Home » Writing & Publishing » Resources for Writers » Is E-Publishing Right for Your Book?

Is E-Publishing Right for Your Book?

© Roxianne Moore

A Glimpse into the World of Electronic Publishing

Talk about great minds thinking alike. I started research for this week's article and came across an article by Suite 101's Joanne Reid. Last week, Reid investigated e-publishing. The focus of her article is different from mine, and well worth a look once you're done here.

As a result of a couple of reviews I was asked to write, I've been looking into electronic publishing during the past few weeks. What I've seen so far is impressive. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing and the attention to detail. Since I've pretty well covered the current topics in Suite 101's Books and Writing section (for the time being), I'd like to move on to the subject of Electronic Publishing and how it affects you as an author.

One thing I noticed is that word counts are lower. This may be because authors are not forced to fit their work into a specific word count. The two I just finished reading, Past Perfect by Kimberley Grey and Restless as Rain by Karen Weisner, both from Hardshell Word Factory (see below) come in at less than 65,000 words. As romance novels - one time travel and the other traditional - that fits into the word count for the shorter category romances. This also seemed like a good length to read online. One book was in ASCII format, and the other was Rich Text Format. I think I liked the ASCII better because I could choose a good page size for my monitor. Another surprise: Some e-published authors have been published by traditional print publishers in the past. Reasons for changing publishers vary. Some authors want better contracts, or want to place a book that hasn't sold. Editors leave publishing houses and lines are canceled, leaving authors stranded without a market.

If you read the guidelines on some of these sites, you'll be astonished by the royalties offered. The average seems to be about 30%! Keep in mind, though, that the prices are generally much lower than for print books, ranging from $2 to $4.50, with prices for disks slightly higher (but royalties don't reflect the extra fee for disks). In addition, you probably won't receive any advance, so your payment will trickle in. On the plus side, contracts are generally short, from one to three years, and some publishers give you the right to withdraw your book if you get a better offer from a traditional publisher.