ePub - what I've learned so far

I debated a lot before deciding to ePub The Sweet Sixteenth. I spent many hours trying to make the story the best it could be. Among those 70,000 words there is probably a mistake or two, but it happens. I've even seen mistakes in professionally printed books by top authors. The nice thing about an eBook, is that if a mistake is found it can be corrected. For instance, someone who bought my book pointed out a mistake/typo in chapter 7, I fixed it and uploaded a new version. So anyone who buys it from here on out will get a new version without that mistake. That's the good part because sometimes uploading can jumble things.

I'm now two weeks into my eBook experience, and so far it has been very good. For me, it was not about making money, so anything I make is just extra. It seems that a lot of first time ePubbers are looking for a quick score. I guess maybe I'm not among that group. I'm under no illusions that I'm going to sell 100,000 copies, I'm shooting for 90 copies, one for each agent that rejected my query on The Sweet Sixteenth, not to make any sort of point just for the heck of it. It just seemed like a good number.

The main reason I decided to go eBookin' was because I could. Five years ago, The Sweet Sixteenth would be just another "trunk novel" sitting on my hard drive, or burned to a CD (remember those?) or sitting on a flash drive. Obviously, I like the story, but I can admit it's not anything so Earth shaking or original. Even though I shopped the book at 85,000 words, and it's now at 70,000, it would still be likely be rejected based on the fact that serial killers chasing a woman for odd reasons has been done...to death...

With the option of eBookin' now, I just cannot see any point to letting a story rot on my hard drive. Unless I think it sucks. I have a lot of trunk novels that will never make it to eBook, but The Sweet Sixteenth was not one of them. There is something fun and quirky about the characters and their story, and I wanted people to enjoy it. I'm still debating dropping the price, I really resisted the $0.99 cent deal, maybe I'll meet in the middle and drop it to $1.99.

Overall, so far I can't complain. The feedback has been positive, and I'm working on my next eBook. What I've learned so far is that eBookin' is a controversial topic among writers and agents. It seems like no one can really make up their minds about how it's all going to effect the future of writing. When I first asked an agent if ePub was a good idea, I was told "no way" because then no agent or publisher will ever touch that title again, even if in the future it becomes a viable sale. But now that stance has totally changed, and they are willing to consider ePub works that have sold, and/or titles that have been professionally presented.

No one seems to know exactly what to expect from all this. Which was my main reason for getting involved. At this point I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. I can't learn things from the outside, I must dig in and get my hands dirty. So I am... how much money I make is irrelevant to how much I learn from this experience.