E-books
All the books I have on the Amazon database (put there by my son) are self-published and originally went on as electronic books, to be accessed via Kindle readers. In recent years Amazon have also provided self-publishers with the facility for very respectable paperback editions.
Electronic books have been around for decades,, but they took off commercially in 2007 when Amazon launched its Kindle reader for use with the firm's online database. These days E-books are read on a variety of additional platforms. Now that use has settled down from the post-2007 splurge we might speculate further about the traditional trade's response, or lack of it, and the contribution of agents to literature, or lack of it.
E-books have enlarged the notion of authorship for the general public. Before them writers had to get their stuff into print to reach an audience, which is a job of work. At present most publishers will only accept submissions via literary agents, which places two barriers between those who write and those who read. Even then some agents decline what they call 'unsolicited material'. If the trend continues we may be heading for a much reduced pool of published authors, with an emphasis on celebrities and TV spin-offs, and some of today's original writers who started as unknowns may struggle to get into print.
Agents exist to identify the most saleable material but their record is mixed. Some of the most famous works in literature have attracted rejection slips, from Animal farm to the first Harry Potter (which was turned down by nine publishers, most of whom have topped themselves – not really). Marina Lewycka's first novel (A history of the traction engine), now an international best-seller, was rejected 50 times before it found a publisher. These things shouldn't come as a surprise; if agents could write like Orwell or Rowling or Lewycka, that's what they'd be doing. That doesn't excuse the offhand manner of some agents, which may deter writers from trying their luck at all.
If originality is deemed to be a suspect quality, some of the stuff that passes through agents' hands into print may be somewhat stereotyped. Note the samey quality of crime/thriller sections on booksellers' shelves today: the same type of presentation, the same length (always 400-odd pages),
the same type of marketing spiel on the covers, the similar tricks of narrative and style – and, if the writer is a woman (sorry, Sisterhood!), the unvarying use of the present tense.
There are some obvious advantages to self-publishing. Publication through the traditional book trade may take up to a year, whereas self-publishers can put E-books onto the Amazon database free-of-charge the moment they've completed them. They can monitor sales on a daily basis and collect royalties that compare favourably with those for printed books. Works can be shorter than the 70,000-word package often required of printed books, and new writing opportunities have opened up, with erotic fiction for women a well-publicised example. Of course the sales of self-published books are modest – with some impressive exceptions – and their quality is variable, though that is nothing new for anyone accustomed to the Internet. Users find books to read via the Amazon system of keywords, and get free previews of opening chapters before making a purchase. Reviews, by ordinary readers, are more down-to-earth than those by paid reviewers in the broadsheet press.
The printed book is a brilliant piece of technology, but E-books have a few inherent advantages. Kindle users face no problems with small print because they choose their own print size, and they are not plagued by book bindings that need to be forcibly held open. Print publishers haven't noticeably responded to these developments.
One thing is clear. Amazon and Co. have demonstrated that the general public is amenable to more varieties of content and presentation than those offered by the trade's more traditional minders. More than ever these days it's the public that decides what gets read. The straitjackets are off and the whole territory is up for grabs.
All the books I have on the Amazon database (put there by my son) are self-published and originally went on as electronic books, to be accessed via Kindle readers. In recent years Amazon have also provided self-publishers with the facility for very respectable paperback editions.
Electronic books have been around for decades,, but they took off commercially in 2007 when Amazon launched its Kindle reader for use with the firm's online database. These days E-books are read on a variety of additional platforms. Now that use has settled down from the post-2007 splurge we might speculate further about the traditional trade's response, or lack of it, and the contribution of agents to literature, or lack of it.
E-books have enlarged the notion of authorship for the general public. Before them writers had to get their stuff into print to reach an audience, which is a job of work. At present most publishers will only accept submissions via literary agents, which places two barriers between those who write and those who read. Even then some agents decline what they call 'unsolicited material'. If the trend continues we may be heading for a much reduced pool of published authors, with an emphasis on celebrities and TV spin-offs, and some of today's original writers who started as unknowns may struggle to get into print.
Agents exist to identify the most saleable material but their record is mixed. Some of the most famous works in literature have attracted rejection slips, from Animal farm to the first Harry Potter (which was turned down by nine publishers, most of whom have topped themselves – not really). Marina Lewycka's first novel (A history of the traction engine), now an international best-seller, was rejected 50 times before it found a publisher. These things shouldn't come as a surprise; if agents could write like Orwell or Rowling or Lewycka, that's what they'd be doing. That doesn't excuse the offhand manner of some agents, which may deter writers from trying their luck at all.
If originality is deemed to be a suspect quality, some of the stuff that passes through agents' hands into print may be somewhat stereotyped. Note the samey quality of crime/thriller sections on booksellers' shelves today: the same type of presentation, the same length (always 400-odd pages),
the same type of marketing spiel on the covers, the similar tricks of narrative and style – and, if the writer is a woman (sorry, Sisterhood!), the unvarying use of the present tense.
There are some obvious advantages to self-publishing. Publication through the traditional book trade may take up to a year, whereas self-publishers can put E-books onto the Amazon database free-of-charge the moment they've completed them. They can monitor sales on a daily basis and collect royalties that compare favourably with those for printed books. Works can be shorter than the 70,000-word package often required of printed books, and new writing opportunities have opened up, with erotic fiction for women a well-publicised example. Of course the sales of self-published books are modest – with some impressive exceptions – and their quality is variable, though that is nothing new for anyone accustomed to the Internet. Users find books to read via the Amazon system of keywords, and get free previews of opening chapters before making a purchase. Reviews, by ordinary readers, are more down-to-earth than those by paid reviewers in the broadsheet press.
The printed book is a brilliant piece of technology, but E-books have a few inherent advantages. Kindle users face no problems with small print because they choose their own print size, and they are not plagued by book bindings that need to be forcibly held open. Print publishers haven't noticeably responded to these developments.
One thing is clear. Amazon and Co. have demonstrated that the general public is amenable to more varieties of content and presentation than those offered by the trade's more traditional minders. More than ever these days it's the public that decides what gets read. The straitjackets are off and the whole territory is up for grabs.