The Digital Revolution Is Upon Us!

Jun 08, 2010 | No Comments

I’ve written posts to everyone about my struggles as a budding author, and (hopefully) you all have been reading my stories and checking out Oasis (again, sorry for the delay on ep 3).  There is one thing, however, that I’ve never really touched on because I personally have yet to experience this.

Agents and getting published.

Hard to believe isn’t it, the guy that doles out advice on a fairly regular basis, is also a guy who has yet to acquire an agent or even get published.  Today I stand before you saying that none of that matters….well the agent part at least.

Here is what I have found with the many stories that I have sent out for publication.  That my story, though fitting the genre of the publication, is sometimes just not the right “fit” for them at that moment.  In my eyes that means, “great, thanks for trying, but you’re a little too dark, you’re story isn’t conforming to the popular and current horror trends that will not only allow us to please our loyal readers, but also bring in new ones”.  I understand this viewpoint, I mean, the goal of publications is to have a wide circulation.

Somehow I always end up asking myself “well who does want to read this?”  This is a question that will sometimes keep me up at night, who would want to read my stories?  Now, in this digital revolution, I can find out exactly.

I was talking with my best friend, biggest motivator, and co-host of My Remote Radio Doug the other day about some of the amazing new releases that are coming with the iPhone 4g.  How it can seamlessly integrate with your iPad (should you have one), and allow you to have virtually everything at your fingertips.  One of those tools is iBooks.

Sure, many people will go on record as saying that this is all nothing more than an over glorified Kindle, but lets sit back and think about this for a second, all iBooks go through the iTunes store.  As we know, anyone can submit podcasts or audio for people to download through their iTunes store.  So why not iBooks as well?

Give Steve Jobs a kiss the next time you see him, because he’s thought of this already, and I have to say, it’s sweet.  No longer will we, the budding authors who fall between the cracks of publications, be forced to deal with those publications, or agents who just don’t have enough time for people like us.  We can now control this.

WE control how much we charge per story.  WE control how many countries we want this publication to be available to (so long as they have an iStore).  We also will get the same exact deal that all app publishers get, a cool 30/70 split (Apple takes 30%, we take 70%).  How awesome is that?!  All your stories, at the fingertips of the world!

Now, as with anything there are certain requirements everyone must meet.

  • ISBN numbers for the books you want to distribute
  • the ability to deliver the book in EPUB format
  • the book pass EpubCheck 1.0.5
  • a US Tax ID (sorry world, this is only open to the US at this point)
  • an iTunes account backed up by a credit card
  • a fairly good idea of where you’ll sell and how much you’ll sell
  • an Intel-based Mac running OS 10.5 or better (sorry PC users, their game, their rules) and meet some reasonable technical requirements

This is certainly the way of the future, this is the straw that is going to break the publisher’s back.  I know in the past, self-publication has been the dirty word of the publishing industry, but now, I see it as becoming the most reliable.  Any publishers that conform to this new standard, will no longer look upon self-publishing as a stigma, but as a jumping grounds to success!

I am truly excited for this new trend, and will be doing everything in my power to be a part of it.  How about you?

Topics: Blog Books Geeking Out Writing | Read more about:

Leave a Comment

This is the personal website of author Andrew Marcec. Here you'll find excerpts of all his latest works, his daily blog, the serial podcast 'Oasis', and a whole lot more. So feel free to stay a while, read some of his work, and drop Andrew a line when you're done!

  • No public Twitter messages.