Rolling along

I’ll tell you upfront, most of what I’ll say in the first few weeks of this blog will be, “Guess what JA Konrath said about e-books!” So, you have my permission to go straight to Konrath’s blog. In fact, you should go there now and check out his conversation with Barry Eisler. Mr. Eisler just turned down a $500,000 advance from St. Martin’s Press to publish his own books. That sounds crazy—it is crazy if you’re a traditionalist or haven’t been paying attention ebooks for the last two years. Self-published authors have carried the crack dealer stigma of the writing community for a long time, but publishing has changed.

Self-publishing is no longer an alley of last resort, thanks to electronic distribution, it is suddenly a very profitable avenue. It gives me great hope that more writers below the Big Six’s A list, might actually start making a living at this game. Authors are rising back to the top of the food chain in their industry! I’ve put about all my eggs in one basket betting that I could fight my way into the Big Six. Suddenly, I see the Big Six are no longer a requirement for making a living. I could actually just write, and write, and write, and sell books. I feel like that infantile dream of being a writer—you remember, from when you thought it was all about writing and hadn’t heard of all the hoops for jumping—is actually real again.

Don’t get me wrong—writing is work, and no one likes to work, but I do it every day and I’m better every day I do it. So check back later to hear a little more about my writing and myself, for now I need to write some fiction.

dtgooden