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Sophie Danielle Fouts

Engl 1301 Composition and Rhetoric
26 November 2015
Digital Writing
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe: all mimsy were the
borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe. This is the opening line from the nonsense poem The
Jabberwocky written by the renowned author, poet and creative writer Lewis Carrol. The
occupation of a fictional author has always been romanticized as one of mystery and extreme
depth. Many a reader often wonder, How can people create stories out of seemingly nothing and
the audience has an emotional attachment towards the people, the setting, and the plot that is
being expressed in those narratives? This is a question that has plagued people since the
invention of storytelling, and it was no closer to being answered then, than it is today. However,
there is a danger being posed towards this specialized craft. Digital publishing has become both a
problem and a solution for self-published authors.
With the first digital computer being constructed in the early 1900s, there has been a
surge towards the automation of computerized everything in the day to day lives of human
beings. The first home computer was a huge leap in this direction, and the phenomenon has just
kept growing and growing to where it has almost been completely engrafted into cultures around
the globe. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple are household names because their
products like Google Chrome, Microsoft Office, and the iPhone, which have taken America by
storm for their effectiveness in being the best of the technology industry. Overall, consumption
of digital media has had a dramatic increase of 83% between 2010 and 2013 rising another 23%

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by November of 2014 (Fulgoni 1). It follows, then because of this movement that people have
sought to also digitize paper books.
First brought into play in 1971 by a Michael Hart at the University of Illinois, Hart was
the first to digitize a written document in a computer using a layout called Plain Vanilla (Berger,
1). After the initial success of transcribing his first document, the Declaration of Independence,
Hart began to also adapt other public domain written works into this digital format for what he
dubbed Project Gutenberg (Berger 1). Noting Harts success, in 1991 John Mark Ockerbloom
took this idea to the internet (Berger 1). He created an online e-book database of over one million
books for students to read at Carnegie Mellon University (Berger 1). This was the first step
towards having digital books with an effective internet distribution system (Berger 1). As the
industry of selling e-books has grown throughout the years, there has been a shift in the
publishing market place. Amazon has become a forerunner in the publishing industry because of
their determined pursuit of selling e-books. In 2009, they controlled 18% of the North-American
book market growing another 4% by 2010 (Berger 1). All this change in the production and
selling of e-books has now led to a 30 billion dollar industry that is expected to continue to be on
the rise in the coming years (Berger 1), but there are some people who do not view this as a good
thing.
This exponential change in the publishing market landscape has left some publishers and
bibliophiles worried that e-books might mean the end for print books (Berger 1). Naturally, there
is always the chance that this could take place, but it does not appear that e-books will be
overtaking completely in the near future. There will always be a market for people who prefer
hard copies for their reading material instead of a screen (Berger 1). Besides, the appeal that

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exists towards digital books is not because of the formatting or the smell one would expect from
a book; it has to do with the cheapness of their production.
The excitement that was first posed towards digital books was over how they would cut
down on companies manufacturing costs (Acedo, Shannon, & Leverkus 1). There would no
longer be a need to print paper for the books, ship them, or store them. However, this plan fell
apart when publishers discovered that they had no way of controlling their sold product. Digital
files could be copied at will and circulated among hundreds of people with only one actual
bought digital copy of the book. This issue caused an uproar among publishers who dared not to
sell their e-books to public institutions such as libraries, whom they feared would abuse them,
but this has gradually changed as publishing houses discovered new ways protect their products
(Acedo, Shannon, & Leverkus 1). What publishers did not anticipate was how digital books
could cut out the need for authors to distribute their works through their companies.
By selling their books on internet market places such as Amazon, authors are essentially
able to cut out the middle-man when it comes to publishing. They are able to provide customers
with the high-quality books that they desire at a lesser expense than major publishing houses and
still obtain a substantial amount of profit while retaining the rights to their books (Coker 1).
Authors who bypass the publishing houses to do this are known as Indie authors. This new breed
of writers are pioneering the way for other authors to begin their journey as successful, selfpublished entrepreneurs using the internet, but there is a problem with using this method.
With the ability for people to find any e-book in the world by typing in a simple search
bar, it has become a more difficult for authors to be able to set themselves apart from the crowd
when there is such a deluge of stories to be discovered (Coker 1). The amount of books available
is outdistancing consumer demand (Coker 1). Hundreds of thousands of Indie or independently

