E is For E-book

 

Or ebook if you prefer. Either way my spellchecker underlines it as an error.

Like my fictitious hero, Joe Murray, I’m old fashioned. When I read I prefer a paperback. It’s easier on my eyes.

E-books, however, are here to stay, and they are the way forward. Anyone trying to shoo them as a passing fad is not living in the real world.

And e-books have had some remarkable effects, not least of which is the ability to turn round project with what amounts to lightning speed. I was first published in paperback, and the process took something like nine months from submission to print run. That with a POD (Print On Demand) publisher in the USA. If it had been with a standard publisher, I could have added another year waiting for print runs and distribution to outlets.

With e-books, you can literally finish the job off and have it up for sale within 24 hours. A good thing? I think so. I get enough requests from readers asking, “When’s the next STAC Mystery due?”

The e-book and various publishing platforms have also given rise to the self-publishing phenomenon. It is so easy to put out an e-book that half the world is doing it. Again, is this a good thing?  I think it is. All right, so it’s opened the door for every piece of crap that never even made the slush pile, but it’s also levelled the playing field, taken away the absolute control of publishers and agents.

I’m enjoying moderate success with the STAC Mysteries. All seven are still in the UK Kindle British Detectives top 100. If e-books didn’t exist, would I be enjoying that same success?

Unlikely. Under the old system, they would never have seen the light of day.

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The STAC Mysteries are available as paperbacks and as e-book downloads in all formats, or direct from Crooked Cat Books in MOBI, EPUB and PDF formats