Change We Must

  I firmly believe we must change with the times.  Well, change or become obsolete, right?  If you think you're in a good spot and refuse to budge, something either bad or awful will happen sooner than later.  Some people love change and seek it out like a new lover.  Others - functional Luddites - refuse change for any number of reasons.  Just ask an Amish farmer or Rush Limbaugh if you wish to see a vision into an unreasonably unchanging mind.  Me, I neither lead nor defy change, I sort of stay in the middle of the pack.  Hence, as an author wishing to be read, I have necessarily changed my direction.  There's Darwinism even in the in the publishing game, don't you know.

  Actually, the changes in publishing, as we all know, are radical to say the least.  Fifteen years ago, I like so many aspiring writers polished-up my query letters to publishing houses and tried to construct the dreaded three-page synopsis of the products of our cerebral loins.  It was grim, I'm here to tell you!  I'd send-out queries to scores of publishers and considered myself blessed if I got a rejection.  You see, most of the time I heard nothing back, so no way, Jose was a kindness.  I would scan "less-traditional" publishing sources and scheme to see if I dare pitch myself and a gay, Native American living in Kentucky after serving in the military on a Tuesday - you know one of the "specialty publishers."  Never any luck there - boy howdy!

   I embrace indie publishing as it has evolved.  But, as publishing evolves, I must try not to be a loser in the selection process.  Nowadays, Big Internet (as opposed to the past Big Publishing) industry is forcing authors to chose sides, like a kick-ball game.  If you want the power of being available on, say, Kindle Unlimited, you must pledge sole allegiance to Amazon and not publish on any of the other myriad of options.  Those other myriad of option-outlets are similarly aiming to heard us cats into their corrals and, more importantly, away from their competition's.  I recently unpublished from Smashwords and their numerous links to Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and many others in favor of being present on Kindle Unlimited.

  So, as in Indiana Jones and The Holy Grail, have I chosen wisely, or have I chosen a fast track to self-ruination?  Who knows?  My plan is to ride this horse a ways down the road and see what happens.  I can always change horses, if one looks to be a safer bet - I hope.  It is ironic that no options (past rigid publishing houses) melted before virtually unlimited choice, and now virtually unlimited choice is melting away due to Big Internet's lust for absolute dominance.  I'm a very small leaf trusting my fate to a plunge over Niagara Falls, it would seem.

  Oh, well, at least I'm in some game, right?

  Gulp!

  Stay tuned and we'll see.