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Awhile back I took a class from an editor who explained the ins and outs of digital publishing, compared digital to traditional, and explained the advantages and disadvantages of both. It was a great course--very informative and encouraging.  I learned a lot and I’m still mulling over things she told us.

This instructor/editor who is also an author said we should use every publishing option available to us. She said that the most "successful" author is the one who understands how to make his writing work to his advantage. She did not say to throw traditional publishing by the wayside and pursue digital; she advised us to use both.

She said, “I highly recommend that while you're writing stories for the Big 6 to consider, that you schedule a block of time to write something you can digitally publish. Shoot for a novella. Why? Because you aren't sitting and waiting, letting perfectly viable opportunities slip past you.”

When I asked her for a career plan for me, she said:

So Jess, my advice in a nutshell:  Get yourself in a small, respectable e-house, and continue to work the traditional end. Keep fresh titles out in the e-house, but don't shrug off traditional in favor of digital. You need them both. There may come a time when that's not true, but today, you need the marketing that traditional printing does for an author, simply by nature of the beast.

Do you purchase digital books? Do you read their reviews? I do and today I came across a reviewer who complained that a character in the book I was purchasing was packing lots of film and flashbulbs into a bag. The reviewer said, “I can remember them from way back but then I'm not that young ... This must be a VERY old story. Just hope she doesn't pull out a cell phone.”

Do you think old novels should be updated before digitally publishing? If a character ducks into a phone booth, are you yanked out of the story?  Should authors label with a specific year or can your imagination transport you to pre-cell phone/pre-digital camera days? I have to admit I’m a little hesitant about putting my 1996 Silhouette Romance out there when it was a little out-dated in 1996 since it’s about Elvis look-alikes and fanatics. The reader will absolutely have to let her imagination shake, rattle and roll with the story.

Teach me something about updated/outdated books.

Why Aren't They In The Stores? she screamed.

Writers face a lot of challenges. One is getting their books in bookstores. That hit home with me these past few weeks when I searched for two authors I want to read. I’ve searched three stores in downtown Houston, and five bookstores in Lake Charles and Lafayette. It’s downright hair-pulling for me when I want a book immediately and can’t find it, so I know it has to be frustrating for all you authors who are trying to gain name recognition. I recently read a quote by a very wise person called Anonymous: Beauty is in the eye of the sales rep. Keep up the hard promo work, gang. A lot isn't nearly enough.

And I guess that's what bothers me about small publishing houses. Yet, today, this day and time, it's not only the authors from small publishing houses that struggle to get their books in stores. What's the answer? How do we let readers know we're alive and well and living/writing/selling our books in Louisiana ... or Alabama ... or Mississippi ... or any other state? How do we get our books in stores? I know bookstores don't want to order anything they can't return. I don't even have a book to promote so I'm taking it on myself to worry for the rest of you. :) Actually, I got quite discouraged on your behalf searching for the four books I want to read. I wanted to tear my hair and scream:

WHY AREN'T THEY IN THE STORES?

I know I can order from Amazon or from the publisher, but I like walking into bookstores and finding what I want. I used to love sales racks but now they look threatening. I look at the huge bins of half-price books and feel scared about the future of publishing as well as the future of our bookstores. I went to our local library today and saw books less than three years old being purged from the shelves to make room for new purchases. Something about that seems ridiculous to me. It's like we're on speed dial. We may run out of shelf space but what happens when we run out of trees. These purged hardbacks are being sold for fifty cents or three for a buck. What's happening? And when's it going to end?

I don't like it. It doesn't make me want to sit down to write a 75,000 word book. It brought back memories of how my little category romance hit the shelves and within a blink of an eye disappeared, never to be mentioned again.

So, what's your answer. Beef up promotion? How? Take publishing into your own hands? And then what? Is there any money to be made in writing any more? How? Should we even worry about getting our books in bookstores?

As you can see, I have a lot of questions but no answers. And it's possible I know just enough to be dangerous. :) I do know that for the past two weeks, I've searched for a couple of award winning books by a small press and couldn't find them anywhere. I also searched for a couple of mysteries by a traditional publisher and they weren't in bookstores either.

I guess the big lesson here is that a writer really has to have a love for writing to keep at it, huh?

And I don't like speed dial.