The Return of Jewball OR: How a big time author reinvented himself digitally
OR: What you lose (and win!) by being digitally successful vs successful in physical bookstore terms (if those still exist).
I think you'll be interested in this podcast from Litquake's LitCast. It's Neal Pollack speaking as the keynote at Litquake's digi.lit conference in SF this June. [Click here to download now or listen away!] This talk seems particularly relevant to me because Neal's gone down a road very similar to my own. That is, except he's packed stores, gotten six-figure deals in the past and otherwise been very "successful" in traditional NY Publishing terms. He was evan a McSweeney's child! And now he's with Amazon's Thomas & Mercer Imprint, just like me. He explains why, what he's lost by being here and what he's gained. It's very interesting and enlightening listening for any author in today's media space. So check it out. Thank me later.
I first became aware of Neal when he wrote this essay in the NY Times Book Review about why he would self-publish Jewball. He even talked about doing a Kickstarter campaign just about the same time as when I did mine. I posted about all this back here on the AuthorBootCamp site. Now this fills in the rest of the story: how even with the platform of the NYTBR (!) the self-published book didn't sell and he turned to Thomas & Mercer. Definitely a turn I didn't see coming! He didn't even wind up doing the Kickstarter campaign. Why not? Who knows.
Anyway, here's the whole deal. You'll hear a lot that parallels the path I've gone down, the one you've followed me along, and also a lot of the reasons I'm happiest now with Thomas & Mercer. How I plan to keep on keeping on. Actually, on that note, In Broad Daylight is part of Amazon UK's Kindle 100 books for August. If you're over there, drop a review and pick up a copy. It's only ONE QUID! Who looks out for you. That's right.
The digi.lit conference was great too, by the way. Stay tuned for a future LitCast that features my panel on what writers need to know to self-publish in the new digital space.
