Over the weekend I decided to take a look at my Kindle sales
to see what, if anything, was selling.
As an author it’s always great to know someone has taken the
trouble to look at my book and been inspired enough by what they’ve seen to
pay actual money to download and read it.
I was surprised to see my oldest book, Under Verdant Skies, selling as many copies as my newer titles.
To be honest, I've been considering taking the title down lately,
because (with a little personal growth and distance) I can see the book is not
up to what I would consider ‘standard’. Don’t
get me wrong, I like the story and the characters, but some of the elements and
the writing just make me cringe.
An alternative to scrapping the book completely - which is
not something I want to do, but would, rather than sell something I’m not happy
with - is do a rewrite. Well, a major
rewrite, to be honest. That’s a shame
for all those people who’ve already bought the book, as they’ll miss out on the
scintillating new version (ahem).
But wait. No. Amazon
do this amazing thing called a Kindle Whispersync update. It means any new
versions of the books we buy for our Kindle get automatically updated once
Amazon have confirmed there are new updates.
Hooray!
Oh, you knew that?
Okay. Fair enough.
I knew it too.
Just saying.
But mulling over this whole ‘to scrap or rewrite’ thing has
brought to mind an aspect of the ebook industry I hadn’t considered before. Books – ebooks, anyway – are more alive these
days than they’ve ever been. The book you download today could be different
tomorrow, if the author changes something overnight. It could have scenes added or removed, the
dialogue could be different, the ending could change. There could be any number of alterations,
subtle or not-so from one version to the next, all without the mind-boggling process of going through the dozens of processes a print book requires.
An ebook could easily evolve from mediocre pulp to a masterpiece, or vice versa,
bit by bit, over the course of days, weeks, or even years.
In fact, it might never stop. The
author might just keep going, forever rewriting, honing, shaping,
perfecting. A never-ending series of
rewrites.
Is that a good thing? Shouldn’t a book be something
dependable, unchanging, fixed? Doesn’t
that make it just a big web page that we have to pay for? Also, would someone honestly reread an entire
book just to see what changes the author has made since the last time they read
it? Probably not. And if not not, then they should probably get
a life.
The advantage,
really, is for the author. So he/she can improve their work, put the best
possible version out there, either in the hope of recognition (at long last) or
just as a matter of principle. So the reader wins, too.
At present, Kindle allows authors to change their book
content as often as they like, for no fee.
From an author’s point of view, that’s brilliant. Personally, I’ve never reached the point
where I’m a hundred per cent happy with a book I’ve written. There’s always
room for improvement. Although I also believe there’s a point at which an
author should just stop and say, ‘That’s it. Finished.’
Whispersync is good for readers because, for no fee, they’re automatically provided
with the latest version of any book they’ve bought. True, they may not want the
update, or they may not like the new version as much as the previous, and, once
it’s updated, the original version is lost forever, which could easily become a downside. Thankfully, Whispersync is something you have
to opt into, rather than out of, so the choice stays with the reader.
This new version malarkey is another poke in the eye for the
print industry and I’m trying figure out whether I care or not. Print
books are as traditional as Christmas and there will always be those who prefer
them, but in terms of storage, speed of delivery, ecology, and convenience,
ebooks out-perform printed books, hands down.
The fact that ebooks are alive and evolving in a very true sense is just
another plus.
So what are the minuses?
Well, for a start, I need to get on with that rewrite.
