Ebooks aren’t going away and I’d be very sorry if they did. Anything that reaches new readers and makes books more accessible has to be a good thing, book theft notwithstanding.
So I thought it was time to try my own little experiment in this field. As of today you will find my second novel, Epiphany, available for download at the highly-recommended epublishing site Smashwords. Thanks to Smashwords’ clever technology you’ll find it there in a variety of formats for Sony, Kindle and other readers, as well as plain html and pdf. It’s not free — I’ve set what I think is a very fair price of $4.95 for a full-length commercially-published novel that’s had very good reviews over the years. But there’s no copy protection on any of the formats whatsoever. You can also download a substantial chunk of the opening — ten per cent of the entire book — for free.
Epiphany has never been published in the US, though it’s set there. It was a very successful book when it first appeared in the UK in 1997, with a massive advertising campaign on the Tube and buses. It’s a very dark and scary story. And if you’re asking yourself ‘is it the book with Schrödinger’s cat in it?’ then yes… it is.
You can read more about the book here. It got a number of rave reviews, most of which I’ve lost over the years. But a few are…
John Fowles on acid. The Guardian
The atmosphere of mystery, menace and guilt is sustained with great skill, building tension to a seismic explosion as ghoulish characters squirm to escape a relentless past returning to destroy them. Daily Telegraph
David Hewson has an altogether wider range of literary and cultural reference than most thrillers. Impressive… Esquire
I was also prompted to get this book back in circulation by a very kind comment on Amazon US from ‘Hawthorne Wood’ which said, ‘I tried to write a review for “Epiphany,” a totally brilliant suspense thriller by David Hewson, but Amazon spit me out…a notice came up saying I’d already reviewed or something like that – but I hadn’t. The book has an anemic presentation – no reviews. Hewson must have spent a huge amount of time on this clever, tantalizing tale with fascinating characters. I never wanted it to end. If you love deeply suspenseful mystery/thrillers written in an juicy, literary style, you’ll love this one.’
Thanks. I suspect the reason Amazon US wasn’t much interested in the book is that it was never published in the US.
I ought to say a few words about this current version. It’s based on the original text but heavily revised, with US not UK spelling. It’s also been cut a fair bit, bringing down the 160,000-word original to somewhere over 130,000. I’ve removed the quotes which served as chapter epigraphs in the original. Many of these were from rock songs. They cost me £3,000 or so for the permissions back in 1996 and were a pain to negotiate. They only covered UK English territories too so I’d be breaking copyright if I used them in an international eBook. Since I’m trying to persuade people that eBooks should respect copyright they’re gone I’m afraid, which is a shame but there you are.
I’ll let you know how the Smashwords experiment goes, of course.
Related posts:
Hi David,
As I am going to Henning Mankell evening in London and have to admit I have never read any of his books I decided to get a couple as eBooks (I live in Spain so only have access to a limited number of english language books and they are usually quite expensive. I also have an eReader which I want to start using more).
OK I decided to see which of his books I can get as an eBook and looked on Waterstones and WH Smiths websites and also on ebooks.com and booksonboard.com in US. Very interesting results in terms of what is available and also prices. eBooks does not appear to have any of his books! BooksonBoard have 15, including Firewall, Fifth Woman and Sidetracked as ebooks all priced at USD 22.30. Waterstones and Smiths do not have same number of ebooks and do not have Fifth Woman or Sidetracked. They do have Firewall and the best price (Smiths) is Stg 5.72 so go figure – why buy it from BooksonBoard? So in the end I have bought three of his eBooks from Smiths – Firewall, Pyramid and Before the Frost – all at 5.72!!!
Interestingly they are pre-releasing The Man from Bejing this week in eBook format BEFORE release of the hardback in Feb!
I'm going to continue search for Fifth Woman and Sidtracked on UK websites but there are very few good ones at the moment. In the meantime going to go to smashwords and order your book.
KR
Robert
Ah yes – the Catch 22 of territorial agreements. Let me try to guess what's going on here. European writers normally have different publishers for US markets (US and possibly Canada) and UK ones – UK, Ireland, S Africa, Australia etc. The ebook you encounter, its release date and its price, all depend on where the web site happens to be.
At the moment you can buy Kindle in the UK but but it's shipped from the US and is hooked into the US Kindle store. This means a US Kindle owner can buy my US ebooks. But a UK Kindle owner can't by any ebooks by me because the US publisher doesn't have rights for the UK – and Amazon US don't carry UK ebooks. With me?
