An American expat writer finds social media and ePublishing open up a whole new world of opportunities.
By Anastasia M. Ashman
I once opened a can of eBook whoop-ass on Stephen King.
“No interactivity, no extra benefit for readers!” I scolded the usually imaginative novelist back in the go-go days of Y2K.
From my desk on New York’s Silicon Alley, King’s self-publishing experiment The Plant—a flow of static installments lacking flexibility, community and collaboration–was a lackluster leap of faith.
I had the publishing beat at now-defunct Internet World magazine, doling out tough-love to content owners peering across the digital divide. After previous stints in media and entertainment, intellectual property rights and audience concerns were familiar to me. My exuberance came from a new media clean slate.
I had just parachuted into the dotcom boom from Southeast Asia. For five years my Malaysian office was minutes from Kuala Lumpur’s Multimedia Super Corridor, a futuristic zone advised by Bill Gates and Intel’s Andy Grove.
Like the rest of the Newly Industrialized Nation, I was plagued by weekly power outages and wrote by candle light. While my attention span shrank to the length of a Compaq battery life, expatriate skills included patience to wait one month for a government-issued phone line.
Internet access expanded my endurance to a couple of years. When I finally got online the possibilities of global and real-time connection revolutionized my estranged life.
A decade later I’m dipping into the professional fray from 6,000 miles to the East. I’ve been a writer and producer of cultural entertainment in Istanbul since 2003, and continue to live here.
My first book Expat Harem took a conventional route: Lit agent, Turkish and American publishers, book tours, and this summer’s electronic release. My second effort—an edgy, nonlinear memoir of friendship—requires a complete rethink.
Geographic disadvantage demands I compete in my home market virtually. With the economic crisis, collapse of traditional publishing and fresh hope pinned on social media, my global audience is also now virtual. I’m shifting to new school thinking in distribution, promotion, and sales.
The rub: Expatriatism typically is a life apart. Consider the recent professional panel advising Istanbul’s foreign writers on the business of writing. One speaker, a British guidebook author and old hand in Turkey, actually dwells in a cave. Career advice from a troglodyte?
Compared to ePublishing in 2000, today’s terrain is breathtaking. Book deals go to bloggers and posts can be syndicated straight to Scribd.
New players, devices and ventures—Amazon’s Kindle to the e-imprint Kernl—overwrite promises like Microsoft’s eTablet, while digital evangelist Mike Shatzkin gains traction and gravitas at BookExpoAmerica.
Infrastructure and role models threaten to overwhelm circular arguments like “eBook readers are expensive and unlikable, or if they’re the answer to our prayers DRM (digital rights management) makes us all criminals.”
Self-publishing no longer carries stigma for smart authors with demonstrable quality, reach and staying power. When a blogging audience at SXSW interactive conference turned into a neo-publishing focus group for the establishment players on stage, I knew the bold future I envisioned for Stephen King was here.
Internet access equalized my ’90s expat reality. Now Twitter closes the professional morass as Tweetdeck columns resonate thought leadership across publishing, technology, and marketing.
I’ve got Web 3.0 plans to spur a Worldwide Rave for my second book not only because as a contemporary author abroad I must connect with readers and offer dynamic interaction with the material, but because as a digital citizen I can.
Building community around the healing power of friendship—the memoir’s heart—promises to bring my writing world even closer to who I am and what I care about, making where I am viable. Exactly where I want to be.
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Breaking into the traditional publishing industry can add a tremendous pressure on any expat writer, weighed down already by the huge task of writing a book in the first place. It’s good to know that there are alternative means of entering it developing now, some of which may well outdo traditional publishing in time.
Good article!
As an expat writer for 21 years, during this time I have written and published almost 20 books, some the traditional route with mainstream publishers, some using POD technology, become a publisher, printed litho runs of 2000 at a time. I’ve tried it all, and you know, Anastasia, I believe there is a time and a place for each kind of publishing. When you want a ‘worldwide rave’ and a global market then digital is the way to go, but when you have a focused product with a clear local market, sometimes the trad route wins. When I was in Oman in 1995 Sue Valentine and I wrote and published a cookbook on Dates. We sold thousands and thousands in our local community, so printing litho in long runs made financial and quality sense. Last year Dates was published by Zodiac, who focus on the Middle East market. It made sense. Sue and I are back in Europe, we can’t do the footwork. There are more palm trees in the Middle East, so it made sense. Yet my Career in Your Suitcase book, has a global market – for anyone wanting to create and maintain a portable career. So this time it’s done digitally and sold mainly online via Amazon. There is no doubt that the digital age is a boon to writers, particularly those like you, me and Robin Pascoe who do this for a living, but I do believe there are horses for courses. May the debate commence ….