The Endangered Species: The Book...

Going from a writer to an author (and yes there is a distinction) has been an interesting journey so far.  It got me thinking about a lot of things that never crossed my mind before.  Mostly I think about how the book is slowly becoming extinct.  In today’s time of technology who needs a physical book in their hand.  Well, I do.  I have an e-reader.  I’ve read books on my laptop.  Is it convenient?  Yes.  But there’s still something about having a copy of a book.  I love it.  The feel.  The smell.  There’s something to be said for physically turning a page.  

As an author I feel technology limits the amount of people I can reach.  Though technology is abundant there is still a mass of people that don’t depend on it.  Some people still walk into a book store and look at the books.  They read the backs, they run their hands over the covers and that’s how they choose what to read.  Not everyone has a Kindle or a Nook, but everyone can go to a bookstore.  Unless they become obsolete and disappear all together.

My publisher is small and independent.  I love my publisher and I wouldn’t have done this any differently but because I chose a small publisher my book may never sit on the shelf of a book store.  And I wonder why.   I can’t make sense of it at all.  With stores struggling to stay open why do they only stock the authors of big corporate publishers?  Why limit what you sell when you are already losing sales?  You’d think they would willingly accept anything they can get in their stores.

I read all different genres by all different levels of authors.  I’ve read plenty of books by independently published authors, and there are some pretty amazing writers that aren’t getting noticed.  It’s really just not fair.  Why should I or my fellow Rebels be left out? 

I didn’t write a novel or have it published to get rich.  Far from it actually.  I wanted people to get to meet my characters and to know their stories.  I did it because I love it.  But I still want my book to reach as many people as it can.  We support big corporate companies on a daily basis because we have to.  It’s unavoidable in today’s society.  But we can still support local businesses and independent artists.  They deserve it just as much as the big box retailers.

So I ask everyone that’s read my book or plans to, everyone that is a fan of one of my fellow Rebels, and of course my fellow authors do you want to see our books on shelves in stores?  Why not?  And what can we do to make it happen?