Why write an ebook? (Part Two)
Writing|The ebook market for erotic romance also exists because that’s where the majority of the readership lies. Having decided to persevere in my quest to write for Loose-Id, my first step was to study the market more closely. I needed to pick apart some of the books I was reading, think about what worked “for me” and what didn’t. After all, if I was going to write a book, I wanted it to be something I could be proud of, right?
Point: You see, I’d realised my biggest mistake. I thought writing a book with a romantic element was going to be easy. Having had a break from my manuscript when I came to review it I realised that I hadn’t put my heart and soul into it. I’d written a nice story but it lacked intensity of any sort. It was hardly surprising: I’d written it with a light and carefree attitude. I expanded the type of books I was reading and came across “The Syndicate” series by Jules Jones and Alex Woolgrave. I loved these books. Although they were rather light in the science-fiction plot they were extremely funny. Oddly though, they were m/m romance, and damn if an idea didn’t creep into the back of my mind.
I spent a few days wondering what I was going to do with this idea. For one thing certain elements were missing. I pictured a man sitting on a bench with a thief about to creep up on him. Within a couple of days I had decided both characters should be male but I still had no idea as to who this man was or why he sat there. Then I stumbled across a name: “Shavar” (meaning Comet). I had my story. The trouble was what to do with it? I couldn’t write a same-sex story! Could I? How would I explain that to my husband, my friends, my father…my mother-in-law! Also, this was too serious a story for this market. I didn’t believe they’d take it and I wasn’t sure I wanted to write something so in-depth. I then realised I had to accept what I knew already. I don’t do “light” very well. I write better when the story is intense even though it makes the process more exhausting. As for the market…this was love between men — if the erotic romance market refused to take it then no one would. I also noticed Loose-Id were producing more gay stories. Maybe they’d be interested in my idea?
I spent the next six months writing it, revising it, editing it, revising it again. There came a point when I knew it was ready. It wasn’t going to get any better just sitting here. I had to submit a synopsis and first three chapters. I did. Two days later I received a lovely email from a very lovely woman called Lorri-Lynne. She was an editor and reader at Loose-Id and liked the world I’d created. She wanted to see the whole manuscript. I sent it off…and waited.
That makes it sound like such a calm process. I was anything but calm and went from “They’re going to accept; they ‘must’ accept it,” to, “Today I’ll receive the rejection,” in a blink. I believed in this book so much that I felt if they rejected it, I’d be sorely tempted to throw my computer out of the window, even knowing while I made this vow that I’d do no such thing. Writers write because they have to. I knew if they rejected it, I’d start again. I’d already started writing a m/m contemporary. The work was flowing and I was waiting… A month later I received good news and a contract. Not only that, management at Loose-Id asked if it was a series. They said it screamed series to them. OMG! I was an author! I needed to tell everyone that I’d written… an homoerotic romance. OMG! Head:Desk! LOL.
Subject matter aside, the reason I believed in this book was that I’d produced a full story. I’d set out to write a fantasy and I’d done just that. The book had intrigue and action/adventure. I’d set out to write a romance, and it was that, too. I’d set out to make it explicit because that was what the market demanded, but I’d set out to make those scenes push the story forward, and again, big achievement and a new first for me. It wasn’t perfect. Lorri-Lynne taught me loads just in the editing process of that first book. I’ve studied writing and I understood patterns and creating character depth but this was a new genre for me. What I learned has reflected favourably in all my work, both in structure and just freeing my mind. I recall Anne Rice once saying that writing explicitly was incredibly freeing. Regardless of whether you like her as an author, she’s right. I’ve always said that to write well you need to “write” and not worry about what others will think. Let the story dictate its needs. In the case of “Uly’s Comet” the story dictated that although we never get into Ryanac’s head and I had intended he be a background character, he simply refused to be left in the shadows. Lorri loved Ryanac. I loved Ryanac. Ryanac loves himself most of all. I let him loose and he took the books to a new level. This was supposed to be Uly and Markis’s love story but I quickly realised these two wouldn’t be who they were without Ryanac’s influence. They wouldn’t evolve. The trilogy began to take form. I’d made it happen. My name was going to listed among the Loose-Id authors! I’d written an ebook.
A what book? What’s an ebook?
I’d expected everyone to be shocked over the gay content. A couple of people were with hysterical results but most said, “Well done. We hope you sell a million.” What I didn’t expect to hear was, “What’s an ebook?” or, “Oh, an ebook! I thought you meant a proper book.”
