To PubIt or Not To PubIt — Blue Ink Alchemy
PubIt! utilizes a self-service Web portal for publishers to independently set up their accounts, upload their eBooks, set the list price, and track their sales and payments. Publishing an eBook through PubIt! makes the content available via our Read In Store program which gives bookstore customers the ability to browse the complete contents of eBooks at no cost. In addition, all eBooks offered via PubIt! will be lendable, giving the customer the opportunity to share the book once with any friend for up to 14 days.I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, it seems that PubIt! is designed to allow new writers to break into the realm of the published without the long waits, repeated rejection and labyrinthine contracts of the established publishing industry. The notion of complete creative control and bypassing payment due to extra people such as publishing staff and agents appeals to the small writer just starting out. It might be a way to get a little cash flow going to fund bigger projects. Or one might even launch a whole career using this system. On the other hand, I can see a lot of bad things pouring into B&N's system through this portal. A glut of bad writing will make good writing even harder to spot. Also, the small number of Nook users relative to the general reading audience makes me wary. I know there are e-reader apps for the various iWhatevers, but still there seems to be fewer people with thin plastic platforms than there are folks with access to traditional bookstores. Maybe that's just me. I'm undecided on this. Do I look into this further, as a way to get smaller works into the hands of readers for audience-building, or do I ignore it as another trend and continue slaving on my traditional editing/querying/flagellation cycle? What do you think, writers of the Internets?
Blue Ink Alchemy
No comments:
Post a Comment