Last week I had an interesting discussion with a work colleague who had discovered I wrote e-books. The conversation started with a question. Why? Why did you write an e-book rather than submit to a publishing house? The question puzzled me. Why was this person more interested in why I wrote an e-book as opposed to why I wrote anything at all? I asked the individual that question and their response was that they assumed I did it because “I had a passion”. Not a bad assumption, given that in my case its true. But it’s not the entire reason and it made me think about what drove to me slave over my computer for hours and it certainly wasn’t for the money (most independently published authors make less than $1,000 a year, at current exchange rates that’s less than £650). After several days of contemplation, I decided that what drove me was because it gave me a level of control that I didn’t always have in life; I could always guarantee a happy ending. And, I like to entertain people. But was that true of most authors? I did what most people do when they find themselves with a question. I googled it. I was surprised at the findings. According to one study, only five percent of authors write because it is their passion. In fact, the largest percentage of writers write, according to this study, to express themselves. That didn’t fit with me; I’ve a drawer full of stuff I’ve written that I’ve never shared with anyone. 13% want to educate. Again, not me or I’d be writing factual tomes on how to do something. I worked my way around the wheel and was surprised to find one of my reasons, because I like to entertain, resonated with only 2% of authors and no one had mentioned control at all. That’s something I will ponder on for a while to come, I think. My reasons for doing this resonate with only 7% of the authors polled. Hmmm… So what was it that took that passion and desire to entertain and drove me to write e-books? I am an avid reader but there are millions of us out there, right? But we dont all write e-books. I am also an IT professional. Again, there are millions of IT professionals and Im pretty sure a large percentage of them are also avid readers. But they dont all right e-books either. I am an avid reader, Ive said that already. But I am also an avid reader who is a little tired of having my eye-teeth taken out every time I buy a book especially when I know that most of my hard earned money doesnt go to the person who deserves it, the author. No, the highest percentage of the book price goes to the publishers. The middle men. The same publishers who control the market, releasing a percentage of the titles submitted to them each year. The same publishers who take a formulaic approach to making the decision on whether or not to publish. The same publishers who often get it wrong. Weve all heard the stories of how many times our favourite authors were rejected before they ultimately were given a deal and then experienced runaway success and if not, just google famous rejections, it will open your eyes. So why was I allowing these publishers to continue to make decisions over what I was going to read? The next step, if you want to call it that, on my journey to becoming an e-book author, was my absolute disgust in the fact that the cost of purchasing an e-book by my favourite authors was no cheaper than if Id gone and bought a copy of the book from a shop. Wait a second, they dont have all of the costs of printing and distribution, so why isnt any of that benefit passed on to the readers? Then I discovered indie authors. As I trawled through the titles available on Amazon, I realised that many of the more realistically priced books were from independent authors, authors who weren’t backed by big publishing houses. I decided Id suspend my belief that the quality wouldnt be what one had come to expect and I was very pleasantly surprised. Yes, admittedly, some of the books published were not works of art and possibly wont be around as long as books such as Of Mice and Men, for example, but that is also true of many of the titles now sitting on my bookshelf. Some of the e-books I read were pure gold, some Ive even read more than once (to my mind, the mark of a good book!). A germ started to form in my mind. I could write, publish and not put my faith in a publisher who would cream off a huge slice of any income generated and overcharge for something that costs very little to distribute. In essence, I write because I enjoy it. I enjoy having control over the characters I create. I enjoy sharing those stories and entertaining the people who read them. I am self-published because I don’t believe that publishing houses should have the level of control that they have over what we read and I certainly don’t believe that an e-book, which is by far the cheapest to produce and sell, should cost the reader the same amount of money as a paperback version.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 11:47:24 +0000
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