I read Carleen Brice's first novel, Orange Mint & Honey . This book was a very good read. I usually give the author a 30 page trial. If I can feel engaged in 30 pages, I'm in 'till the end. It caught my attention within the first few pages.
You don't need me to tell you that the ground is shifting under writers' feet. You can feel it yourself. So I'll leave off the primer about how publishing is changing due to technology and the economy and who knows what else.
I do want to point out, however, that while the changes can be scary or confusing, there's also plenty of exciting things going on in publishing now. Developments that present big opportunities for writers. One of them is the growth in ebook sales.
My first two novels were bought in a two-book deal and published by One World/Ballantine, an imprint of Random House. My first novel Orange Mint and Honey did well--won awards, got made into a TV movie and had respectable sales. My second novel Children of the Waters suffered from the sophomore novel jinx. I don't know what happened, but it didn't find its readers. Was it the cover? The lousy review PW gave it? (I must note that it got plenty of good reviews) Bad timing? Bad luck? Who knows?
Either way, Random House and I had a parting of the ways. I was already working on another novel and had an editor at a different house ready to buy it based on reading an excerpt and proposal. Then she had a parting of the ways with that house (as did my former editor at RH). Rather than go out to other houses with a proposal, I decided to finish the book first. So I've been writing it (am hoping to ship it off to my agent in the next month or 2).
In the meantime, readers were asking me for a sequel to Orange Mint and Honey. I figured with an ebook I could write it and get it to loyal fans quickly and inexpensively. So I wrote a bunch of it--about half--and a really detailed 35-page single spaced outline.
That's where I was in the process when Victoria Christopher Murray invited me to participate in her new online publishing venture called A Chapter a Month. Victoria is a New York Times bestselling author with a heckuva mailing list and promotional machine. That sounded great. On top of that, she's giving authors a very fair share of royalties, and she sends royalty statements monthly. That's right: monthly.
I talked to my agent about it and she called the model "brilliant." That was enough for me. So now I'm in the ebook business. The first chapter of IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING, the sequel to ORANGE MINT AND HONEY is now exclusively available at A Chapter a Month for .99. I hope you'll check it out. (Click here to buy.)
One of the benefits of the shifting ground is that the book biz isn't so either/or anymore. These days the same author might e-pub, self-pub a paperback, and traditionally pub, depending upon the type of books she's writing and the goals she has for them. This makes me optimistic. And so does the belief that no matter how the medium of delivery changes, people will always be interested in stories. After all, we've been telling one another stories since the beginning of time.
I'm curious--how many other SheWriters are publishing ebooks? How's it going? What tips do you have for someone like me who's an ebook newbie?
What do you think? Will you buy? Will you read?
You don't need me to tell you that the ground is shifting under writers' feet. You can feel it yourself. So I'll leave off the primer about how publishing is changing due to technology and the economy and who knows what else.
I do want to point out, however, that while the changes can be scary or confusing, there's also plenty of exciting things going on in publishing now. Developments that present big opportunities for writers. One of them is the growth in ebook sales.
My first two novels were bought in a two-book deal and published by One World/Ballantine, an imprint of Random House. My first novel Orange Mint and Honey did well--won awards, got made into a TV movie and had respectable sales. My second novel Children of the Waters suffered from the sophomore novel jinx. I don't know what happened, but it didn't find its readers. Was it the cover? The lousy review PW gave it? (I must note that it got plenty of good reviews) Bad timing? Bad luck? Who knows?
Either way, Random House and I had a parting of the ways. I was already working on another novel and had an editor at a different house ready to buy it based on reading an excerpt and proposal. Then she had a parting of the ways with that house (as did my former editor at RH). Rather than go out to other houses with a proposal, I decided to finish the book first. So I've been writing it (am hoping to ship it off to my agent in the next month or 2).
In the meantime, readers were asking me for a sequel to Orange Mint and Honey. I figured with an ebook I could write it and get it to loyal fans quickly and inexpensively. So I wrote a bunch of it--about half--and a really detailed 35-page single spaced outline.
That's where I was in the process when Victoria Christopher Murray invited me to participate in her new online publishing venture called A Chapter a Month. Victoria is a New York Times bestselling author with a heckuva mailing list and promotional machine. That sounded great. On top of that, she's giving authors a very fair share of royalties, and she sends royalty statements monthly. That's right: monthly.
I talked to my agent about it and she called the model "brilliant." That was enough for me. So now I'm in the ebook business. The first chapter of IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING, the sequel to ORANGE MINT AND HONEY is now exclusively available at A Chapter a Month for .99. I hope you'll check it out. (Click here to buy.)
One of the benefits of the shifting ground is that the book biz isn't so either/or anymore. These days the same author might e-pub, self-pub a paperback, and traditionally pub, depending upon the type of books she's writing and the goals she has for them. This makes me optimistic. And so does the belief that no matter how the medium of delivery changes, people will always be interested in stories. After all, we've been telling one another stories since the beginning of time.
I'm curious--how many other SheWriters are publishing ebooks? How's it going? What tips do you have for someone like me who's an ebook newbie?
What do you think? Will you buy? Will you read?
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