Tag Archives: ebooks

June 21, 2011 · 11:12 am

Formatted

So, it looks like I might actually be on track to get the book published by Friday/Saturday. I still don’t have a cover and I still haven’t written the introduction.

But

I figured out how to do the table of contents, something that’s been holding me up for months. But now, when you open up my book on your Kindle, you can go to any story you want with no fuss. That’s probably the thing I’m most excited about. It’s been my excuse for so long, my way of avoiding getting the book out there.

In fact, most of the formatting is done. I’ve even done some early tests and it looks just like I hoped it would. I should really read through the whole thing and make sure of it, but that’s for later.

And I’m getting excited, because for the first time I actually think this might happen. Most of the time, it’s been this vague thing that will happen at some point in the future, just as soon as I get around to it. But now, there’s actual progress and it’s marching steadily along. And even if there’s a set-back (or a dozen of them), I think I’ll be able to push through it and keep on going.

So, I want all of you to be ready, because “Tales of the Whispering Mad and the Mis-Dead” (Emily gave me the title, for free!) will be out on the Kindle THIS Saturday.

Dylan Charles

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March 29, 2011 · 10:52 am

Do-It-Yourself Publishing

The idea of self-publishing a book seems like cheating to me. I would be bypassing all the rites of passage that a writer must go through in order to see their work in print. I wouldn’t have an agent. I wouldn’t have a publisher. I wouldn’t go through the painful and necessary process of rejection after rejection.

And then when I finally did get published, that’d be a sign that I had made it. That there were people willing to pay me cashy money for my work and take a chance on me doin’ good. Self-publishing always makes me think of some dude heading down to Kinkos with the poems he wrote in 9th grade.

But, lately, I keep hearing stories about people using Kindle Direct Publishing and how those people are managing to support themselves with their writing. This is the one thing that I want to be able to do. I want to live off my writing. I don’t want to work retail for the rest of my life. To me, that would be the real measure of success. Not whether or not a publishing company considers me marketable, but whether or not I can quit my day job and just…write.

So I’m going to try it. I’m going to publish a collection of my short stories, which will then be available wherever Amazon ebooks are sold.

Stay tuned.

Dylan Charles

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January 28, 2011 · 5:06 pm

Where did all the bookstores go?

 

photo by Emily Wachtel

 

 

Bookstores, the ones built of brick and mortar anyway, are in serious trouble. The two big heavyweights, Barnes and Noble and Borders, are suffering and they’re struggling to survive.

Given that Amazon.com now sells close to 50% of all book sales in North America, it looks like the only place someone might see Barnes and Noble or Borders in ten years will be online, if at all.

Big name bookstores are looking less and less viable, at least, in their current incarnation.

This really isn’t news for anyone who’s been paying attention. Online bookstores, which cut overhead costs and cut book prices, and the popularity of ereaders are doing their damage. What’s shocking to me is how little emotion I feel about it.

It is sad that these stores are in trouble. I don’t want to see them go out of business, if only for the sake the employees who work there, but that’s about the extent of my emotional involvement. I believe it’s inevitable that the brick-and-mortar megabookstore will cease to exist at some point. Over the next ten years or so, they’ll exist in a very limited capacity, dotting the landscape like aging woolly mammoths.

The bookstores that will survive, I think, are those locally owned, used bookstores. They peddle in wares you can’t so easily get and they offer people the ability to browse in a more visceral way. That might be enough to keep them going.

My apathy comes not from a hatred of books. I love books. I want people to read lots of books, all the time. Society needs books and ideas and the written word to stay healthy. But, to that end, anything that gets people books is a good thing. Anything that makes the process easier and quicker is a good thing. Online bookstores mean you can find what you want quickly and get it (eventually). Ereaders cut that time even shorter.

There are changes, big changes coming to the book selling industry, but those changes are the result of more efficient systems taking their place. It’s not the death of books or the death of bookstores. It’s just the next step in their evolution.

Dylan Charles

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