Thursday, November 12, 2009

Nov. 12

The Romvets group was mentioned on the review sight "Smart Bitches, Trashy Books" yesterday with a link to our before and after pictures. So cool to see authors in uniform. (Yes, there is an old pic of me in uniform, too.)

As I mentioned earlier this week, Harlequin Enterprises has opened a new division called Carina Press.

This is Harlequin's entry into the electronic book world. They hope to offer e-books of all genres: romance, science fiction, mystery, thriller, etc. They will offer close to standard e-book royalities and at this time have no plans to put out print books. (That may change in future depending on demand.) According to their submission guidelines they are not looking for YA at this time. The first books will come out in the Summer of 2010.

I like the idea of writing e-books for an established "big" press. And so I submitted a book to them. It remains to be seen as to what kind of volume they will have--too many e-books released and your book will get lost in the crowd and earn very little. What actual distribution looks like--hey mention Carina's site and other distributors. And how the market for e-books grows-- with the Kindle, the Sony e-reader, books on ipods and iphones and now the new Noble reader, I think this is the new frontier of writing. As of right now I prefer print books and bookstores, but I do have many books already written and revised that don't fit the print marketing model and this would be a good outlet for them. But I won't be writing books specifically for the e-book market at this time. I'll keep you posted.

Let me know what your thoughts are about this issue. Is all the real money in e-books in the erotica market? Or will people pay for other genres...

3 comments:

  1. Nancy I've also been browsing the Carina site, and submitted an ms to them.

    I was hesitant at first because to me being published means one thing - a print book held in my hands.

    But since the mainstream publishing world seems to be getting smaller and smaller and only interested in big hits, best sellers with what appears to be less and less room for new, original voices, I've been wrestling with the alternative pubishing options.

    Self-publishing I can't get my head around. I've reached the same conclusion as you: I agree that e-publishing is the new frontier in publishing, and to be e-published with a large, established publisher such as Harlequin can only be a good platform for a new author.

    Good luck with your Carina submission! :)

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  2. I have a feeling ebooks will only become a bigger and bigger commodity--all types of ebooks. My home library is already crammed full with print books, I won't be able to fit much more in there. And I know the libraries where I've worked constantly have to withdraw old books to make room for new ones. So, economically speaking, it'll save lots of room to go ebook.

    Technologically speaking, EVERYTHING seems to be going online. Online banking, online billpay, online correspondance, online...everything. 10 years ago when I was in high school (ok, OK... 12 years ago, geesh), there was only one computer in the school that had internet. Today, each of my neices and nephews carries a laptop to class and each laptop is hooked up to the internet because that's how they turn in a majority of their assignments.

    Speed is another reason people could go ebook. Instead of waiting, waiting, waiting for the book they already waited ten months for its release to be delivered to them, after a couple clicks here and there, boom, they can have their highly anticipated story in seconds.

    That doesn't mean, I think print books will go extinct. I mean, how can you get your favorite author to send you an autographed copy of your favorite ebook? But I have a feeling ebooks will stick around too.

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  3. Hi Ann, Good luck with your submission!!

    Hi Linda, I agree. The biggest problem I see with e-books is there will be so many. How do you get people to find and read yours? Sort of like when the internet first started there was so much info and no way to search it...until yahoo and google. I'm hoping Someone figures out how to reach readers beyond what little a blog tour can do.
    Cheers!

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