Paperback Writer
This coming Saturday is National Paperback Book Day, so might I suggest buying my newest romcom, Running with Hounds…and an English Degree, to celebrate? 😊 It’s currently sold on Amazon and will soon be available through Barnes and Noble.
It’s funny. I remember when e-readers were first getting hot, there was all this buzz about how it was the end of paperbacks and a sea change in the way books would be sold and consumed and the publishing industry would never be the same. And maybe for a while that was true. When I self-published my first novel 12 years ago, I did a couple free Amazon promotions, and over time the ebook racked up about 12,000 downloads. But when it came to actual paid sales, the paperback eclipsed that version by quite a lot.
And that remains true today for my second one. While I’ve sold some ebooks, the paperback numbers keep steadily increasing at a much higher rate. My friends and family bought physical copies for me to sign and have posted pictures of them on their social media. And whenever I come across those on social platforms looking to buy something by an indie author, they ask for a link to the hard copy. While this doesn’t surprise me, since I never jumped on the e-reader bandwagon, I suppose we did lose some bookstores along the way. Thankfully, at least in my social circles, independent bookstores are still thriving.
Going beyond ebooks, the bigger topic these days seems to be audiobooks. Although I’ve never gotten into them, I know plenty who listen to them on their commute or while walking their dog, etc. And I’ve had several people ask (normally after they’ve heard me read) if I’m going to narrate the audio version of the romcom. At first, it wasn’t something I seriously considered, since I never did that with my first book. But with the amount of interest there seems to be in such a prospect, especially with ME specifically reading it, it’s something I’ve begun to think about.
And truth be told, there is a seemingly unending wealth of resources available today for indie authors to do multiple versions of their books. When I first self-published, I had no idea what I was doing and Google had limited choices beyond vanity publishing that offered any concrete answers. Nowadays? It’s hard to keep up with the evolving online landscape and myriad of products and websites for writing, formatting, publishing and marketing your work. Every time I go to a conference or listen to a webinar, I hear about another company joining the growing network of creative services available to self-publishers.
And that’s REALLY exciting to me. Because it means we’re no longer stifled in our writing endeavors, or any kind of artistic expression for that matter. Anyone can release their thoughts, passions and efforts into the world, sharing and connecting with others who long to do the same. There’s no longer a small group of professionals dictating what’s allowed to be seen, heard or read. And while that means there’s a lot more to compete against, a healthy variety helps to move the needle forward for lots of different voices to be heard.
So however you consume your media, I think we can all celebrate the OG in literature distribution for the upcoming Paperback Day. ‘Cuz there’s nothing better than sitting back, eagerly turning pages like we did as kids, and getting lost in a good story.