Back to the Future with “The Future Shape of the Novel” -- by Michelle Black

Please welcome our honored guest, author Michelle Black! Michelle is the author of six novels of the Victorian West, including the award-winning Never Come Down and the Eden Murdock series. Her latest novel, Séance in Sepia, will be released October 2.

Michelle was born in Kansas and studied anthropology in college, then went on to law school where she graduated with honors. In 1993, she moved to Colorado and began to focus on her fiction writing. For three years, she owned a bookstore in Frisco, Colorado, a small town nestled high in the Colorado Rockies. She now divides her time between a Queen Anne Victorian home in Boulder, Colorado, and a horse farm outside Kansas City.

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I am so pleased to be a guest on The LadyKillers today and proud to be in such great company (with a special Shout-out to my “Victorian sister” Ann Parker and my “name twin” Michael Black!). This week’s topic, “The Future Shape of the Novel,” suits me well as I owned an ebook reader before most folks knew what an “ebook” was.

My first sale to a commercial publisher occurred in 1997. A pioneer in the ebook industry, called Hard Shell Word Factory, agreed to publish my first mystery novel, NEVER COME DOWN. I was elated, of course.  Getting one’s first novel sold is a thrill, regardless of the medium, and I immediately became a convert to the world of digital reading.

At about this same time, the first handheld ebook reader came on the market, the Rocket eBook, and I bought one right away. The size, shape, and reading experience were remarkably similar to that of the modern Kindle, though the battery weight was much greater.

The ebook trend was slow to catch on. Few readers wanted to shell out $500 for The Rocket in 1998. Reading an entire novel on a computer screen was tiring on the eyes, even for a devoted digital reader like me.  Traditional publishers entered this new arena with great reluctance and their first attempts were awkward, at best. When I made my first sale to a big New York house in 2000 for AN UNCOMMON ENEMY, they offered it in digital format simultaneously with the hard cover, but priced the print copy and the ebook the same--$27.95.  Yikes. Not even I, the author, wanted to spend that much on pixels.

A decade passed and technology finally caught up with the concept of e-reading. Kindles, Nooks, and iPads began to crop up on everyone’s Christmas list and electronic  publishing was at last hitting the mainstream. In 2010, I decided to take my digital adventure to the next level. The rights to AN UNCOMMON ENEMY had reverted back to me and I decided to teach myself how to format and publish it myself.

After some trial and error, I successfully created a Kindle edition and what happened next gave me the biggest surprise of my writing career. Thanks to a favorable review on a popular Kindle blog, AN UNCOMMON ENEMY suddenly became a bestseller.  There I was, madly checking my Amazon rankings every hour, thrilling at my overnight success (if by “overnight” you mean ten years, of course!)

  In the fourteen years since my love affair with digital publishing began, I have to say that even though print sales have resulted in more financial gain for my writing career, I’ve had the most pure fun with my ebooks.

That said, I have to report that my newest novel, SÉANCE IN SEPIA, a historical mystery novel set partly in 1875 which features real-life feminist firebrand, Victoria Woodhull, as its protagonist, will be available only in hardcover for the first year of its publication. To the many friends who’ve asked me, “Can I buy it for my Kindle?” I sadly have to tell them, “Wait until 2012.”

Comments

[Camille Minichino]

Thanks for visiting, Michelle.

I notice one of your residences is a horse farm. Does that mean you don't drive a car?

Okay, just my questionable analogy—just as the car did not completely replace the horse as a mode of getting from one place to another, neither do ereaders/ebooks have to completely replace paper ones. There's room for both. I'm seeing book farms in the future.

[Jacqueline Seewald]

Hi, Michelle,

Congrats on the new publication. It sounds like a very intriguing mystery novel.

Best,

Jacqueline Seewald
THE TRUTH SLEUTH

[Rebecca Grace]

Michelle
Wonderful blog. I also fell in love with ebooks way back in 1997 and I'm so pleased to see how far they've come. Thanks for the comments on how successful you've been re-publishing an old book.

[Ann]

Michelle: Wonderful post! And I love the interesting combination of "writing about the past" and being an early adapter of technology! :-) Can't wait to read Seance!

[Doris McCraw]

I have been reading on my computer for a couple of years. However, I do admit to really loving the feel of a book in my hands and it's easier on my eyes. Still, I believe there are benefits to both. A young man I spoke with a couple of months ago, a fireman, said that since getting an e-reader he had increased the number of books he was reading. As long as people will read, I say use whatever format works best for your work.
Your post was timely and very interesting.

[Ann Parker]

I can see where having an ereader would be handy for a firefighter. :-)

[Anne Schroeder]

I remember you in 2000 as ahead of the curve when Women Writing the West pushed the envelope on e-publishing and e-readers. This year I finally took the plunge and e-pubbed my memoir. Now I have to get over my love of hard copies, but with prices falling, it's getting easier.

And you're right about UNCOMMON ENEMY rebounding--I've come across two mentions of it in the past week. Congratuations--on both the old baby and the new!

[Carol Crigger]

You're always an inspiration, Michelle. I really enjoyed this post.

C.K.Crigger

[Jackie Griffey]

Michelle: Wish I'd caught on fast as you did about e-books, getting rights back slowed me down-LOL! But I've got a digital list now and have works in progress.
Good luck to all of us,
Jackie Griffey

[Arletta Dawdy]

Michelle,
You led the way and continue to do so. Thanks for the challenge. I not only fear getting my feet wet, but drowning in technologies isn't a nice idea either. Courage, come to me!