THE E-REVOLUTION

About mid-November my book consultant from IUniverse called to offer me the opportunity of paying them $300 to transfer my manuscript into e-format and make it available to the major e-book outlets. I wasn't able to plunk down that much money at the time, so I waited. Now that I can cough it up, I called him back. Opps, nice try, so cigar. Apparently they had such a huge response to the first offer that they are 6-8 weeks behind and were told to stop taking orders.

He confirmed a rumor I'd heard that, after the first of the year, REALLY MAJOR changes will occur in the publishing industry, ones that we poor readers and authors will experience also, thanks to that trickle-down effect! He wouldn't elaborate. He did "lock in" the price, so when the e-book offer becomes available again, I'll be on board.

He also suggested it would cost $6-12 to download, and I'd get 50% royalties. (No postage and shipping deducted, obviously.) That was sweet to hear.

I just received the gift of a tiny purple MP-3 player and discovered I can download a free audio book from DRM-free tracks at emusic.com/machspeed. It seems about every three months there's a new electronic/virtual learning curve to master. They're coming fast and furious. I sat next to a young woman at church Sunday who had a Kindle. I could feel my "desire body" pulsing to have that thing for an hour and mess around with it!

It's quite likely that my next novel, chap book or poetry book will never see paper, and I'll transfer it to the web myself. In the meantime there's some good old fashioned writing to do!