Why Digital First Publishing Might Not Be Your Route...

In the world of publishing, there are ton of ways we can get our book to the readers. One of those is a digital first publishing approach. There are a lot of publishers out there who offer this approach, and it is often VERY easy for a new author to finally get their book published. With that said, today, I want to discuss some reasons why you might not want to go this route.

First of all, I want you to do a little homework activity for me. Go to Amazon (or Barnes and Noble) and go to the digital books section (Kindle reads for example). Once there, find the genre you write and then do a search, sorting from Low to High in terms of prices. Now, study that list of books. What you will find are pages upon pages of books being offered for free, or pennies on the dollar. These authors are hoping that by setting the prices low, they will attract the audience they want, and then from there, will build up their readership.

This is actually an approach a lot of publishers will use to hype of some of their authors. Ahhh, but here is the catch. Did you see how many people are doing this? The list is endless. The point here is simple - you are a new author and you have to find a way to attract the attention of your first book amid all of these other people who are just self-publishing their digital books and flooding the market. This is not easy.

Now, let's go with the other angle and a reason to maybe think otherwise. These publishers can release A LOT of digital books each month. Remember, there is no printing costs here, just a digital file. But here is the problem. Each month, those prior month's books are taken down off of the companies advertising and the new round is up and running. 

So, how does this affect sales? Most digital authors will see a spike in sales during that first release. After that, sales tank horribly. And why is this? Out of sight, out of mind. Unless you have another book coming out the following month, and the month after that and so on, readers will forget you.

I want to circle back to the concept of "digital first." What this means is that IF your digital sales are AMAZING, the publisher may then decide to release your book in print format. This is, after all, what you were hoping for. But did you note how they decide? Sales numbers and not reviews. If you don't sell through the roof, they have every right to come back and say your sales did not warrant moving to a print format. 

Those people who have found success with this route often already have a follower base. They have an audience, or they may be published in a print format somewhere else. New authors simply do not have this.

I would also add that for many of these publishers, they DO NOT offer an advance. This means you have just spent months writing a story all for, maybe nothing. Ugh.

Just think about this before you leap. Is it an easy way to get published? Certainly. Will it help you with your career int he long run? That may be tough.