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published authors books have now been made free on digital reading platforms because they
were not being read, including the Kindle Fire Unlimited, and now readers have little reason to
personally purchase a digital or tangible copy of authors books (Coker 1). This devastating
change in the self-publishing industry has caused many Indie authors to quit (Coker 1), but this
does not mean they should give up.
Part of the issue that exists here is that Indie authors are not adapting their marketing to
the internet like they have with their books. Advertisement used to be a simple game for any
product medium. With options limited to only a few television stations, newspapers, magazines,
and mail, companies did not have to be as creative in how they displayed themselves to the
public eye. Despite that fact, marketers are now having to be more careful and conscious of their
image so that their product might succeed using new digital advertisement outlets such as
computer desktops, apps, and the internet (Fulgoni 1). 80% of the U.S.s total population is
connected to the worldwide web in through computers, phones, and other digital devices
(Fulgoni 1). Those people are consumers in the making, therefore the question advertisers have
been asking is what the best possible solution is for reaching this connected audience. Some
tactics have tested to be more favorable than others. For example, developers have discovered
that people are more likely download their app by advertising in other apps (Fulgoni 3-4). Just
like the app, Indie authors need to learn to adapt and grow their marketing strategies in order for
their books to survive and thrive.
The issue of marketing is also one of the biggest arguments for Indie authors to return to
traditional publishing. Creating a book is a difficult process and usually requires an entire team
to finish it. Yoon argues in his article How to Make a Bestselling Book that As imperfect as
our business is, anyone who wants to write a book of lasting value, a book that can change the

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way people think about the world, a book that can get national and possibly global distribution in
real hard copies, knows that the traditional publishing path is still the best path to take (1). This
statement is further backed up by a separate article How Much Do Writers Earn? Less Than You
Think - Publishing Perspectives where the data from a survey favored the existence of
traditional publishing over self-publishing, but only by a small margin (Abrams 1). What the
survey does not capture is the difference between the publishing methods. Indie authors can and
have been known to be successful in the publishing marketplace. For example, famous Indie
author Hugh Howey sold hundreds of thousands of his book Wool before being bought by
Simon & Schuster (Abrams 1). The sales of traditionally published books are bound to be higher
because this form of distribution has existed for hundreds of years and has had time to build
policies and rules for the trade (Abrams 1). Self-publishing is only a few decades old and people
are still having to sort out the best ways to market their books on their own where before they
had multiple editors, lawyers, and advertisers through the publishing houses to help bring their
books to the public (Abrams 1). Any self-published author has the chance of making a difference
with their books, but they will not succeed unless they learn how to fulfill the jobs that publishers
previously met and by applying new 21st century marketing tactics to their books.
The first thing that needs to be realized by any new Indie author, is that success is not
going to be accomplished without work. A common misconception that exists among beginning
authors is the Hollywood Author Fallacy. This fallacy is the idea that achieving the stardom
status of best-selling author is an easy affair and can be achieved with little to no effort. Granted,
there are the occasional cases where this does happen, as was the case with the famous J.K.
Rowling the author of the Harry Potter trilogy, but this does not happen to everyone. In order for
the next generation of Indie authors to flourish, they need to begin understand the issues and

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stakes that are posed towards being a full time author. Simply publishing a book will not make a
dent unless it is coupled with the same attentive marketing strategies posed on other high-dollar
product campaigns. In short, an Indie author needs to be serious about their craft, but they cannot
head straight to marketing first.
The first step towards any Indie authors digital publishing success is to create a
sensational new novel. The digital world is constantly moving, rotating, searching for the fresh
and new. Originality can help to have serious effects on setting ones work apart from the crowd,
because stories do not gain traction if people feel like they have heard it before (Coker 1).
Craftsmanship is also a game changer for any product (DeMille 1). The digital publishing ocean
is full of stories with half-baked ideas and shoddy plots that are incomplete when it comes to
storytelling, and it can be difficult to become separate from the dreck (Coker 1). Taking the time
to slowly build a story sentence by sentence can speak tremendous volumes to the reader
(DeMille 1). Adding little details such as body language, dialect, mannerism, and imagery can
help to fully immerse the reader into a story to where they do not want to even put the book
down (DeMille 1). Then, once the story is complete, the book must be edited. Kill your
darlings, Stephen King once said, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little
scribblers heart, kill your darlings. Wise words because revision can help to transform a story
from being plain or difficult to comprehend into a masterpiece of the language arts (DeMille 1).
This one of the most important stages when it comes to writing (DeMille 1). After this has all
been accomplished, the Indie author now has a ready product to be placed on the digital market.
The four basic pillars for advertising are product, promotion, placement, and price.
(Morrison, 1). The first pillar, the product, has already been accomplished. Building hype for a
book can seem like a daunting task, but in truth the tools are directly at the edge of a persons

