Please file my ebooks in Project Gutenberg 70 years after my death

[mollyringle]

Little announcement in a minor key:

Scheherazade Tales, a.k.a. a nice lady named Deb, who has e-published one of my novels and a dozen by a number of other writers, and was going to publish SUMMER TERM this season (which I've posted samples of here), is going out of business as of midnight tonight. Ebooks, she explains--and I have to agree with her--are not something the world at large is ready for. The only e-publisher turning a serious profit and holding a booth at book conferences is Ellora's Cave, and I don't think it's a coincidence that they publish only erotica. People are happy with the printed book. I am happy with the printed book myself, so I can't criticize. The reason Project Gutenberg works at all is that a) it provides ebooks for the amount most people are willing to pay for them; i.e., nothing; and b) providing a searchable text of classic lit is actually useful to many people, whether for scholarly purposes or just curiosity.

So, if you still want to read TOURIST ATTRACTIONS or SUMMER TERM, I can arrange that on a one-on-one basis, of course. I don't know if I'll try to find other houses for them just yet. I think I'll be going back to querying agents for some of my other stories, and shoot for the paper-publishing moon.

Actually I think I'll be trying to sell RELATIVELY HONEST first. It turned out much more fun and readable than I expected. Plus, "edgy" is in these days, in young adult. (I assume quasi-incest counts as edgy.)

There we are. My sympathies to Deb, who tried her hardest, and to the other S.T. authors, who are lovely gals from what little I knew of them in email correspondence.

I will probably become a librarian someday anyway. If I had to give up either writing books or reading them, I would give up writing them--though with great reluctance. As long as I still have LJ, my feedback needs are met, right? ;)

Comments

isn't it 75 years?

[elfinity.livejournal.com]

First of all - AW! That bites.

However, I do think you've got a really good chance with Relatively Honest, it is a really great read. I did not intend to get so sucked into the plot and like the characters as much as I ended up doing. I'd be very excited if RH got published.

Good luck and my sympathies to people of ST.

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about ST, but I'd have to agree that e-books are just not something that people in general are prepared to leap on. Like you said, we're happy with paper books. I do love me some Gutenberg, but it's difficult to get into a book when I don't have pages. I love pages. I love the way they smell and I love flipping them and catching random words from pages to come. I love seeing how far along in the book I am at a glance. Books, as Neil Gaiman says, are the sexiest things in the world to me. I read some of my favorite books of last year on teh Gute (Picture of Dorian Grey, Northanger Abbey, The Man Who Was Thursday) but then I went out and bought paperbacks of them all so that I could re-read them in the bathtub. You cannot read Gutenberg in the tub, alas.

As long as I still have LJ, my feedback needs are met, right? ;)

This, I suspect, is why I am so lacksidasial (I know this is a word, but spell check doesn't like it, so if it's horrendously mispelt...well...sorry) about my writing these days. My feedback fix is usually forthcoming from LJ, so I have no need to bother with this whole writing thing when I can just blather about nothing and post random pointless polls.

[pokeystar.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, there are a lot of librarians out there who write on the side.

Nancy Pearl, for one.

Avi, Dee Brown, Beverly Cleary...

[dirae.livejournal.com]

I will probably become a librarian someday anyway.

Funny you mention this. I, too, have decided that I will eventually get a Master's degree in Library and Informational Science as a stepping stone to becoming an archivist (as a second career when I am about 35 or so). Awhile back, I was checking out schools with online programs and I discovered this. According to the website it would take three semesters to get a M.S.

I also have a list of books for you about women's role in the Civil War and the overall effect the war had on them. I'll email it to you tonight.

Sorry to hear about the e-book bust. I still maintain that you should revise Tourist Attraction, change the ages of the characters, tame it down a hair and evolve it into a series. It would be very marketable, perhaps if something like Alloy Entertainment got its hands on the concept. However, Alloy could very well steal the concept and you'd become something like Francine Pascal and her Sweet Valley High series. :P

Re: isn't it 75 years?

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind words! I'll certainly try to get RH published. You guys were an awesome critique group. :)

And oddly, it is 70 years after author's death, for whatever reason...

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

"Lackadaisical," I believe. But I won't bother looking it up to check. :)

Ditto on all those sensual pleasures of books. I remember you saying you sniff books like they're crack. I totally do that too. The used bookstore smell of a thick paperback is the awesomest. Though a new one is good too.

Probably just as well that this little dose of "fame" provided by LJ is enough for us. If we required massive amounts, and actually got it, we might end up like Elvis in his late phase. And that's not pretty.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I'd love to do both. Beverly Cleary is a librarian? Sweet, I'm in!

Nancy Pearl has an action figure, too. That's the coolest. :D

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah, on annoying days at work, I used to check the Seattle Public Library page to make sure they were still doing continuous recruitment of people with ML(I)S's, then go look again at UW's requirements. :) Someday, someday. Also, I checked Bureau of Labor Statistics the other day, and their write-up of "librarian" said that the future looks good for us younger ones, since a good portion of current librarians are approaching retirement age. Plus we'll have the fresh mad computer skills.

Hmm, I certainly could turn 'Tourist Attractions' into a proper YA without much difficulty. The characters already act like they're only 18 anyhow. But yeah...the paper publishing world does have its sordid side. Still, I guess it's better than either record labels or the movie industry, so I'll soldier on.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

P.S. Thanks for the book list! I look forward to looking into those. And thank Kevon's mom too. :)