According to the July 21, 2011 site update from Smashwords.com, they uploaded 6,500 titles in the last 30 days. Wow. I had heard that Amazon was getting 1000 titles a week, but if Smashwords alone uploaded 1625 titles a week in the last month, there must be closer to 2000 titles being uploaded every week.
Wow.
Say it again,
Wow.
That’s a lot of authors taking advantage of the opportunities offered by e-books.
If you have an e-book reader, you already know some of those opportunities for you as a reader: the convenience of carrying an entire library in one slim volume, the ease of acquiring your books, the huge numbers of books available to you, etc. You may also have discovered the pitfalls, in particular the large amount of poorly written books to weed through. The preview is the most valuable defense against this. I dismiss a lot of books a couple pages into the preview.
For an author, there are different considerations. If they are already published, it provides a way for them to release out of print titles. If they are not published, it allows them to skip the long, painful process of waiting for a publisher to take interest in the book, and go straight to the readers.
There’s a problem with this though, because sometimes it isn’t a good idea to go straight to the readers! Too often authors are in love with their words and their ideas and they don’t recognize that they need to edit for flow, form and grammar. There can be a little bit of conceit here or a bit of naivete.
The story has to follow the rules. It has to make sense. It has to be written properly. It has to have good grammar and punctuation. If it doesn’t, the readers are not going to come. If you upload a novel before it’s ready, you’re just shooting yourself in the foot, and earning a reputation as a poor writer.
The easy road can be a dangerous one. The harder road provides enough road blocks for the project to be perfected along the journey.
Of course, we’ve all come across books by reputable publishers that made us shake our heads and wonder how it came to be published. With the e-book scene growing like crazy, hopefully we’ll soon see many talented authors that don’t have paper editions, developing a well-earned following. Those authors aren’t getting there on their own, though. They must have a team of readers and editors helping them to fine-tune their work.
Success is a team effort. In e-book publishing, the author is the one in control of the team, so it’s important that it’s a good one!
If you’re considering e-publishing, there is a lot to know. Read and learn. Ensure that you’re putting out the best possible product. Know your audience and your genre. Be sure that your work has been read and reviewed by your audience. Your reputation is important, you need to keep it shiny.
Shawn L. Bird 
Smashing! July 24, 2011
Tags: e-books, ebooks, postaday2011, Smashwords, writing
According to the July 21, 2011 site update from Smashwords.com, they uploaded 6,500 titles in the last 30 days. Wow. I had heard that Amazon was getting 1000 titles a week, but if Smashwords alone uploaded 1625 titles a week in the last month, there must be closer to 2000 titles being uploaded every week.
Wow.
Say it again,
Wow.
That’s a lot of authors taking advantage of the opportunities offered by e-books.
If you have an e-book reader, you already know some of those opportunities for you as a reader: the convenience of carrying an entire library in one slim volume, the ease of acquiring your books, the huge numbers of books available to you, etc. You may also have discovered the pitfalls, in particular the large amount of poorly written books to weed through. The preview is the most valuable defense against this. I dismiss a lot of books a couple pages into the preview.
For an author, there are different considerations. If they are already published, it provides a way for them to release out of print titles. If they are not published, it allows them to skip the long, painful process of waiting for a publisher to take interest in the book, and go straight to the readers.
There’s a problem with this though, because sometimes it isn’t a good idea to go straight to the readers! Too often authors are in love with their words and their ideas and they don’t recognize that they need to edit for flow, form and grammar. There can be a little bit of conceit here or a bit of naivete.
The story has to follow the rules. It has to make sense. It has to be written properly. It has to have good grammar and punctuation. If it doesn’t, the readers are not going to come. If you upload a novel before it’s ready, you’re just shooting yourself in the foot, and earning a reputation as a poor writer.
The easy road can be a dangerous one. The harder road provides enough road blocks for the project to be perfected along the journey.
Of course, we’ve all come across books by reputable publishers that made us shake our heads and wonder how it came to be published. With the e-book scene growing like crazy, hopefully we’ll soon see many talented authors that don’t have paper editions, developing a well-earned following. Those authors aren’t getting there on their own, though. They must have a team of readers and editors helping them to fine-tune their work.
Success is a team effort. In e-book publishing, the author is the one in control of the team, so it’s important that it’s a good one!
If you’re considering e-publishing, there is a lot to know. Read and learn. Ensure that you’re putting out the best possible product. Know your audience and your genre. Be sure that your work has been read and reviewed by your audience. Your reputation is important, you need to keep it shiny.
Share this: