E-book demand cramps writers

Think you're not working hard enoughat your writing now?  This was re-printed in 5/13 Houston Chronicle:

NEW YORK TIMES

For years, it was a schedule as predictable as a calendar: Novelists who specialized in mysteries, thrillers and romance would write one book a year, output that was considered not only suf­ficient, but productive.

But the e-book age has accelerated the metabolism of book publishing.

Authors are nowpulling the literary equivalent of a double shift, churning out short stories, novellas or even an extra full-length book each year.
They are trying to satisfy impatient readers who have become used to downloading any e-book they want at the touch of a button, and the publishers who are nudging them toward greater productivity in the belief that the more their authors’ names are in public, the bigger stars they will be.

“It used to be that once a year was a big deal,” said Lisa Scottoline, a best-selling author of thrillers. “You could saturate the market. But today the culture is a great big hungrymaw, and you have to feed it.”

Scottoline has increased her output from one book a year to two, which she accomplishes with a brutal writing schedule: 2,000 words a day, seven days a week, usually “starting at 9 a.m.

and going until Colbert,” she said.

The British thriller writer Lee Child, who created the indelible character Jack Reacher, is now supplementing his hardcover books with short stories that are published in digital-only format, an increasingly popular strategy to drum up attention.

Publishers say that a carefully released short story, timed six to eight weeks before a big hardcover comes out, can entice new readers who might be willing to pay 99 cents for a story but reluctant to spend $26 for a hardcover.

That can translate into higher preorder sales for the novel and even a lift in sales of older books by the author, which are easily accessible as e-book impulse purchases for consumers with Nooks or Kindles.

Jennifer Enderlin, the associate publisher of St.

Martin’s Paperbacks, said the strategy had worked for many of her authors, who saw a big uptick in hardcover sales, book over book, once they started releasing more work.

“I almost feel sorry for authors these days with howmuch publishers are asking of them,” Enderlin said. “We always say, ‘How about a little novella that we can sell for 99 cents?’ ”