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finger tips. The digital world can be an Indie authors worst enemy sometimes, but here is where
it is put to good use. Posting and sharing information about a book on social media sites such as
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram can help to build a fan basis (Morrison 1). If the author already
has a small fan basis from previous works, even better! Sometimes it is actually wiser for first
time Indie authors to begin posting their stories for free on sites such as Wattpad and other free
publishing companies, because it allows for people to see the authors work and build a
reputation. These sites also connect people to other authors allowing for collaboration and peer
review (Morrison 1). The object is to turn these people into super-fans who will share the news
about the authors book (Coker, 1; Morrison, 1). Placement is the next big key element in driving
the success of any authors book (Morrison, 1).
A self-published author is basically their own CEO trying to make deals for their product,
and a CEO should not be afraid to branch out. Besides digital publishing, which can reach the
masses of the globe, it is okay for self-published authors to reach out to the big and small chain
bookstores in a community (Morrison 1). These places are concerned if something will sell, and
if they believe the author in front of them has a worthy product, there is a probable chance that
they will say yes to distributing it (Morrison 1). Landing a book in a well-known store can help
to boost public interest and the amount of possible consumers (Morrison 1). Also, authors should
strive to narrow the target field for the community of people the book is for. This information
will help with location of product placement (Morrison 1). Finally, the author needs to settle on a
price for their novel.
Typically whenever one is selling a book, it is always best to try and maintain a price that
goes along with stories of the same caliber (Morrison 1). If the book is a mystery novel, sell it at
the price of other mystery novels. If the book is a drama, sell it as a person would other dramas.

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This is the standard when it comes to pricing, however, the fire for sells can be stoked by hosting
public events (Morrison 1). Attending writing conferences, book signings, and doing interviews
are fantastic ways of creating more attention for an authors book (Morrison 1). Thus, once this
has all been taken into account, an Indie author should have a successful book on their hands. To
be sure, there will be more work to be done in the future to maintain an authors current
achievements with their book.
Ultimately, what is at stake here is the future of every self-published author on the planet.
Although e-books have only just begun to emerge fully into society, they have opened multiple
different doors for the publishing community, allowing for them to reach people around the
world in mere seconds of time. They have also now given authors the opportunity to become
self-sufficient entrepreneurs and no longer be reliant on publishing firms. Despite that fact, it is
still a tremendous challenge for Indie authors to compete in the digital publishing landscape
because of the tsunami of both poor and high-quality books. Nevertheless, a self-published
author can use these disadvantages to form new advantages and use specific tactics to where they
may emerge out on top. Digital publishing can be both a problem and a solution for selfpublished authors. Now, it is up for them to decide which one it will be.

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Works Cited
DeMille, Ginny. "Teaching Creative Writing." Research Starters: Education (Online Edition)
(2015): Research Starters. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
Acedo, Shannon, and Cathy Leverkus. "Updates On Ebooks: Challenges & Changes."
Knowledge Quest 43.1 (2014): 44-52. ERIC. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
FULGONI, GIAN M. "The Rise Of The Digital Omnivore." Journal Of Advertising Research
55.2 (2015): 115-119. Business Source Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
Berger, Adam. "Print Vs. Digital Media: Overview." Points Of View: Print Vs. Digital Media
(2015): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
Abrams, Dennis. "How Much Do Writers Earn? Less Than You Think - Publishing
Perspectives."Publishing Perspectives. Publishing Perspectives, 20 Jan. 2014. Web. 5
Nov. 2015.
Coker, Mark. "Ebook Publishing Gets More Difficult From Here: How Indie Authors Can
Survive and Thrive." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Dec. 2014. Web.
5 Nov. 2015.
Yoon, Howard. "How to Make a Bestselling Book." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 7
Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.
Morrison, Megan. "Book Marketing Basics: Advice for Authors." MarketingProfs.
MarketingProfs, 20 Nov. 2015. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

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Unpublished work 2015 Sophie D. Fouts.