Simon Drake – Writer

I attended the Frankfurt Book Fair (2008), sitting in on eBook related forums and discussions.
I have two main observations: 1. The US wants Europe to pile into the eBook industry, and 2. the eBook Industry must lift its gain first.
Now for the details.
1. I attended an Amazon Kindle (AK) presentation. AK is keen for European publishers to move their titles to Kindle format. Fair enough, so far. I’m a writer and very small publisher and am based in Europe and have moved some of my titles to Kindle, and one of my publishers sells my Sci-Fi novels on Kindle. I like to be listed on Amazon Kindle but the market is restricted to who has the device – that means the US.
Even before the book fair there was the rumour that the Kindle would finally make its way to Europe – a rumour quickly squashed at the Book Fair by an AK Digital spokesperson, explicitly telling the media (gagging for news) that they should not expect any ‘ground breaking’ news. There was no collective sigh – Europeans are above mass hysteria for battery-run gadgets. The spokesperson ran through the presentation, basically telling the Europeans how wonderful it will be to have their titles on Kindle. But, where’s this Kindle? What good is it across the Atlantic? Is it being manufactured in China as week speak or is still on the negotiating table?
After the presentation, I asked the spokesperson if Kindle’s absence from the European market has to do with the billings system and foreign account settings (as a UK based publisher, selling ebooks via Mobipocket on Amazon Kindle, I can’t see my sales or get into any real statistics about my titles – shame, because most other vendors (Mobipocket and Lightning Source) can. And, when I do earn enough to be paid, I get paid by check in US dollars into a UK account – pain in the A$$ territory in the modern age. Is PayPal an obscene word now?). I asked if the absence of Amazon Kindles in Europe (that is, the physical sale of the reader) was due to a US company dealing with the Europe; complications with different countries, the dollar and euro conversion. The answer was that Amazon is a US dollar based company. Fair enough. I can imagine the hurdles when dealing with the Eurozone but haven’t other companies made their mark? Is the Euro (kicking-A over the US Dollar on the foreign exchange) such a nightmare to deal with?
I later read in the Bookseller (an uber-jolly British self-congratulatory publishing magazine for the UK publishing industry) that the real issue is Amazon’s securing of a pan-European Wifi network; multiple regions, multiple providers, multiple headaches. From personal experience and frustration of using a mobile phone across Europe, I sympathise – The EU exists because of multi-lingual glossy treaties while European Nations will sting you for exorbitant roaming charges. So, Dude/Monsieur/Chum, where’s my European Kindle? According to the Bookseller, ‘not before Christmas’. Well, what will I buy myself for Christmas then, a Sony Reader? Until AK is on the European market, Amazon has very little chance of European publishers migrating, in rapture and in droves, to Amazon Kindle wonderful world of digital publishing.
Now for #2. The next event I went to was about the ePub format. Many Europeans where there, mostly in suits, while I was there with my ‘developer’ hat on. The presenters were from Random House Digital, Sony Reader EU, Overdrive and the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).
The IDPF is touting the ePub format. Hooray, one standard! Their Rep was quite open about the ePub’s state: it is new on the scene, arriving after other formats have made their presence, but it should be read by newer devices (iPhone, Sony Reader etc).
The Overdrive was trying to explain and teething dramas of converting books (from InDesign and Quark) into eBooks. He’s obviously been there, but I don’t think the audience has – they didn’t look like the grunts who will have to tinker desktop publishing files into XML and face the (sad) music from unhappy editors who moan about typos and font sizes and random page breaks… Don’t get me started – Show Me the Standard!
The Random House Digtital rep talked about similar issues; converting titles, the extra quality assurance required, and their 50/50 back catalogue/new titles mix.
(I can relate to the conversion issues: Converting a manuscript into an eBook is not done at the click of a mouse, you need to roll up your sleeves and tinker with HTML well into the night.)
Next the Sony Rep was glorifying their reader, it uses a propriety DRM but will work out how to deal with the ePub format.
My Observations: What a mess. How did something so simple get so convoluted and fraught with bugs? One eBook format won’t/can’t work with another. Perhaps I’m missing out the painful evolution of a long-overdue technology, but after so many years it still seems a mess – and though one standard (ePub) is welcome, I do wonder, what if it’s not the best, but something to suffer for the rest?
My Solution
1. Grin and bear it, take up one solution or format – Non-propriety ePub sounds good but from experience, when you convert a manuscript into an eBook – take care. It is not an easy process, because for ePub and PDF eBooks you need a mix of skills: desktop publishing and  typesetting, a bit of graphic design (for the scalable images) and XML/HTML and any other code the devices require.
2. Or, we can all go back to books. I don’t mind reading small sections of text on my PDA, but before I spend a wad of cash or swipe my credit card for an eBook device, it has to pass the Simon eBook Device Three B’s Test: Can it survive the Beach, the Bath, and if I spill Beer on it?

