Behind the Scenes: Backlist Ebooks

It may not have escaped your notice that I’m putting out my backlist in eformat.

*pause to absorb glyph of dry humor*

It may even  be obvious that I’m not the only one.

See, there are a certain number of us in this particular place in our careers–been doing this long enough to have reverted out-of-print books, and yet are young enough (in dinosaur years)and/or tech-oriented enough to embrace the new opportunities in digital publishing.

So here we are.  Putting out our own books. Incorporating old edits that were once made only in production and on paper, making director’s cuts, and reproofing and pretending we know what we’re doing when it comes to cover design.

(Hey, I heard me say that! But I like my covers.  I think they should make books “jump off the shelves.”  Too bad I don’t rule the world!)

Note to self:  Work on that next.

Anyway.  The other thing about growing up as print authors is that we’re used to reaching out to a print world.  We’ve spent our careers learning how to do just that!  So it’s not just about the logistical parts and the learning curve, but reaching out in the right place at the right time.

But here’s the thing. In order to become published in the first place, we learned and persisted and wrote and persisted and submitted and…well…persisted.

So we’re going to figure this out, too. How to deal with the manuscript prep, the formatting, the covers–the quality control that we expect of ourselves and readers expect of us–and yes, being in the right place for ebook-loving readers to find us.

And that brings me to Backlist Ebooks.

Because it’s easier to see a group of Backlist Ebook authors than it is to find any single author out there on the big wide Internets.  A nice big easy-to-spot flock of us.

(Or something.)

Since I’m not the only who thinks this might be the case, several of us did this thing:  We made a place around which we can flock.  Named, not so oddly, Backlist Ebooks.  At the moment we’re on FaceBook (a page anyone can visit, FaceBook member or not), and in the near future, we’ll have a companion web site.  Down the road, a more complete resource on a fancy-schmancy web site.

And all along the way, it’s about gathering together in a way that makes it easy to find inexpensive digital versions of long-sought out-of-print books–and every now and then, an original.  Plus, bonus! It’s been a blast to pull together with other authors and take back the control over these books that we love, too!

So you KNOW WHAT? Come visit us!  Say hello!  And if you’re like me–still yearning for my first e-reading device, but getting close–whet your appetite!