Sunday, April 13, 2014 spring "looking ahead" event

On that topic I have certainly made more money from publishing my books independently than through publishers. And of course it isn't any massive amount but it is a nice supplement and my earnings exceed my costs in a comfortable way.

This is the way I'd like to see my own career evolving. I'm just not sure how to go about it.

Ha!

Hi, Nikki! I'm right there with you - late into the game, and hoping for publishing credits to come sooner (not later). I am gunning for the traditional path of print and publisher, so this is an interesting forum for sure.

Lots of people I've asked about e-readers have one even if they still prefer print books. Sometimes I get both the hard copy and the e-copy. I have a Kobo but I don't carry it that often... often I'll just read on my phone using the Kobo app.

Wow. Yes, totally cool!

I love it!

I had a look at the prototype of an enhanced ebook—it was pretty cool. There were loads of ways to get enriched content (such as hearing a song that is referred to in the text, or going to a website or wiki page, having a related video play, etc.). It's exciting to see but hard to develop. Part of the problem is copyright-related. It's one thing to incorporate things you've created yourself (as your son did, Gail)... It's a whole other thing to have to get permissions and pay royalties for content created by others.

Yes, exactly. The next forum event I'll do here (likely in early fall) will be on just this.

Very cool trailer and story, Mary!

And for things like lyrics, this gets expensive.

I was just re-reading Vikram's Seth "An Equal Music" which is a novel about classical musicians. The writing about the music is wonderful.

Makes me want to hear the music itself... but then, I wonder if my experience reading about the music would be different if I heard the pieces themselves? Would a future writer actually write about the music, or would they just include it? How would that change the piece?

Hi Mary, Yes that it a significant move by TWUC and one I don't think would have happened even five years ago. Hopefully the residual stigma around self-publishing will disperse over time. And when your books do go out of print it is a way of standing up for yourself too. With regards to self publishing new material though, I hope that at some point a system will be put in place to ensure that books are properly edited before hitting the shelves.

I teach writing workshops to support my writing habit, and because it keeps me connected to writing in a way that other work might not. Like Jen, though, I find it can also take time away from my writing. How do you find that, Gail?

I worry that enriched multimedia content will create a disparity between those authors at large houses who may end up with a team of multimedia developers creating that content and those authors who do not have such a team. In my previous career, before teaching, I was a multimedia developer and created animations, enriched content, etc. and it can be very time-consuming to develop.

I agree and we are talking about a whole new skill set, of course. I can see a time in the not too distant future, however, where the technology allows us to do so much of this ourselves (many of us are already there ...)

I think we're always going to like our print books. We have since they were invented. But I've absolutely embraced reading on an iPad. Of course I spend more money on books now as they're instantly obtainable. I used to work with Lawrence Hill, and I'd read his Book of Negroes on my iPad. When I met him, I told him how much I loved it. He offered to sign it and I said it was electronic. They I really did tell him he could sign my thigh. Anyone who's seen that guy will understand…

I was sad not to have his autograph on the book, but I'd really rather spend whatever time I have with an author I admire chatting instead of both of us looking down while he/she writes his/her name in my book. I think missing out on signatures is a really small price to pay for the convenience of an e-reader. That said, I think books will always exist, but I welcome innovation. I have a family member who claimed that I'm famous for accepting change. I'm not sure that's always true, but I do think that we have to embrace change or be left behind. I just got my hands on a copy of a strictly e-book. It's a make-up-your-own-fantasy book by three South African women writers. It's really fun erotica, and the point is that as the reader, you make all the choices (wear the granny gonch or go command0 - stuff like that). This is really fun, and though they could do it in print form (turn to page whatever if you choose the granny pants), they decided not to: http://itsabookthingblog.blogspot.ca/2013/07/a-girl-walks-into-bar-by-helena-s-paige.html

He does some interesting stuff on his website that gets me excited about the potential. Alas, I need to sell a book and make some money before I can justify spending that kind of money on website development. I get really excited thinking about the things I could do with the YA novel I'm working on.

Deanna and Mary, in addition to TWUC I noticed that self-published titles were included on the submissions list to the Arthur Ellis awards. None made the longlist, but it seems a good sign that one day they will. I don't know of any other Canadian literary award that accepts self-published titles.