The problem is time.

It’s common for writers to complain that reviewers rarely touch books that haven’t been published by one of the major corporate publishers, in contrast to the music business, where musicians and bands without a major label contract are commonly written about and reviewed.  Of course, listening to a song by someone you’ve never heard of takes only a few minutes.  Reading even a short book by someone you’ve never heard of will take many hours.  Without the validation that comes via presence in a book store, or a review by the mainstream media or some other trusted source, even the most adventurous reader is rarely willing to invest the ever-dwindling hours of her life in an unknown.

As I’ve described in my vision of the future of book publishing, the coming dominance of e-books will hopefully mean that the almost absolute power of the traditional gatekeepers–major publishers and reviewers–will be dispersed among a much wider group of literary-minded people and organizations.  There may be Oprah-like “super readers” with a talent for finding and promoting titles that will appeal to their like-minded followers.  And we will certainly see more niche blogs that will guide their readers to otherwise invisible works of interest.

Of course, the relative ease of publishing an e-book means that there will be many, many more books published than are currently published.  Soon, I bet, there will be an e-book-only self-publishing success story (à la “Clerks” in the independent film world), the last remnants of the self-publishing stigma will evaporate, and we’ll suddenly have many thousands of new e-books on the market.  In order to be read, almost all authors, whether self-published or not, will need to work even harder than they do now to get their books noticed.  So how might they do this, and how might the content, structure and design of their books facilitate this process?

There will always be books that break all the “rules” yet are still successful simply because they’re so damn good.  Most writers, however, will have to make a conscious effort to help their books break out from the pack.  Since I write fiction, these suggestions are slanted in that direction, though most of them would apply to non-fiction, too.  Likewise, many of the suggestions below would serve a print book just as well, but in an e-book dominated marketplace I think they will be essential.

The New But Not So New

• Keep It Short…Or Don’t:  Nobody is going to be impressed with the virtual heft of a 200,000-word e-book.  Few readers are up to the challenge of a super-long book, so unless an author already has a following, there’s no reason to make length yet another obstacle to getting a book read.  Then again, with no printing costs, if a book just has to be 200,000 or 500,000 words and you’re not planning to print it, so be it.  Nothing to stop you.  There’s got to be an e-book-only War and Peace or Infinite Jest out there somewhere in the future.
• Go Global:  Forget foreign rights.  Once an e-book is published, it should immediately be available globally.  If an author writes in English, there’s certainly no reason to limit its appeal to the U.S., Canadian and U.K. markets.  Yes, translators can be hired to target certain non-English-speaking markets, but it’s very likely that a large percentage of potential readers in non-English-speaking markets are already fluent in English.  Take advantage of the English language’s global dominance while it lasts!  Keep these potential readers in mind during the writing process.
• Readings Should Be Global:  Why would an author limit himself to those willing to drag their tired asses to a bookstore for an old school reading?  Those in-person bookstore readings are fine (though very rarely do I have an urge or time to attend one myself), but why force people to leave their homes to hear a reading when you’ve got millions of people already sitting in front of their computers?  Again, make it interesting.  Have yourself videotaped reading your content at a visually dramatic location relevant to your book.  Have a physically attractive actor read for you.  Whatever it takes to get people interested.
• Become a Super Reader:  Why wait for someone else to promote your book?  If the potential market is there for a book but the infrastructure (blog etc.) for your niche does not exist, consider yourself fortunate and create that infrastructure yourself.  You will be the leader and your followers will be your ready-made readers.  Update: As Moriah Jovan points out in the comments, you are probably bigger than a single niche, and your book is, too.  Participate in whatever blogs might have readers to whom your book would appeal.
• Create Compelling Advertisements:  It’s not enough simply to have a YouTube trailer or something like it.  It actually has to be good.  It has to be something that people will want to watch for its own sake.  Not everyone who sees it will read the book, but some of them will.  If a writer does not have the mad skills to create such advertisements herself, she should collaborate with someone who does.
• Serialize:  Perhaps the reason why serialized fiction hasn’t been big since Victorian times is that there hasn’t been a reliable delivery mechanism.  With a mobile device and an RSS feed, the reader will have everything conveniently delivered to one place.  People are very accepting of serialization with their TV viewing, so perhaps serials for written fiction will see a resurgence.  An author doesn’t necessarily have to write as a serial to publish as a serial, though it might be interesting for some writers to experiment with the serial form.
• Use Merchandise the Way Musicians Do:  Quality design should not be limited to your e-book’s virtual cover.  Put that same design on a tee shirt that people will want to wear just because it looks cool.  Let them be your walking advertisements (and let them pay you for the privilege).  Do the same with buttons, iPhone skins, hats, leg warmers or whatever item might appeal to your core audience.  You could even offer a free tee shirt with every e-book purchase (or every donation, if that’s your model).
• Influence the Influential:  For example, if your book has potential among hipster types, hire a midget to wander up and down Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, reading selections of your book aloud while pushing a cart displaying your merchandise, info cards on where to buy the e-book, and maybe even a few print copies if you have them.  Or something like that.  Determine who your core audience is, identify the movers and shakers of that core audience, and then make sure those people know about your book.  Hopefully a few of them will actually read it and pass on the good word to their broad networks.
• Don’t Stop Promoting (read to the tune of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”): As an e-book, your book no longer has just a few make-or-break months (or weeks) on the bookstore shelves. If at first you don’t succeed, reevaluate your strategy and try again. If you have succeeded, try to keep the book’s momentum going by moving it into new markets. There’s no reason why even a book with moderate success shouldn’t continue to sell and be read years after the initial publication.
• Update: Make It Easy for Those Who Downloaded Your Book to Remember Why They Did:  This excellent idea comes from Moriah Jovan, as well.  She suggests including a brief but descriptive blurb about your book on one of the first pages of the e-book so that people can remember what the damn thing is about (i.e. don’t expect them to read it right away).

