E-publishing… aaaaargh!

What a strange thing this e-publishing business is.  Since signing up as a reviewer for Long And Short Reviews I’ve developed this horrified fascination with the whole thing.  Here are the realities:

• E-publishing is a growing force.
• Even so, it still has only a tiny piece of the whole pie.  That link details sales figures, but what’s interesting is to see out of an overall figure of $304.9 million (I added that up myself so bear in mind I’m bad with numbers) e-publishing clings to $5.1 million.  Not exactly impressive compared to, say, adult paperbacks, which accounted for $134.7 million.  And that’s in a month.
• E-publishers are apparently not regulated all that well.
• There is a sea of crap out there in ebook format.  I have no link for that, just my aghast grimace as I pass reviewing loads of ebooks because I cannot find anything good to say about them.
• There are also scores of seriously good ebooks out there.  Again you’ll just have to trust my happy grin as evidence.
• New authors have little chance of getting accepted by traditional publishers.  Their rejection rates range from 94 – 99%.  (scroll to the bottom when you go to the link).
• E-publishers have higher acceptance rates. This is good and bad news.  It’s good news because it means if you submit a manuscript to them, you have a better chance of being accepted.  It’s bad news because it COULD and in many instances certainly seems to mean they publish stuff that is poor quality.
• E-publishers have lower layout costs, no risk of returns, there are myriad stress factors they do not share with publishers who produce paper books.  Because of this, they can afford to take a chance on a new writer who would otherwise never get a chance to offer his/her writing to readers.

In short, the whole thing is enough to drive any writer to drink.  *she pours herself a glass of wine*

Here’s what I think:

The job of a writer is changing, has already changed dramatically since the internet became a part of our lives.  This is how I see the approach you should take if you decide to try an electronic publisher:

• You need to get your work as publish-ready as possible before submitting.  There should be not one single typo, not one misplaced comma or quotation mark in your manuscript. Get it to the point where you will not cringe if it is published as is.
• You must research every potential market for your book before submitting.  Does their website look clean and professional?  Have you read some of their titles, and were you suitably impressed?  Would you be proud to have your novel listed among their available titles?  Very important, have other titles been reviewed?  Many reviewers only give positive reviews, in other words if a book is bad it will simply not be reviewed.  If you can’t find reviews for the publisher’s books, that is a danger sign.  If they have been reviewed, were they highly rated?
• Look at the covers.  Would you be happy if your book had one of those?
• If your book is accepted, your next job is marketing.  You have to network.  Join readers’ groups and participate, so that when you do plug something of your own, it’s not out of the blue.  You have to become what a good writer friend of mine once referred to as a publicity whore (Hello, Mike).  But be savvy, and find innovative ways to do so.  Also, be sincere.  I’m a member of a plethora of readers’ groups, and so are many other romance writers.  You won’t believe how easy it is to spot a post that is made out of duty, in order to maintain a presence, rather than because the participant has something they want to say.  And it rankles.
• Get your book reviewed.

“But hang on,” I hear you think.  Yes, muwahaha, I can hear your thoughts.  “If I have to do all that, what is the purpose of the publisher?  Shouldn’t they be doing all this stuff?”

The job of the e-publisher, in my view, is the following:

• Choose good books to add to your list.
• Create attractive, professional-looking covers for them.  List them with an excerpt and links to reviews.
• Make buying books easy for customers.
• Get reviews for your books.  I know, I said that’s the author’s job, but I think this is one publisher and author need to work together on.
• Publishers should, should, should edit the books they accept.  The reality, however, is that many e-publishers only accept books that have already been polished to the point where they could take the place of the mirror in the Hubble telescope so that they don’t have to edit it as well.  That’s just the way it is.  If you don’t like it, find a place that does give editorial support, but don’t think you’re going to find the same level of it as you would at a traditional publisher. However much this is not right, it’s the reality of e-publishing as it is right now.  I don’t know how we can change it.

From the author’s point of view, the publisher is, in the end, a tool to legitimise your book.  It lifts it out of the diarrhoea-ocean that is self-publishing.  It gives you a foot in the door with reviewers, and perhaps readers should learn to rely on reviews rather than the name (0r lack of name) of any one publisher when deciding whether to buy a book.

And this post is getting way too long, so I’ll have to save the rest of my thoughts on the issue for another rant.