The fact that the book industry is changing has never been driven home quite as clearly as it was in the last few days. The first epiphany was when I read a post by my publisher, Lorina Stephens of Five Rivers Publishing. She wrote about how Indigo (the 500-pound gorilla in Canada for book sales) is now pushing the small and indie presses around (post found here). Essentially, the book chain has made the decision to supplement their waning book sales by selling giftware.

Fair enough. If it helps them survive, all the power to them. But, and here is where the bullying comes in, they are also basically pushing the small presses out. Lorina says it better than me by far, so I encourage you to have a read. What it means, in essence, is my physical books will only sell on Amazon, through catalogs and small book stores.

The second time was only yesterday when I heard Terry Pratchett has another book coming out on October 11th. Mr. Pratchett is easily one of my favorite authors so my excitement at another Discworld book was intense. Then I found out that it wouldn’t be available in Canada until November 22. Huh?

So, I went to Amazon.com and checked for a Kindle version. Sure enough, I can get my hands on the book in eformat on October 11th. An e-version isn’t even available through Indigo (Kobo).

So, two strikes against Indigo in one week. Adding insult to injury, I can get the story I want in eFormat cheaper and quicker elsewhere.

I’ve known for some time that ebooks would be taking over; it’s pretty hard to miss all the signs. These last two nails have pretty much sealed the coffin for me.

It has also left a very bad taste in my mouth for the big book chains. I have no doubt that the small book stores will be back in some form eventually once the chains are gone.

I can’t wait.

Tags: 5 rivers, ebooks, eformat, five rivers, indigo, irreverent muse, kindle, kobo, lorina stephens, Michell Plested, mike plested, terry pratchett

For those of you who are new to writing or even to submitting your work, I’ve got a revelation that you may or may not want to hear: the publishing industry is slow.

Now before you cry out “Leave the poor publishers alone!” I want you to know I don’t say that as a criticism. I am simply stating a fact. Publishers, editors, agents, and yes, even writers are all human. They have a finite amount of time to try and wrestle a (seemingly) infinite amount of work into.

Take a publisher for example. The publisher has to find work good enough to put into print, then put said work under contract (which will involve some level of negotiations), match an editor to the author, get cover art and manage the entire process to eventual print. Then there is the marketing hat a lot of smaller press publishers also have to wear.

Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? That doesn’t even mention going through ALL the submissions (of which there are dozens if not hundreds every month), sending rejections as necessary and easing the frazzled nerves of contracted authors.

Now we’re REALLY talking a lot. That, of course, totally ignores the fact that the publisher tries to have a life too.

It’s no wonder books take a long time to be published; even with help, a publisher has a great deal to do and very little time to do it because rarely is the publisher only working on one book at a time.

Whew!

Hence the title of this blog. Getting your acceptance/rejection takes a long time because there are so many for the publisher to go through. If you are fortunate enough to be accepted, you also have to consider the editor’s schedule and the cover artist’s schedule and the printer’s schedule, and so on and so on…

That’s why I’m not getting upset about my book being scheduled for a 2012 release. Sure, that could mean two years from now. It could also mean fourteen months. Either way, I know my publisher, Lorina Stephens at Five Rivers Publishing (gee I like saying that) is doing her best to ensure that the book that is eventually available is as good as it can be.

I cannot ask any more than that.

So what am I going to do while I’m waiting for the next step (it’s editing the book, btw)? I’m going to write another book. When I’m done that, I may just write another on top of that. There will be some revising in there somewhere I’m sure, but I know I’m not going to be sitting at my desk waiting for the next thing to happen. It will be ready when it’s ready.

That way, when my publisher (did I mention how much I like saying that ) asks what else I have, I can lay a half dozen finished manuscripts down in front of her to chose from. Maybe I can even find myself an agent.

It’s like the old saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait.” I’ve waited a long time and I’m seeing those good things come so I know it’s true.

Personal Update

NaNoWriMo and I are getting along famously. I’m well beyond the minimum numbers. In fact, I was put into a “Dream Writing Team” by Flying Island Press as a NaNo challenge. I haven’t seen the numbers of the Us (Flying Island Press) vs. Them (Me and five other authors) recently, but I believe we are resoundingly kicking their butts. Yay for ‘Them’.

Tags: agent, author, editor, five rivers chapmanry, five rivers publishing, flying island press, irreverent muse, lorina stephens, Michell Plested, mike plested, nanowrimo, publisher, Publishing