New options for readers
Today we have a guest post by Tahlia
Newland. She writes young adult/adult urban fantasy with a
touch or more of romance in it and a focus on challenging readers’
perception of reality.
A
Matter of Perception, her anthology of urban
fantasy & magical realism stories, is available on ebook. ‘Realm
Hunter,’
a Diamond Peak novella, will be
released in December.
The event of ereaders is
revolutionizing the publishing industry, but not only is it giving
authors new opportunities, it is doing the same for readers.
Once you have your ereader you can:
Buy books for as little as 99c and
get many for free
Have access to thousands of books
that your local bookstore (if you still have one) could never carry.
Buy a book instantly without
leaving your home
Carry thousands of books in a
device that weighs less than an average sized book
Have a book collection larger
than the size of your shelf space
Via independent publishing, have
access to books that are too different or otherwise too hard to
promote ( eg cross genre or written by someone unknown) to be
published by a publishing company. Often these are the most
interesting books.
Have access to books of all
different lengths (e.g. short stories and novellas)
Short Stories
The beauty of short stories is that
they are straight to the point, snappy and without frills. A good
short story is highly engaging and has a powerful ending, often with
a twist or a moral point.
They are perfect for today’s world,
especially for young people with little money and many demands on
their time, because they are low price and time commitment.
A good anthology of short stories has a
linking theme that provides a sense of continuity with each story
adding to an overall flavour that makes the book a satisfying whole.
One reader said of my short story
collection, ‘A Matter of Perception’, “These were five-for-five
keeping me engaged from start to finish. A very pleasurable read, and
what makes it such an interesting collection is that it provides such
a variety in tone and supernatural elements yet is held together,
yes, by that common supernatural denominator but also such
thought-provoking philosophies of life.”
NovellasNovellas
are usually around 20,000 to 30,000 words and can be read in 2 or
three hours. They were unprofitable to publish in print but work well
in ebook form, hence we are seeing a large number of novellas,
especially from indie authors. Since they take less time to write, an
author can charge less for them making them attractive to readers,
and their length makes them a very real option to watching a movie
The
serialized novel.Serialized fiction was big in Charles
Dickens and Authur Conan Doyle’s time when books were expensive, so
the stories were published in a more affordable magazine format in
easily digestible chunks that suited the newly literate working class
with little time for such indulgences. It created fiction that didn’t
take the readers commitment to the story for granted, hence there was
plenty of dramatic tension to keep you reading. One segment always
ended with a hook to lead you into the next one, something to keep
you wondering. Why is this form returning?
At the moment it’s only happening in
the indie publishing world where a lot of authors are pricing books
at 99c. This is not enough money for an author to have any chance of
making a profit, but if the competition is setting their prices so
low, you have to deal with it. So, you charge 99c for 3 or 4
installments of one novel. It makes economic sense for the author and
makes it easier for the reader to decide if they want to purchase the
whole thing.
Most indie authors will have something
priced at 99c for you to try to see if you like the author enough to
buy longer works. This is the sort of thing that economics makes us
do, but the reader wins with cheap prices and more options.
Would you buy a book in serial form or
would you rather pay more and get the whole thing at once?
Do you see what I see? Take a bunch
of supernatural beings, a battle of magical light, a mysterious hole
in the pavement, a dream of a future past and a pair of rose-coloured
glasses, mix them with a little romance and a smidgen of philosophy
and you might be left wondering if it isn’t all just a matter of
perception. This thought-provoking collection of urban fantasy and
magical realism stories includes ‘The Drorgon Slayer’s Choice’
and ‘The Boneyard’, a semi finalist in the Aussiecon 4 Make Ready
fantasy/scfi competition of 2010.
Are you willing to stake
your future on a butterfly’s shampoo preferences? Julia’s not
sure. She knows that relationships made in heaven can end up in hell,
but if she can avoid having her memory wiped, she just might end up
with a god of her own.
Author
links
