Why Electronic Publishing?

Sometimes the wonderful new world of the internet is a world of misinformation. After all, it was constructed and is being run by that highly inventive and extremely fallible species, the human race. The internet seems to be even quicker at disseminating misinformation than that fallible old system, the grapevine. We have here a cautionary tale for authors published on the net. Those of you who are still working on that publishing thing, keep this for future reference.

We had four novels published in 1999, three more in 2000. We are still thrilled just to see our names under the titles. For this reason, I went searching for our titles in the middle of 1999, and found them at a couple of sites that sell the Rocket e-book list. And there were several errors. On one listing a book title was wrong: SuperGirls: The Co-Edition Murders instead of SuperGirls: The Co-Ed Murders. Not an amusing discovery in that first two seconds of misrecognition, but now I find it to be a thing to giggle at. In fact, it kind of gives me a new idea. Co-Edition murders? Hmmmm.....

Other problems for my partner Debora and I seem to be centered around our names. We have to keep reminding people that there are two of us, and our novels are co-authored! They are forever listing one name and not the other -- not a thing that insures harmony among partners. Why, the other night I got so incensed that I mumbled something nasty under my breath. Seriously, we never fight about things like this, we just sigh and try to work it out.

Then there is that other recurring little problem. If you think it can be difficult to get people to spell your name right, you should try to keep track when there are two of you! Add that to the way we list ourselves as Debora Hill and Sandra Brandenburg on half our titles, and Sandra Brandenburg and Debora Hill on the other half, and the possibility of error grows exponentially.

So, with a gentle nod to own fat-fingered fubars, we try to keep a weather eye out for mistooks. And to remember to be kind, trustworthy, reliable...yes, I was a Girl Scout, if you really want to know. Still, the advice stands. Watch out for mistakes, and be kind about any you find. The next typo could be yours!

e-ditorial.com

These people put out a program that is designed to help you self-publish and market your work. There hasn't been enough time for me to purchase this program and see if its' truly worthwhile or not, but its' very existence brings up an interesting question. What about self-publishing? Well, it's a possibility...just remember that you would have to do all your own marketing, and it isn't enough to just set up a website. What good is that if no one knows it's there? You can't really rely on other people's search engines for you. If you spend any time doing research on the net you know that. This site, http://www.e-ditorial.com, is worth checking out. Especially if you like overblown hype. "30,000 copies of an e-book at $35 equals a cool million dollars in your pocket!" Or so sayeth the site. $35 for an e-book? In what universe?

e-book marketing

http://webstuff4u.com/editor.htm is linked to the company I mentioned above, but at this site, you can actually get some very useful information. I downloaded Search Engine Tactics and found it to be full of good stuff. This kind of information is useful to you whether or not you are going to be marketing your own work. At the very least it will give you the tools to begin to evaluate the companies with whom you might want to work. You still have to wade through a little hype to get what you want, but it was easy enough to put on rubber gloves and search my way in. Search Engine Tactics was for real and for free, too. So I think you might want to check it out for yourself. There were several other books at which I am planning to take a look. Books having to do with marketing, advertising, and the like. Just because our books are published and being spattered across the net, doesn't mean we don't have to work hard to push them, too. You can't count on your publisher to do everything. It just doesn't work that way!

Antelope Publishing

http://antelope-ebooks.com/diskbooks.html is an interesting site. The company was started in 1996 by John and Joanne Rutis. He was a technical writer and software engineer. She was a published writer of both nonfiction and fiction in paper and e-literature. Their company is interesting in that artwork is used to enhance the text. Sort of like reading one of those wonderful old books with the great pen and ink drawings. Only these are in color and animated! The focus here is on cd-rom publishing, and they offer the chance for the reader to print any or all of the text, if that is more convenient. This place is definitely worth taking a look at but, remember, so far it doesn't seem to be taking advantage of e-books themselves, that is, right over the net. A very serious drawback. Also, they seem to have a somewhat Christian bias; this may or may not be important to you.

Hard Shell Word Factory

Our personal experience with this company is that they are vast, efficient, and over-extended. Before we signed with RoxyBooks (now Mylero) Hard Shell was considering our novel, SuperGirls: The Co-Ed Murders (now available through barnesandnoble.com) and after eight months, they assigned us a tracking number so we could go to their website, www.hardshell.com, to check on the progress of our submission. This was three months after we signed with RoxyBooks.

There, patience is required. They publish Mystery, Suspense, Action and Adventure novels; Science Fiction, Fantasy and Historical; Romance, Western, non-fiction, childrens' and young adult. Just about everything except religious fiction. Hard Shell is a Rocket e-book affiliate. They pay on a royalty system, no advance. As is usually the case with electronic publishers, their royalties are higher than standard publishing companies, but at 30% of the retail price, they are lower than most other electronic publishers. The author signs a year's contract with an option for renewal. No fees are required of authors.

Hard Shell prides itself on involving the authors in all aspects of publishing, including cover art and blurbs, marketing and editing. They look for the unique voice that may have slipped through the cracks of traditional publishing. Currently they offer their books as electronic downloads and mailed disks, and have plans to produce books on cd-rom.

The company was started in 1996 by Terri Lea Chandler and Mary Z. Wolf. The former started with the company as an author; they published her novel, The Marriage Patent, in 1996. At the end of 1997 she bought the company. The company has eight editors, and they now offer over a hundred books. Several of their novels have won awards.

To send them an e-mail message, write to: books@hardshell.com.

Books Online

This is a rather unusual setup, in that they have, or claim or have, nearly 10,000 free books available for download. Most of the books are in the public domain, meaning they were published quite a while ago (the author must be dead for 50 or more years) or those published by a government agency. Some are newer books the author has decided to provide free, but when I tried to find the books of three of my favorite authors, they weren't listed.

The website address is: http://www.books-on-line.com\. They also claim to list electronic books through other websites, but our novels weren't listed. Books Online also publishes a newsletter, which the viewer may receive at his/her e-mail address, about books they've added to their library and new books from print publishers.

Their catalogue is supposed to list all books available electronically; again, we weren't listed, and our books are available at a number of different sites. Books Online will be publishing new books, but does no editing of the book -- it is published in the form received. There is no information available on royalties, but submissions are invited. The site is an important addition to the www, but I'm not certain about the value to new authors. They are wide open for submissions, however.

Orpheus

Specialty publishers abound, and the romance genre is one of the most popular in publishing today. The first electronic romance publisher is Orpheus Romance, located at www.orpheusromance.com. According to Maralyn Ellis, Publisher and C.E.O., "We do offer advances and very high royalties, but each contract is negotiated individually (no boilerplates) so it is not possible to accurately say what these amounts are." Romance writers will have to check that out on their own. To send them an e-mail message, write to: info@orpheusromance.com.

Orpheus publishes in the following categories: Shorts (up to 15,000 words); novellas (15,000-50,000 words); and novels over 50,000 words. Preview their short stories and full-length Greater Love Stories at Love on the Line: iReadRomance.com. Enter your e-mail address to receive the IRR newsletter. This website is a gathering place for romance readers, and includes a chat room, gift shop and links.

The publisher is located in Canada. They also offer writing competitions with prizes; these involve an entry fee of $15.00US or $20.00CDN. There are also contests you may enter by buying books.

Orpheus started a new line in 2000 called Orpheus Encore. This line features reprints from previously print-published authors. The first novel released in this line was Renegade, by Judy Gill, in February, 2000. Orpheus is open to submissions, but they ask that writers please follow the guidelines available at http://orpheusromance.com/guidelines/. Response time varies, but 12 weeks is average.