Authors Are In The Age Of The Evergreen Books

In his new book, A Self-Publisher's Companion , Joel Friedlander says that we are in the Golden Age of publishing. I agree 100% with his assessment. But along with "Gold", might I suggest that "Green" is also an appropriate color to describe the age of publishing we are in now?



I'm not talking about green in the sense of "save the planet" green, though the advent and popularity of e-books makes a strong case for that use of green. I can only imagine the number of trees spared because of the words now read on an e-book reader.



No, I'm talking about green in the sense of "evergreen." This is an exciting green for authors and readers alike. At the beginning of my short publishing career, the predominate life span of most books were measured in weeks, not years. New books put on bookstore shelves had weeks to find a readership before being replaced by the next hopeful author.



While a few traditional authors created perennial titles, most did not. And before the internet, once a book found an early grave, it was hard to resurrect it again.



Wow, how times have changed! Whether traditional or self-published, authors and publishers have found a new distribution model that can extended the life of a book beyond the span most books have ever enjoyed. Both e-books and POD books make the creation and distribution of books available 24/7. And because of that, a new phenomenon is taking place.



Now, books can go through multiple mini-cycles which could go on indefinitely. A book can now get hot, go through it's selling cycle, cool off, and then resurrect to do it over and over again.



Case-in-point, my book, The Samson Effect. It first hit the stage in October of 2007 and went through its growth spurt and even found a Hollywood film producer who wanted to bring it to the silver screen. Then, it found it's lull. But in January of this year, I released it on Kindle and for the last couple of months, it's been in the top 1000 of all Kindle books for much of the time.



The day will come, I know, when the lull will come again. But as a new crop of readers come onto the scene, I have every confidence that it can do this again and again. No longer are limited bookstore shelves the death of an author's book. What a great thing for authors to think about.



There's a lot of talk about the "gold" found in an author's backlist. Why? Because of this very principle. What entertained readers years ago can now find new readers because authors can make their book available in an economically viable way. And for nonfiction authors dealing with info in a changing world, keeping your book current is now economically viable as well.



Yes, the new gold for authors and publishers is now green--evergreen.



As a book marketer who loves to help authors achieve their dreams, my advice to you is this: don't give up when you're in a lull. It no longer necessarily means your publishing dream is dead. It could mean that your book has found a natural cycle and is waiting to break out again, or for the first time.



That's why I'm a big believer in continuing to pursue your writing dreams. Keep the new books coming. That way, when one is in a lull, another may not be. I have another novel I just released, a mystery/thriller called The Lottery Ticket. When The Samson Effect finds its lull, hopefully this one will be taking off. It's also given me new excitement to complete the sequel to The Samson Effect which is tentatively titled, The Adam Effect (Michael, Thomas and Delia are back searching for an even more powerful mystery from biblical antiquity).



What about you? Can you see your book as an evergreen book? If not, why not? Sometimes, you never know what makes a book take off. But when it does, you know you can deliver because we are in the Golden Age of publishing... or, the Evergreen Age.









  



























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Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect , an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests . His new novel, The Lottery Ticket , was just recently released on Kindle.