What Is a Book?
This short blog post aims to provoke thought for Later Writers who wish to write a “book”…
Books are no longer simply many printed pages, illustrated or not, bound between two cardboard covers.
In the C21st we have:
- traditional hardcovers
- traditional paperbacks
- children’s cloth books (plastic too, for bath time)
- children’s board books
- a myriad of other formats that we know as books
Then, we also have:
- electronic books, various platforms, commonly Kindle
- audiobooks – cassette tape, then CD-rom, now electronic
- and I’m sure there’s more!
Producing all formats these days, we have:
- traditional corporate publishers
- independent publishers
- self-publishers (who may use a service that prints on demand)
- self-publishers who arrange their own printing, then sell direct and through booksellers
- self-publishers who print a few copies for their own use
It’s COMPLICATED! What is your Choice?
How would you like your book to appear? There are options, as above, and one other:
- leaving your manuscript on your hard drive or in a desk drawer
This is NOT a sensible idea although many novelists who are well-known often disclose their “in the drawer” works that they wrote before successful publication.
This Is My (Current) Method
Just get a novel written! After that, I’ll deal with:
- finding a literary agent
- being published
- writing another novel