The Good Ol’ Fashioned Basics

• A Brilliant and Original Cover Design:  There is no substitute for it.  To paraphrase Zoe Winters, although you will no longer be able to judge a book by its publisher, you will still be able to judge a book by its cover.  You know you do it, and so does everybody else, so writers should consider hiring a quality designer an essential investment.  They shouldn’t depend upon their publisher, if they have one, to do it right.  e-Book technology still has a way to go to find a workable solution to book cover design (the Kindle and Sony Reader don’t do pretty, and the iPhone make-your-book-a-beautifully-designed-app option isn’t a long-term solution), but it will certainly happen.  There is the added but essential challenge of making the cover look good in thumbnail size since that is how most potential readers will first see it, but as Soft Skull Press demonstrates, it most definitely can be done.
• A Sharp and Shiny Hook:  It’s more important now than ever before.  We know that no story will be completely original, but with so much else available, readers will need a reason to choose a given title over the hundreds of thousands of other e-books that will be instantly available, not to mention instantly available movies, video games and countless other diversions.  Writers who have already developed a following will probably be able to get away with a subtler storyline or subject (but don’t count on it).  Everybody else will have to blow the potential reader away with the concept alone and do it with a single sentence.  The rambling jacket copy we’re accustomed to on print books won’t cut it.  In a purely online bookselling environment, one sentence may be all the chance you’ll get.
• A First Sentence that Draws the Reader into the Story:  Many people browsing in a bookstore will flip through the blank pages, the copyright page, the title page, the acknowledgments and the dedication, find the real start of the book, and read a few sentences or paragraphs.  More commonly, they’ll just read the jacket copy.  In an online environment, it’s much easier to get to chapter one, page one, sentence one with a single click.  Therefore, that first sentence may well have a much greater influence over a potential reader’s decision than it currently does.  With everything else a writer has going against him, for crying out loud make that first sentence a really good one.
• A Very Short and Very Gripping First Chapter:  Writers can learn a thing or two from Hollywood’s success.  Get your customer interested and emotionally involved from the get-go, before she even fully comprehends what’s going on in the story.  Make it quick.  No, the first chapter does not have to be a car chase (in fact, please don’t).  But it should be just as emotionally gripping.  Not everyone will read the entire first chapter before deciding to purchase and read an e-book, but many will.  Even those who have purchased and decided to read the e-book will need a reason to keep reading.  It’s far easier to stop reading an uninteresting e-book than an uninteresting print book.  There will be no physical presence to inspire the guilt that forces the reader to return to the book and plow through to the end.  If a low-priced (or free) e-book model comes to dominate, there will be even less reason for a reader to return to a book that is not calling her back.
• Write Anywhere You Can:  Write your own blog.  Guest post on other people’s blogs. Write articles.  Write on the restroom wall of your local dive bar.  Write anywhere a potential reader of your book might be lurking.
• Enrage a Religious Organization:  Or do something that will get your books some free publicity.
• Update: You Can’t Make It Alone:  Writers need other writers.  If they’re smart, writers will band together and form some kind of critical mass to help each other sell their books.  As Maureen Ogle suggests, they might create an online virtual storefront where potential readers can download a sample of each work and then buy the complete edition if they like the sample.  As this piece by Jonathan Baumbach demonstrates, this kind of cooperation by necessity would not be new, even if the format is new.

The Most Important Thing: As always, by far the most essential element is the quality of your book’s content. If, by your target readership’s standards, your book is not good, nothing else you do to promote it will matter. The good news is that in a more democratic e-book publishing world you will be able to go directly to your potential readers without having to convince agents and corporate publishers that your book will be financially successful enough to justify their time and expense.  Success will be measured not merely in financial terms but also in terms of the size of your book’s readership and its impact in your market. Your book’s success, therefore, will be in your hands.

Update: Nope, nothing here about how a writer will actually make money from all those readers.  This topic will be covered in future posts.

Note:  I would like to make this post something of a living document.  If anyone has anything to add (or change, if you think I’m off base somewhere) please get in touch with me or leave a comment, and I’ll add your thoughts to the main body of the post (with full attribution, of course).

Related Posts:

1. The Future of Book Publishing (Maybe) There are many people and blogs doing an obsessively thorough...
2. eBook Design Hugh McGuire at The Book Oven Blog brings up an...
3. Suze Orman Giving New Book Away for Free (for a week) According to Publishers Marketplace daily email newsletter Publishers Lunch (no...
4. First, Make It Good Note:  As mentioned previously, Moriah Jovan and I are doing...
5. Business Model for eBook Only Publishing House Consider this open source business development. I wrote this at...