It's a mess I'm afraid, or rather it's a result of markets based on physical distribution not digital. US writers may not hit these oddities because they have one publisher worldwide. The rest of us do.
It will all get worked out in the end but yes – buying ebooks in Europe at the moment is a bit of a shambles. Unless an author does it himself of course as I've done with Epiphany, the rights to which have reverted to me entirely.
Hi David,
Yes it is all a bit of a mess – not helped by the fact that ebook sites seem
to have different “distributors” too – e.g. barnes and nobles ebook store
only has one Mankell ebook versus 15 on booksonboard (both in US).
The pricing issue is also “interesting” with UK leading way in discounting
(but maybe US citizens can't buy from Waterstones or Smiths?). I live in
Spain and bought them with a credit card registered here (and if you use
paypal – as I did when buying yours) I'm not even sure they know the
geographic location of the buyer – unless you disclose it.
Deadly Secrets is out as an epub and is now available on waterstones,
booksonboard and obviously many more. My publisher has non-exclusive rights
(I need to check about the geography but with non-exclusive I'm not sure it
matters too much) He's meant to be putting it on Kindle as well. In
meantime, I'll probably “publish” it myself and make it available via a few
select websites, like smashwords, so I get most of the profit.
Back to Wallander!
2010/1/3 Disqus <>
I'm sure US readers can't buy from Smiths in the UK for the reason I outline
- the UK publisher will usually not have rights for the US. Smashwords only
allows you to publish material for which you as author have all rights so it
doesn't matter to them where you are from. However I think you'll find you
can't publish direct to Kindle unless you have a US social security number.
Publishing is still organised on a physical distribution model based on
territories. It's going to take a long time before that changes.
2010/1/3 Disqus <>
Yes am aware of issue re US Social Sec number so am interested to see how my
publisher has got round this (or is waiting for Amazon to launch UK Kindle
site)
Just looking again at what Mankell books are avaiable on BooksonBoard and in
fact all the Wallander books are audio books – which may explain price
difference (or not) while the three ebooks are much more aggressively
priced.. Barnes & Noble only have one Mankell eBook and it his children's
book – price 9.99 versus list of 15.99.
BooksonBoard have Deadly Secrets but neither B&N not ebook.com do – so I
think there are some “problems” with “distributio” – I think UK is fairly
unique having Neilsens Book database and ebook distribution is still in its
infancy.
Anyway, have Epiphnay plus 3 Mankell books so plenty of reading !
KR
Rod
2010/1/3 Disqus <>
Audiobooks will always be more expensive unless they are on Audible. Those
sound quite reasonably priced to me – in the UK you can be asked for £49 for
an audiobook in some places. One reason is the audiobook business used to be
aimed at libraries which paid higher prices. Thanks largely to Audible it's
now turning into a consumer business with lower prices.
2010/1/3 Disqus <>
Hi David, what is interesting is that RH have chosen to issue the Mankell books in US in audio format but not as eBooks BUT that they are pre-releasing Man from Bejing in eBook format this week versus hard copy in feb – guess they are trying to figure out impact of eBooks on sales of hardback releases (pricing is same for ebook and hardbook). It will be an interesting year to see how trad publishers deal with the ebook “threat”.
Just guessing but I suspect that’s all down to different people holding
different rights for different books. In Europe audio rights and book rights
are usually held by different publishers. My audio is handled by WF Howes
who are a specific audio publisher. There's also the question of whether
that audio is abridged or not (I don't do abridgements). Complicated…
2010/1/4 Disqus <>
Yes – as usual down to contracts but RH famously changed their contracts in 1994 to include electronic (and other?) rights and if Mankell has one of these new contracts then they will have eBook rights too. Going to try and ask him on 21st if RH has ebook rights for all his works and if so why they have not released them in that format.
Hi David
I'm a real Smashwords fan. Best of both worlds, in a 'try before you buy' style? I hope so. And $4.95 is very much on the button as far as I'm concerned – see http://geraldandannie.com/wpmu/ebooks/2010/01/0...
Please keep us informed on how the experiment goes. I like Joe Konrath's ideas too – use the technology, understand the psychology of buying writing on the internet, and price your work at a reasonable level.
After one week of publication Epiphany has been viewed by seven people and
bought by one. I don't see any sign people go to Smashwords at all. As an
alternative publishing medium this seems to me, as a professional author,
very much a waste of time at the moment. If no one will publish your work
conventionally you may feel otherwise but that's a different argument.
I've already answered your point about price. People are stealing copyright
work because they can get away with it, not because they can't afford it.
2010/1/10 Disqus <>