISH button. In that instant, quick as a finger-snap, I beamed my novel, THE BAND OF GYPSIES into the Kindle abyss.
A month passed and I forgot about the whole thing. I mean, who would find my book in that black hole? There are over 800,000 titles on Kindle. Then, a couple of days ago, my wife who handles our finances asked me about a series of $1.75 credits from Amazon on our February bank statement.
I scratched my head, thinking that they were proceeds from the paperback version of THE BAND OF GYPSIES. But the book had been out of print for years. So I checked my Amazon reports. Lo and behold, the credits turned out to be royalties (35%) from sale of my Kindle book in the last week of February. True, the royalties were barely enough to cover a Coke and a Carl's Jr. six-dollar burger (jeez, is that how low I've sunk)? But I earned them without having to pay or do anything. Think of the possibilities, I told myself. What if I promoted my Kindle book? And what about my other books? It would be a snap to send them into Kindle Space.
*Stay tuned for the next episode of BEAM ME INTO THE KINDLE WORLD when I venture into B&N's Nook space.
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