Eideard

You won’t hear it said in many publishing houses these days, where those editors and managements who have survived the 10% cull in their numbers following the credit crunch now appear frozen in the headlights of the onrushing digital revolution. But from the point of view of authors, these are potentially exciting times.

Because, although advances have been slashed, and literary agents are wringing their hands at the difficulties in finding publishers for all but the most guaranteed fiction, change is on the way. With Apple’s iPad recently joining Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony Reader as devices for reading downloaded books, power in publishing might just be shifting in the authors’ favour…

With the news that Amazon now sells almost twice as many digital books as hardbacks in the US, it’s clear that publishing is changing. And if publishers can sell their books online, why can’t writers?

Actually, they can. It isn’t difficult. Anyone who is computer savvy can become a publisher these days. I know, because I’ve just become one.

I’m now Ray Connolly, writer, editor-in-chief and head of marketing of Plumray Books, and any one of the 2 billion computer-owning people in the world who wants to read my new novel, The Sandman, can do so at the click of a mouse. It’s being serialised chapter by chapter on my website where, over the next 10 weeks, it will build like a part-work. In the words of a friend, I’m “doing a Dickens”.

What’s more, it’s free – although should any readers want to find out how the The Sandman ends before October, and hopefully quite a few will, they can download the entire book for less than the cost of a paperback. After that it will go on to Amazon.

With one digital bound, I’ve become an entrepreneur. There’ll be an iPod version later, for those who want to listen to it being read, and of course there will be Facebook and Twitter links. Having begun this new career as an ePublisher, I feel empowered. As a one man band, I have nothing to lose.

Yes I will read it and join the throng of readers following authors directly online.

Big publishers are flocking to the iPad, readying to publish electronic versions of their bestselling books on Apple’s much-anticipated tablet device due to launch April 3. But smaller publishing houses are making the move, too, including self-publishing service Smashwords.

Smashwords, a site where writers can publish their own e-books, said today it has signed a distribution deal with Apple to put its books into the iPad iBookstore. Mark Coker, chief executive of Smashwords, said in an email to authors that his company has been working on the deal ever since the iPad was announced. And, yes, this means that unpublished authors can sell their work on the Apple iPad at virtually no cost…

The company also said it is adding ISBN (International Standard Book Number) support as required by Apple, and it is preparing a large delivery of books to Sony’s e-book store. Apple’s requirement is that all e-book prices end in .99, so you can sell at 99 cents, $1.99 etc. The price must also be less than the print counterpart. The distribution cost to get the book on the iPad is free. Smashwords and Apple divide the remaining 40 percent of the e-book price.

Maybe I’ll get round finishing my High Desert Mediterranean cook book, eh?