Interview with The Queen's Quill Review
“It’s no longer an either/or world. It’s both and why the heck not?” — James Scott Bell
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Andrea, the inimitable editor of the Historical Novel Society online magazine, and owner of the blog The Queen's Quill Review, about the ePublishing venture that led to my Kindle book, A Love of Adventure.
I was impressed with the thought that had gone into the questions, and the intelligence and insight behind them. The entire The Queen's Quill Review blog is well worth following, because not only does it take independent publishing seriously, but it raises the standard of review, which must help improve the quality of the books that are flooding into the market from this amazing new publishing phenomenon.
Two key questions
The eBook phenomenon fascinates me; I truly believe that it is the most exciting development in publishing since the invention of print. I have blogged about it a great deal on my site “World of the Written Word,” and followed the fortunes of a large number of Indie authors, becoming more intrigued as the months go by. The idea of self-publishing an eBook as an experiment became irresistible, and Abigail, being my first novel, was the natural choice.
After looking at all the alternatives, I decided to do all the formatting myself, with just two conditions: that it would cost me absolutely nothing, and that I would share what I learned with the world, via my blog. This I did, ending up with seven “tutorials” that ranged from preparing the manuscript through designing the cover to the ePublishing process. These garnered so much interest that I created a dedicated blog, “KindlePublishingHints,” and transferred the tutorials, in descending order, onto this. It pleases me greatly that in the one month since this guide went up, over 200 people have used it to create their own books.
And why choose to publish as an e-book instead of in print?
I have been sent many self-published print books for comment or review over the years, and have often been dismayed at their quality. Print-on-demand seems to be particularly bad, in this respect. The alternative of having proper print-runs means the problem of storage—one author told me that she ended up storing unsold stock in the crawl space between the floor of her bedroom and the ceiling of the lounge below!
And I truly believe that eBooks are the popular reading of the future.
3 comments:
I would like to congratulate Joan Druett on her recent self-published Indie book. As a well respected mainstream author in the 'big world' of books, I think it was an extraordinary and brave step for Joan to take.
She certainly didn't need to, and as far as her writing is concerned, had nothing to gain and everthing to lose.
But like everything Joan Druett does as both author and maritime historian, she does it well and her venture into self-publishing e-books and subsequent on-line publication: “KindlePublishingHints,” has already been, and will continue to be a great help to anyone venturing down that track.
Apart from e-book formatting, she has included a fail-safe way to create cover images, and you don't need to be a graphic artists to do it.
Congratualtions, Joan and thanks.
Margaret Muir
Thank you, Margaret.
But you are too kind.
I don't think it was brave -- I think it was logical. I strongly believe that eBooks are the future of popular reading -- there will always be a market for beautifully produced books for collectors and to give as presents, but as ownership of eReading gadgets reaches toward saturation point (as it has with cellphones and televisions, for instance), the paperback market will dwindle. And think that at least partially applies to the popular hardback novel, too. So why not leap aboard the ePublishing ship for an exhilarating voyage?
That was a great interview, Joan! Congratulations.
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