Goodbye to Avalon Books, Hello Amazon

Happy Monday, all!

Well, in case you're late in hearing the news, my publisher Avalon Books (which pubbed Georgie on His Mind and Sunny Days for Sam) has been bought out by... Amazon. Eeep.

What does this mean for me?

Well... I'm not sure. :)
Right now there seems to be a "freeze" on my newest book, Sunny Days for Sam . So I have to wait and see what happens next.

But here are some things I DO know:

Will my book(s) still exist in print?
Yes. Amazon Publishing wants to give readers the choice on format—print or digital. Their plan is to continue to make Avalon Books titles available in print, either through inventory acquired from Avalon or via our print-on-demand program.What will be the imprint?
Going forward, Avalon Books’ romance titles will be published under our Montlake Romance list; they will continue to acknowledge Avalon Books in the front of each book they publish.
 Will my books be available in other bookstores and libraries? Their goal is to make my books available at a wide range of libraries and retailers, and they do business with the numerous wholesalers that support these channels. What are the plans for Avalon Books as eBooks? They are in the process of digitizing Avalon Books with digital rights in the contract. These books will be made available throughout the Kindle ecosystem which includes all Kindle devices and via Kindle reading apps on iPad, iPhone, Android devices, Mac, and PC later this year.One positive thing to come out of this transition will be the availability of my books in digital format. Yay! That was something I've been begging for since the uprise of ebooks a few years ago.
Avalon's hardcover books are lovely, but priced at almost $24 a book, it cannot compete with the $2.99 and under ebooks so readily available to so many Kindle and Nook owners. So it will be nice to finally be a part of that market again.

But it does kind of sadden me to say goodbye to Avalon. I worked with some lovely and talented editors there, and the company itself was very good to me. One of the things that first attracted me to them was the wholesome, family-oriented stories they always put out for the library market.

Publishing changes are bound to happen and when they do, you have to roll with it and embrace the unknown. It's so funny to look back and where I started and where things are in now in just a short five years and see how many of my initial goals on publishing have changed.

I can't say publishing has ever been a boring ride. :-)

How about you? Have you heard about the whole Amazon buyout that went on?
If you're a writer, have your publishing goals changed? Did you ever think you'd be more concerned about the ebook market than print market (like me)? :-)