For Real?

The Real McCoy?

The other night I was chatting with Sarah, who has been asked to send a full manuscript of her work to the agency that promoted J.K. Rowling.  We were kidding around about how some ebook authors have made thousands or millions and maybe she should just go the ebook route and forget the "real" book.  She could potentially make a bit of money since her genre is fantasy.

For her though, going the traditional publishing route validates her writing.  It's what she really wants to do, in the end.  I agreed with her on some points, but was surprised at how I no longer viewed things like that.


Here are some statements that I believe now, that I didn't a year ago:

• I believe that epublishing is just as valid as regular publishing, giving enough work to produce a quality book.
• I no longer need to go the traditional publishing route in order to feel like a real author.
• I would be happy to never publish my books in the traditional format, and make a living writing ebooks

 I may be short sighted, but I really believe that the potential for writers with ebooks will not be paralleled again in my lifetime.  This is a writing revolution that I don't think can be compared to any in history, save the event of the printing press.  Yes, computers or copy machines advanced writing, but didn't really put publishing in the writer's hands the way ebooks do.  Even self-publishing didn't do the same thing as it took a lot of money and they didn't have the same status of a regular book.

ebooks may not have the same status of regular books in most people's eyes, but they now make up about 30% of book sales.  That's real enough for me.