Okay, for some reason, writing that previous blog just wiped me out. Maybe all of this seemed too real all of a sudden. You see, I do love writing – always have – but the idea of “my baby” being out there exposed to the world is a little….what’s the word? – creepy, frightening, overwhelming, humbling? I’m not sure. But for whatever reason, immediately after writing the last blog I made my way upstairs to take a hot bath, totally exhausted. Before I could even turn on the water, my daughter called me to tell me she had found my book on Amazon. She found it by doing a search for my name. The book description is not up yet, but there it was – the cover of my book on Amazon!
Immediately, my husband and I went to the site and bought two copies – one for my Kindle and one for his iPad. I then went to my “orders” page and saw that I had my first two orders. Exciting! Even if we had to pay for them ourselves! By the end of the night, I had 9 sales. Taking into consideration that my husband and I were responsible for two of those sales, my total income for the day, for my first partial day on Amazon, was exactly $14.35. My sales ranking – # 21,349. I am in the BIG TIME now! Another day like that, and I will be able to afford to buy a pizza! I’m feeling the luxuries rolling in!
So – is there anyone else out there who LOVES the writing part, but struggles with others reading what you have actually written? There is something so…vulnerable about it. Perhaps I will get used to it. It is a problem I am happy to deal with!
As I think more and more about this revolutionary world of ebook publishing, I realize that this form of writing – straight from author to reader – is perhaps the purest form of writing. Any book that you have ever read has been edited, pushed, poked, and prodded until it was “marketable”. What starts as a single thread of thought in the writer’s mind becomes a collaboration between agent, editor, and marketing department. Not that having an agent, editor, and marketing department work on your book is a bad thing (although it can be); most books are certainly improved with some editing.
But, for the author to have the ability to put words to paper (or computer screen), and then to send those words directly to the reader to stand or fall on their own merit is certainly nothing short of revolutionary. For the first time in history, the writer has the ability to speak directly to the reader with no publisher acting as gatekeeper.
Will this result in a plethora of poorly written novels available as ebooks? Of course! But let’s face it, the publishing world turns out poorly written novels on a consistent basis. But the real question is – will creative minds be unleashed as they no longer contend with the painfully slow, and often discouraging, process of submission, acceptance, and publication? Will having the ability to speak directly to the reader result in a new generation of writers who write in the truest sense of their own unique voice?
By the way, as of the writing of this blog, about 6:30 in the evening, my novel, Life is But a Dream: On the Lake (Grace Adams Series) has 13 sales and a sales ranking of #10,357. I’m soaring now!
Cheryl Shireman is the bestselling author of several novels, including Broken Resolutions, the Life is But a Dream series, and the Cooper Moon series. She is also the author of ten books for toddlers including the eight Let’s Learn About series focusing on different animals and I Love You When: For Girls and I Love You When: For Boys.
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