Ebooks are proper books. Ask any author, editor, or publisher that works with them. Ask us what hours we put in. Ask us about the effort involved. Ask us how much hard work it is. Then stand there and say these aren’t real books. As to what the difference between ebooks and print books means to the writer, I’ll cover that next time.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I think your focus is a bit narrow here. Your definition of an e-book, as it appears from my reading of your articles, is a book written for a publisher whose primary publication venue is electronic, and weighted heavily toward the erotic.
While I agree that most e-publishers tend toward the erotic for most of the reasons you’ve mentioned, I think you’re doing the move toward more acceptance of digital formats a disservice by stressing erotica and e-publishers rather than electronic books in general.
I write for two e-publishers and a print publisher. I write romance short stories and romantic suspense, not erotica. I make a pittance compared with those who write erotic romance, again, for the reasons you mention.
But–I read e-books. I have a dedicated e-book reader (although not the pricey Kindle). However if I scan the books on my reader’s bookshelf, at least half, if not more, are digital versions of ‘mainstream’ print authors.
I have books by Karen Rose, Allison Brennan, Susan Wiggs, J.A. Jance, Jonathan Kellerman, Roxanne St. Claire, Brenda Novak, Suzanne Brockmann … the list goes on, and none of these books were produced by an e-publisher.
I think readers, especially those who are looking for alternatives to bookshelves crammed with paper, or purchasing books destined eventually for landfill, need to be aware that the e-book market does NOT lie solely with publishers whose bread and butter is the digital market. That e-books are just another way to read books. Any kind of books.
This doesn’t begin to address the formatting issues, or the limited choices of ways to read books digitally, but that’s another issue altogether.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Good points, Terry. My focus appears a little narrow because I’m mainly trying to address questions people have asked me as to what IS an ebook, why or how I came to read one, and eventually to write for an epublisher. I only addressed the general epublishing market lightly in Part One when I mentioned that the ebook market is growing etc., and not about to disappear (despite those who protest and wish it would), and that large mainstream publishers are now seeking to offer their entire lines in both print and electronic formats. I’m all for this, as long as one format doesn’t mean another ceases to be. I would be devastated to see print books disappear from the market. I really do think it’s about choice.
This blog was mainly why and how I came to write the book I did. I wasn’t trying to stress erotic romance over other types of epublishers, just stress how my first book came into being, and why and how I came to write for Loose-Id, and also, to some degree, give a brief indication as to why there are so many erotic publishers in the market. Saying that, I don’t truly feel that I write erotica or romance, although some would say I most definitely do. It’s simply that I call myself a storyteller for a specific reason. Whatever I’m writing, whether the story has a relationship centred around love, and whether it’s explicit or not, I write as the story dictates. I think to label myself with any genre is rather crippling mentally and therefore creatively — at least it would be for me — and that goes for whatever type of story I’m writing.
I also rather resent the way books are categorised into certain genres, because I love the type of books that break these categories down, and yet they are often precisely the books that a writer has had trouble publishing because the work can’t be readily identified as a specific genre.
The ebook market is definitely growing steadily in all genres and I truly do believe that the lack of a breakthrough in a great ebook reader is doing the epublishing industry the biggest disservice to date, particularly with mainstream titles (I would love to own a library of classic titles in eformat due to space). Second to that is the number of people who have never heard of an ebook. After all, if no one know your product exists, how can you sell it? The trouble I find is that when I enlighten people, many (though by no means all) are very resistant to read from a computer screen. When I talk about an ebook reader, probably half of those shaking their heads become more receptive to the idea but would want to see a good reader at a good price before they’d consider it. A good ebook reader hitting the main electronic stores in the high street would also make the public aware. We don’t even have the pricey Kindle over here yet and whatever it is in dollars it will cost in pounds, if not more (so that’s about double the equivalent of the price in the US). I would also add that the US market seems much more aware of the existence of epublishers than those I’ve spoken to here in the UK. I don’t know if that applies to the UK in general or just those I’ve talked to but to say that only three of my friends (and one of those being an American) knowing of the existence of ebooks more than surprised me.
You’re right and there are loads of other issues and problems the ebook market faces, which I think would be great for writers to bring to the public’s attention.
Incidentally, I pass any unwanted print books to a care home and if any aren’t suitable for that, I would give to charity or at worse recycle. I’d never send them to land-fill. I cringe at the very idea so to everyone out there, please don’t just throw books away.