You’re here wondering, “Yes, what does it mean to be an Indy Writer in the Digital Age?” And, I have the answer! Aren’t the writer and the technology that got you here clever.

Let’s get started. Who and what is an Indy Writer?

The Indy Writer
Honesty hurts, so here goes: A good friend had heard my dilemma many times: “What am I?” I know what I am but you don’t, and why should you? I have two titles published, another title represented by an agent, a number of titles self-published using print-on-demand and eBooks, you can buy my stuff but it helps if you know who and what I am. I’m hard to explain. Do you write self-improvement, humor, science fiction or action adventure? Why do I break the rules of famous writers (stick to one genre) and confuse you? So my friend replied that the answer to my question, was of course, me. I am the package. I’m also shy.
So, I searched around and came across an interesting podcast on The Writing Cast and identified with the term Indy Writer. There was no reason why I couldn’t label myself an Indy Writer, and in this day and age, I need the easy branding.
We all know what an Indy Film Maker is, an Indy Band, so why not an Indy Writer?
So what qualifies one as an Indy Writer? I’ve made a checklist:
1. The ability to write. That’s too easy. Anyone can do that, but you really need to have some grand scheme behind the writing, enforce editorial quality control, and,
2. Be out there. I narrow this to not just ‘be out there’ exploding poetry in peoples’ faces on crowed buses in traffic jams (captive audience = loyal market share), but to be on the free market. The market is cruel yet rewarding. And to make a difference in the modern market, a sea of dumped books, over-hyped trash and fads and the occasional gem, you have to be,
3. A bit different. Let’s not dwell on creativity and focus on what works. We’re all creative, but the reward is not a pat on the back from a male psychiatric nurse, the reward is, in a culture of lessening and shallower attention spans, being read. How you get read is your business. How you get paid, likewise. But an Indy Writer, on the peripheral of the market, can’t claim to be independent without being able to show it. Be original, I say, and suffer for it: Enjoy the pain, enjoy the gain.
I hope this clears up the term ‘Indy Writer’. Now I haul in the Digital Age because this is the age in which we live, and I have to make an impact in it.

The Digital Age
The Digital Age is hard to define. Did the humble VCR evolve into YouTube? Did the hand written letter just give in to the TXT message? Did the aspiring then disgruntled novelist turn to graphomania; incessant personal blogging, rampant verbose commenting and adding witticisms and snide remarks to whatever they could. If you looked back in history, from a hundred years from now, it might look that way. There was no overnight point where we went from biros and pencils to keyboards and SMS, but it’s happened, and for a writer, you have to keep up. However, things don’t suddenly get easier, the internet is no angel, and people still like to read.
Remember the classic type of writers that non-creative romantics goad newby writers with: “Oh, you’ll never be like them”? Well, go back in history and tell that classic writer to get his/her/it’s head around installing and customising Word Processing software on a computer (explained to the classic writer as a hybrid typewriter and television), programming and configuring websites to be in touch with the ‘common man’, and understanding Web 2.0, RSS, podcasts, URLs and Social Bookmarking just to be ‘on the scene’. This is what the Digital Age means to me. Yes you can aggregate content, post blogs, web video yourself on fire to get some hits, but just because you can doesn’t mean you’re making much difference to the end goal – to be read, and seriously.
Truth be told, the Digital Age is exacting and empowering. It feels good to be alive in an age where technology rarely staggers to a stop and calls over its shoulder, “Hey Hot Shot, catch up while I have a break and enjoy a cigarette or two.” The growth in what you have to comprehend ‘to be out there’ is a hindrance, but a reminder, that we are changing, what we read is changing, platforms shift, and this time next year, who knows what we’ll be buzzing on about. For all the effort, confusion, and exhalation, it’s worth it, you’re worth it (as in, writing for) and this is our time. As a writer, it’d be a shame to let the complexities and dreariness of the modern world deviate one from transferring mediations on life, humor, the self and everything else, into a platform for intimate dialogue.

I hope I’ve explained What It Means to be an Indy Writer in the Digital Age.
In time I will add to this article, so keep me posted with your thoughts.