Maybe I just haven’t seen it, but where is the big literary e-book success story?
Okay, so maybe you’re thinking, “One doesn’t write literary fiction because it pays in piles of cash.”
All right–I’ll give you that.
Where, then, is the e-book self publishing equivalent of Jodi Picoult, Kathryn Stockett, Abraham Verghese, or Sara Gruen?
Upmarket fiction doesn’t seem to have the same potential for success when it comes to digital self publishing that genre fiction has.
Why do you think that is?
That’s a tricky question with tricky terms!
Maybe the widespread use of self-publishing is still relatively new? Or maybe it has something to do with the mass appeal of action-driven entertainment . .
I think those things definitely factor into it.
I thought about it more driving into work this morning. The big ebook self publishing successes are mostly genre fiction. More than that, it seems to be series genre fiction. I think genre readers may be more used to different ways of consuming content, so the leap to digital books may not have been a big issue for them. They don’t see the worth in a story, perhaps, also tied to it’s packaging (or lack of packaging).
With literary and upmarket fiction, there ARE people reading on Kindles and other readers. But I think those readers tend to sticking with what they’ve always read. When it comes to taking a chance on new literary or upmarket fiction, it still seems driven by larger publishing companies, bookstores, and other things. If it’s not “worthy” of being printed, written about in literary journals, or talked about on Oprah, maybe readers of that kind if writing think, “Why take a chance on digging through new stuff in Amazon when I know what I like, or have trusted sources to tell me what I’ll probably like?”
I may be totally off, but that’s what I thought about while driving to work this morning.
I wonder when we’ll see a literary or upmarket fiction self published ebook success story.
I think you have some good points. The “venerable worthiness” of e-media fiction may not be widely accepted yet.
“I wonder when we’ll see a literary or upmarket fiction self published ebook success story.”
Will you lead the way? 🙂
I definitely think there’s a feeling among many (and possibly more among those into literary and mainstream fiction) that it’s not “real” unless it’s a physical book.
As far as leading the way…I am currently sending queries around for the book I finished last summer. I would like to go the traditional route because a physical book does open some doors. (At least right now.)
If my experiments into ebooks continue to go well, though, I may consider self publishing.
I do like promoting my stuff, but I’m perhaps a bit too quiet in letting people know I exist. I guess I prefer subtle promotion where I give something else to people in the hope they will check out what I’m doing. The recent presentation I did brought more people to my blog, but that wasn’t the sole reason I did the presentation. (The biggest reason: to continue battling my fear of being the center of attention…and to see if what I came up with helped people.)
I’m probably too patient in submitting my writing, hitting just a few agents at a time and giving them time, instead of blanket submissions. My hope is that an agent will not only like what I’ve written (so far, they seem to like it, but they’re not sure what to do with the quirkiness), but they will appreciate that I’m not out there shooting submissions from a cannon in the hope of hitting somebody who likes what I’ve done.
But, obviously, I’ve thought about self publishing something more “serious” than some of the stuff I’m working on as ebooks right now.
“bit too quiet in letting people know I exist”
Well, yes, compared to many new writers and authors riding the social media bandwagon.
For all my old shyness, I’ve always done better promoting myself face to face. When I used to go to comic book conventions, I had no problem speaking to anybody or letting people know what I had coming out.
I’ve been much more subtle in my approach in recent years. Obviously, I blog here. I make a little noise in a few other places, but I’m sure I could definitely do more.
When I think about it, I tend to do much better when I have a physical book or article coming out. Since I’ve been mostly doing things online (and now digital), I tend to have a deep feeling that promoting things that aren’t out yet is almost desperate.
I know that’s not the case–it’s never too early to let people know you exist–but it’s something that’s taken a while to get over. I know I can do a lot more on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other places…