Home | Books | Limited Editions | Pending Works | Gallery | Blog | Wiki | Quotes | Author Events | About The Author
Clarifying My Stance on Print Books
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 11:40am
Short URL: http://roiurl.net/KWrpiR

Alright, apparently my recently comments about print books (and my apparent abandoning of them) have gotten a bunch of people confused.  So let me take a few moments to clarify my stance so everyone's aware of what's going on.

1.  Am I abandoning print books completely?

The answer to this is ABSOLUTELY NOT!  Lots of people still buy print books, and they prefer them.  However, since they are quickly becoming a niche market and ebooks are rising rapidly to take the job of preferred publishing and distribution platform, I am shifting my focus over to them.  I still still sell print books for as long as there is a demand for them, and I will still sign printed books.  But they're no longer my main focus.

2.  If I'm going primarily ebook, why aren't my titles in more locations?

Well, for one, I'm still new to ebooks, and it takes time to go through the proper channels to get maximum distribution.  One of those channels, believe it or not, is through book distributor Ingram.  As with any big organization, there is multiple stages of bureaucracy, paperwork (yes, there's still paperwork, even if it's all digital), processing, propagation, and so much more.

It's sorta like the old Lord of the Rings joke which says, "One does not simply walk into Mordor."  The same is true with ebooks.  One does not simply click on a button and suddenly you have wide distribution.  It takes time.  Sure, some indie authors might call shenanigans on that.  Personally, I call shenanigans on them in return.  I work in the IT field (my day job is as a contract programmer and network/systems admin) and know that this stuff doesn't just happen overnight.  

Most likely they've used several "cheat" tricks, such as Smashwords, who distributes to multiple outlets across the web, as well as preemptively loaded all their ebooks at the various distribution points long before they announced that their books would be released in order to ensure that the wait from announcement of their efforts to fulfillment of them would appear short.

Trust me, it's a well seasoned trick.  In fact, many of the big companies I've worked for do that almost religiously.  It makes you look like a miracle worker, or at the very least, makes others think you're better than you are because your books appear in the system much quicker than theirs.  That's because they make it look that way.  In reality, it takes time to get your books into distribution, especially if you're going through a publisher.

Sure, if you did it yourself you could probably get your books into the wild much faster than you could if you went through your publisher.  But in doing so you sacrifice the power of your publisher for a little bit of speed to market.  In the end you have a greater marketing workload, and your peaks won't last as long.  So the slow but sure approach is my preferred method.  So if it takes me a little longer to get my ebooks into distribution, I'm fine with that as it means that they'll stay on top longer once they get there.

3.  Will I be selling signed print copies in the future?

Absolutely!  I haven't given up on print books.  I've merely changed my core focus toward ebooks.  But I will still continue to sell and sign print books for as long as there is demand.  I'll also continue selling them via events and my website for the foreseeable future.  The only catch is, due to recent issues with Paypal, I have forced me to cancel my account with them (let's just say they went epic evil x2).  Thus I'm now without a means by which to sell signed copies via my website.  As soon as I have that resolved, I'll begin selling print copies of my books via my website again.  If you still want a copy but don't need it signed, you can always buy my book via Amazon.

As for doing signed copies at events, yes, I'm still doing those.  I admit that my schedule is blank at the moment due to a few family issues preventing me from doing anymore events until further notice, so I don't know when I'll be back out to sign books at events again.  But as soon as I know, I'll be making the appropriate announcements.  If you still want a signed print copy of any of my books, just shoot me an email and I'll work out some way to get you a copy.

Well, I hope this explanation has been sufficient.  If you have any other questions, please let me know.  Thanks.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *
Comments

No Comments

The Author

Steven Lake is a published, experienced sci-fi novelist, and author of the famous Earthfleet saga and The Dreamland Articles. To learn more about the author, click here. Also, don't forget to check out the author's books here.

Latest Blog Posts

  • The Sparrow Syndrome
  • Books available for Free Reading Month Giveaway
  • The Epublishing Bubble Is About To Burst
  • Read A Book, Get A Free Book!
  • Looking for Feedback Readers for Rathul
  • Print is now officially dead
  • Calling All Programmers: I Need a Libre/Open Office Plugin!
  • Another Way To Tackle Writer's Block
  • The Year in Writing - 2012 Predictions and Plans
  • Follow me on the Social Web!
  • Clarifying My Stance on Print Books
  • Explanation of Portal Transporters
  • Books to Movies - Don't Go There
  • Dealing with Writer's Block
  • Doing Author Events in the Digital Age
  • A Fish Out Of Water
  • When God Takes Up The Pen
  • The Introduction
  • Updated Author Event and Toolkit Guide
  • Preserving Your Literary Legacy In The Digital Age
  • Pride vs Humility
  • The Unrealistic Author
  • I'm looking for website work
  • The Transition to Ebooks - Winners and Losers
  • Setting Roles For Your Characters
  • Shrinking the Character
  • 10 things that will improve your writing
  • Earthfleet, for Free!?
  • The King of Incidental Characters
  • Offworld Chronicles - Book 1 rough draft done
  • If life were easy, we'd have nothing to write about
  • Print vs Ebooks: Which is best for you?
  • Sorry for the lack of updates
  • Current Book Status Report for August
  • 10 tips for new authors
  • How to market and sell yourself at an event
  • Monday Morning Parable
  • How "Prove Yourself" is the new publishing norm
  • Tips for Writers: Properly Setting Up An Event
  • Writers Tools of the Trade: The Event Toolbox
  • Earthfleet Book 4 and 5 Nearing Release!
  • Progress Report: Land of the Lions
  • Do your homework! Don't get screwed when you publish your book!
  • Fear Not! Earthfleet Will Continue!
  • Current Book Status Report for June
  • Earthfleet: Empire Rising and First Dawn Ebooks Available!
  • Empire Rising Status Report
  • Do you need a website created/updated?
  • New Feature Added - Quotes!
  • Slight Feature Change
  • This site and all author content is copyright Steven Lake. All rights reserved.