The Publishing Revolution - P.S. Thank You Amazon

Two traditional publishers published my two university textbooks because I had a long list of publications in the field of Radio Astronomy; in their language I had a platform.

After I wrote my first literary novel I spent many months trying to find a publisher to no avail mainly because I didn’t have a platform in the literary circles. I therefore, like many authors, have a dossier of rejection letters from traditional publishers.

As I was keen to get my work out there, I approached a local publisher in Adelaide who published my first literary novel Hollywood Amarroo – a chronicle about two young lovers who ignored the prejudices of the sixties in Australia to defend an Aboriginal mother accused of manslaughter.
I organized a successful book launch but after that happening, I didn’t sell many copies of my book because no one advertised and / or marketed my book.

Outskirts Press published Hypatia’s Feud, my second literary book, because I didn’t want to go for another merry go round with the traditional publishers. The time it took Outskirts Press to convert my manuscript, MS, as a WORD doc to a book and e-book was about six months. Amazon now advertises and markets my book but it was a costly experiment.

Thanks to the publishing revolution authors now have a third alternative: Amazon’s CreatSpace. An author sends the finished MS to Amazon’s CreateSpace where it is converted into an e-book and presto the author’s book is out there in the virtual world! Parenthetically I’ll add that the cost of converting the MS as a WORD doc to an e-book is less than$100. With this approach the author has absolute control of every aspect of production and earns royalties worth 70% of the book’s purchase price. The royalties offered by CreatSpace therefore compare favourably with the 15% (of the book’s purchase price) I earn from my university text books. It is simply brilliant!

Royalties aside imagine how many trees authors would save using Amazon’s CreateSpace to put their work out there. Many readers would simply visit the virtual Amazon bookshop before they can buy any e-books, costing less, say, $6.00. E-books are simply transmitted to the reader via the Internet, almost instantly, so no one pays packaging or postal charges. And more importantly no more merry go rounds for authors dealing with traditional publishers. Lastly non- English authors can also use Amazon’s CreateSpace to get their work out there.

I’m already working toward re-issuing my Hollywood Amarroo book as an e-book. Now you know the route I’ll pursue to publish all my future books.