LILLIE AMMAN, past president of SARA, stopped in to lead our chapter into the brave, new world of electronic publishing. Lillie is in her own right a phenomenal person. Having rallied back from a stroke, she used the experience to pen a contemporary romance with a stroke victim as the heroine. She then faced the seemingly daunting task of selling a manuscript with a less than perfect heroine. Lillie was not one to be put off by obstacles and after failing to show the big print houses how to think outside the box, she moved boldly where no author had gone before. She pitched her book, STROKE OF LUCK, to appropriately named Awe-Struck books. In doing so, she had made herself a one-woman wealth of knowledge in the arena of electronic publishing.
Lillie pioneered so much, Kathryn Falk, publisher of ROMANTIC TIMES MAGAZINE, approached her to establish an electronic publishing conference within the November 2000 RT Convention in Houston. The event was such a success, she was set to repeat the feat this year in Orlando but had to pull out for personal reasons. She is still a mainstay of the planning group.
We were fortunate to be able to share this fount of information without a trip to Florida.
Lillie first explained that electronic publishing is a legitimate form of publishing, even though it has had its share of detractors and a struggle to win acceptance. “E-publishing is a non-subsidy, royalty paying venue for authors,” she said. Having said that, she outlined who would be good candidates for e-books. Unpublished authors who write cross-genre or outside the box; those who want to speed up the publishing process. (E-books are more readily available than print books.) And those who want to use e-publishing as a stepping-stone to print. For published authors, it provides a way for them to venture into an area limited by their present editors; for those own print rights they can have out of print titles available again; and for those who want to diversify their market.
Comparing the forms of publishing, e-books and print have similar areas. Both are royalty-paying publishers who want a well-told story. Their acceptance rates are about the same and they have the same process of query, proposal, manuscript, editing, galley, and cover art. They differ in more ways. E-publishers are more open to cross genre and taboo subjects. They have multiple formats; some with both e-books and print on demand books. Their staff often overlap duties, editors are cover artists, authors are publishers, and authors write for numerous houses. Royalties are higher but sales lower. E-books are never ‘out of print’. And some services, such as cover art and print on demand, may require a fee.
Finding an e-publisher is simple. Turn on the computer and do a web search. There are several sites to surf such as AUTHORIZED DIRECTORY of e-PUBLISHERS, the ELECTRONIC PUBLISHERS COALITION, and PREDITORS AND EDITORS. Lillie advised submitters to join EPIC, if they were offered a contract, since this group is a great source of help and information about e-publishers.
Once you’ve found the e-publisher, just as with print, you should look for suitability of your work. The contract should be for electronic rights only, for a specific term. You should be concerned with royalty rate and the cost of extra services. Format is also important. Because of the number of different reader machines, your work should be available in as many computer compatible formats as possible. How easily can a reader find and obtain you work? Is the publisher listed with Amazon, Powell’s, or Barnes and Noble? Are they at the e-book stores? What kind of marketing and promotion does the e-publisher supply? Lastly, are they open for submissions and how far off is publication?
Submitting your work is generally by e-mail but some require disk by snail mail. Format is specified by the e-publisher, usually Word or RTF. Single-spaced with indented paragraphs and no page breaks are often required.
Once you’ve been contracted, start promoting your work via the many avenues provided in print and on the web.
Lillie summed up her thoughts with the conclusion that e-publishing is in its pioneering stages with publisher, booksellers, authors, and readers all learning about the medium and making changes. She feels that formatting will have the greatest amount of changes, mostly for the better. She issued a challenge to the author who wants to dare to be different, to do something rare and unique, to be an adventurer and trail blazer, to become e-published!
Kei Swanson, a former editor of The Love Letter, is an active member of SAN ANTONIO ROMANCE AUTHORS. Writing as Kei Swanson, her first published work is THE WORDS OF THE PITCHER from Genesis Press, May 2000. Another work is scheduled to be release by RFI WEST BOOKS, in e-book form. SEABIRD OF SANEMATSU is a work in progress.
©2002, San Antonio Romance Authors, all rights reserved. Articles may not be reprinted without permission.
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