Another week filled to the brim with book related networking. Monday was Left Coast Writers. This month, our guest speaker was Ransom Stevens. His novel, The God Patent, provides the grounds for science and religion to hash out their differences. Ransom (love that name) knows his science; he’s a retired professor of particle physics. I’ll let you know about the religion after I’ve finished the book.
During his talk, he referred to “the new paradigm in publishing.” The God Patent was originally released as an E-book through Scribd. He explained how traditional publishing typically asks a prospective author, “Where will your book be shelved?” They need to know its genre in order to market it. In the new publishing paradigm, that question is irrelevant because it’s the readers who decide what category they think the book falls into. In Ransom’s case, his book is considered fiction by some and science fiction by others. But the point is, it doesn’t matter. The process of shelving a book in a particular section in the bookstore isn’t the only way it gets exposed today. This shift makes sense. Ask yourself, do you buy a book because you heard it was good, or do you buy it because you heard it was science fiction?
With the breakout models of electronic publishing, self-publishing, and print-on-demand publishing all that matters is whether the book was enjoyable, and would you recommend it. How one reader chooses to describe a book through an online comment center reflects their personal biases, and we expect that. There is this whole new consumer-reviews phenomenon that provides another perspective that isn’t hinged to specific genre classifications. This is good for me because Pearls My Mother Wore is fiction, but there is spirituality in it. There is also family dysfunction, travel, food, and gardening. On line, folks could key in any of those search words and possibly find my book, especially if I learn how to work meta tags and search engines. All of that will take time, the good news is that the possibilities exist.
I’m taking the day off today. My new friend, Jane, whose just moved to Sonoma from Alabama and I are going out to Point Reyes and the beach for a picnic. Yippee!!
See you next Friday when I’ll post again.
Thank you Pam for sharing this with me and the blog. It’s always thrilling for me when I get a favorable review from somebody who isn’t a member of my family or a close friend. Kathy sounds like a reader with discerning taste, so it’s nice to hear she liked Pearls My Mother Wore. Nighty-night
Terry,
I’ve been wanting to share this bit with you for awhile. About four weeks ago my good friend Kathy was leaving for a two week trip. She is an avid reader and mentioned that she was looking for a couple of good books to take along. I had a copy of Pearls but had not read it yet. I offered it to her and she took it along. Four or five days after she left I got an email from her telling me about the book. She said, I already finished the book. I found it held my attention, in other words it was a “page turner”. It was tightly woven and nicely paced. It had well developed descriptions so I could visualize he characters and places. I kept imagining who could play the various parts if they were to make a movie of the novel.
Unlike Kathy I am a very slow reader. I started Pearls several days ago. For the first time in a long time I look forward to going to bed and reading. That’s what I’m about to go do now. Thanks Terry! Pam