I've been mulling over the idea of self-publishing one of my novels as an e-book. A friend gave me a story from the Wall Street Journal that had some compelling arguments for going this way. Getting into print via the normal/traditional routes is terribly difficult. Here's a bit from the Journal's piece:
"Fueling the shift is the growing popularity of electronic books, which few people were willing to read even three years ago. Apple Inc.' s iPad and e-reading devices such as Amazon's Kindle have made buying and reading digital books easy. U.S. book sales fell 1.8% last year to $23.9 billion, but e-book sales tripled to $313 million, according to the Association of American Publishers. E-book sales could reach as high as 20% to 25% of the total book market by 2012, according to Mike Shatzkin, a publishing consultant, up from an estimated 5% to 10% today." Vanity Press Goes Digital, Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2010
It's not what I would prefer, but on the other hand it's a way to get my books read and to reach some readers that might not want to fork out $10 for a paperback or $30 for a hardback. If a reader can spend $2 and will read my book then that's a big incentive for me.
The whole idea is very appealing, and certainly worth some consideration.
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