OLD DOGS, NEW TRICKS

I’m about to start on a new adventure, and this blog is part of it. 

I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember—and that’s a REALLY long time.  I published my first Western novel 25 years ago, and a second a few years after that.  I’ve been writing fiction ever since, but slowly (there were mouths to feed, after all, and a “day job” that took plenty of energy).

Now, I’m taking those original published books digital—republishing or self publishing or whatever you want to call it—so they’re available to readers as ebooks.  They're up and running on Amazon now, and you'll find the links at the bottom of the blog.  I’ll be adding other works to the list.

And through this blog, I’ll be showing you where you can read my stuff...and sharing some thoughts on the state of the literature and living in the Old West.  And I'll be seeking your thoughts as well. 

I’m really excited by the self-publishing prospects, because Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Apple and the other outlets for creative works have done more in the last 5 or 6 years to modernize and democratize publishing than the New York publishing “establishment” did in the last century.

Anyone who’s tried to publish Western fiction knows that over the last 30 or 40 years, fewer and fewer publishers were willing to take chances on traditional westerns.  A few names (primary among them Louis L’Amour and then William W. Johnstone) filled the increasingly smaller “Westerns” section in retail bookstores.  Others (Elmer Kelton, Jory Sherman, et al) squeezed a few titles in, but the racks have been shrinking in size and moving farther to the back so that in some bookstores, you only saw the westerns if you needed the restroom.  Today, just about the only hard cover publisher that still brings traditional frontier stories to market is Forge, and some of the mass market paperback publishers have gotten out of the business or even folded altogether.  It’s somehow ironic that perhaps the biggest market for Westerns now exists in the Christian market.

Is this death-by-a-thousand-cuts because western fiction is just a niche genre targeting old white guys, the way many of the publishers explain it?

Well, maybe so and maybe no. 

Westerns and any fiction about America’s westering still represents THE American story.  It’s what made us.  What we’re about. 

And I continue to believe that “the folks”—people who read for the love of a good story and maybe a little education—will read what we crafters of western stories are writing.   If the stories are told honestly, with an eye to the real history and personalities of the people who populated the West, it’s the best way there is to reach readers who want to know more about America’s growth as a nation and Americans as a people.

Which brings me to today’s world and the amazing liberation of digital publishing, which is nothing less than a whole new, exciting way to reach that audience!

Jeff Bezos at Amazon and the good folks at B&N have handed us the keys to the Kingdom. 

It’s the absolute democratization of publishing.  For a few dollars, we can create a decent book cover (in many cases better than the “Establishment” publishers ever did) and get an ISBN.  With a little effort, we can format our manuscripts, upload them, and be self-published. 

Of course, self-publishing comes with some perils. 

First and foremost, we need to stay focused on the history and tell a great story.  Then, for heaven's sake, get proper editing.  I started to read an ebook recently with sloppy punctuation, misspellings, and generally awful syntax.  Maybe the basic story was good; I don’t know, because I gave up after about 20 pages when I hit “knarled” instead of “gnarled.”  If you (or I) have a story to tell, it’s a REALLY good idea to use spellcheck and, as a minimum, have someone with knowledge of proper English proofread your manuscript.  It’s an even better idea to have someone you trust to be honest give you the unvarnished truth about what’s good—and what isn’t—in your yarn.  Or hire a freelance editor to look over your text. 

More on that in a later installment. 

For now, let’s throw off the yoke of New York publishing for good...learn those new tricks...and start spinning good yarns for great people.  Here are the links to The Intruders and The Old Boys on Amazon for you Kindle people.  I'll add links for Nook users and those of you with other devices soon--or you can go to the Smashwords store now.

In the meantime, join me, and let's be all about reading and writing the West!