She's writing YA, paranormal, and series, all of which are in demand right now. She priced the first books in each of her series at .99 and then the subsequent titles at $2.99, and engaged in a fairly relentless Twitter/Facebook/blog campaign (which, good for her).

I haven't read her, but several of my writer friends who have say that she's got good chops, which also puts her above a LOT of self-pubbed authors, but she still could've used an editor.

I'm wondering how long, though, amazon will keep that sweet 70% royalty rate (which kicks into gear at the $2.99 price point. Below that, and it's 35% of retail price.)

I've been tempted just because I could just be done with it.

Which, come to think of it, is also almost precisely the reason I don't especially want to go that way. If I slap together an eBook and put it out there, well, I don't really feel like I'm accomplished anything. Hey, I just did something anyone could do.

Sales are going to depend on the market, at least for a while still, I think. Romance writers have already proven e-pub can be really successful (see Ellora's Cave, etc.), and teens and the fannish (who are probably more interested in paranormal, whatever kind of book it is) are going to be web-savvy already.

But for someone like my dad, say? He only goes to Amazon to order a book by an author he knows, or he's at a brick and mortar store looking at covers, etc. Reaching him with self-pubbed or e-pubbed thrillers is going to be harder. And he's not reading anything but a print book still.

But that segment of the market will (sorry, Dad!) be gone in the not-too-distant future, too.

The other half just read this morning that B&N is still in trouble, too, and considering bankruptcy for restructuring purposes so they can attract a new buyer. And they *did* address the e-book issue with the Nook, something Borders didn't do.

or he's at a brick and mortar store looking at covers

It's hard to imagine an online experience that could replace that. I mean, if I only want to find a book to read, I might use a web browser to try to find similar books to ones I've read, but going to a bookstore is an activity, something to get out of the house to do.

So-- I cut 49,299 words from a manuscript yesterday.

I'm still a little faint.

That's a shitload of words! Do you need a tissue?

I'm not sure it's healthy to lose that much text at once. Drink plenty of fluids and maybe take an iron supplement.

How come, Barb? Which book?

Holy crap Barb! that's amazing!

Thanks guys-- I did take a drink after I did it and have been supplementing with iron and chocolate. (Not at the same time, but you know...)

How come, Barb? Which book?

It's the 60s book, Amy-- the WF/Mainstream/whatever it is. I finished it in October, thought I'd nailed it, thought for sure this was the one that would help me break through into the adult market, except... NSM. Essentially, what happened was all the left turns to Albuquerque the plot took, coupled with all the stops and starts in the writing, since I was writing and editing STARS in there as well, plus the utterly different feel of the book as a whole, culminated in, what my agent rightly said was, "two different books."

At the point after which I took the longest writing break on it (which was about the halfway point in the manuscript as it happened), the tone of the book changed considerably. More importantly, the plot really took a seismic shift-- all the left turns wound up with my main character changing from an active protagonist in her own story to more of a passive narrator to someone else's story.

It's not that the second half is bad per se-- it's just not the same story.

I couldn't see that four months ago when I finished. I thought it was just the niftiest thing since sliced bread. But Adrienne is absolutely right. No one would have bought it in the state it was in. Understandably I was more than a little upset that two years' worth of work was essentially going down the toilet and I very nearly came close to chucking the whole thing out the window and saying "Screw it." But we've come to a compromise. Given that I have nearly 200 pages more or less intact I asked Adrienne if I came up with a solid direction in which I could take the story and write it up as a synopsis, could we submit the extant 200 pages and synopsis to at least test the waters and see if there's any potential interest in the market for this sucker before I go writing a whole new second half. She agreed, so basically, that's what I'm doing.

Honestly, though, what I should be doing is writing more on Haunted, the ghost YA, but I'm a little stuck there, too.

But this is FUN, right??

::headdesk::