Stephanie from Simon & Schuster contacted me regarding today’s guest. When I read the synopsis, I knew that I wanted to share this book with all of you. So please help me welcome Mr. Mark Hosack!!
MARK HOSACK
Mark Hosack is a screenwriter whose credits include Pale Blue Moon and Give ‘em Hell, Malone. He lives in Los Angeles where he also directs and edit movies. IDENITY is his debut novel.
GUEST POST
The E-Book Species
By Mark Hosack
Dinosaurs. Now there’s something we can definitely agree on—they’re all awesome and they’re all dead. The printed book isn’t a dinosaur, not yet (though indie bookstores, sadly, seem to be going extinct). But books have evolved as a new digital species, and the industry is following suit. E-books are becoming the new mass-market paperback. It’s the biggest evolution since the printing press–and we’re smack-dab in the middle of it.
The numbers say its good business: It’s been shown that people with e-books read and buy more books. E-book reader and tablet sales are skyrocketing. And now, following the rise of indie publishing, the big publishers are jumping into the game.
That’s where I come in.
My debut novel, IDENTITY, is something of an experiment. It’s one of the first books to be published by Pocket Star, Simon & Schuster’s brand new e-book imprint.
I’m friends with a lot of indie authors—writers who work very hard at publishing and marketing their own work. And in return, they get to keep a bigger piece of the back end. I’m going the other way, giving up more of my back end in return for a great editing and marketing team over at Simon & Schuster. I have no idea where I’ll end up financially, but I do know that this means there is room in the digital world for everyone, and that’s a great thing for writers.
Don’t want to wade through the tedious process of securing a traditional publisher? Great. Do it yourself. Want to get a big publisher in your corner? Good news—now that publishing is cheaper, they can take on more novels.
If there’s a truth to publishing, it’s that many deserving books never see the light of day. Hopefully, with more access, that will change. And therein lies the greatest benefit of the e-book evolution—diversity.
Of course, all of this also means more competition. As a writer, you’re going to have to elbow your way to front of the pack. As a reader, you’ll have to search hard for that undiscovered gem. It’s out there, but its drowning in a sea of 1s and 0s with little marketing to rescue it.
With such access, it’s a great time to be a writer—but it’s still hard. It will always be hard. That’s because writing a book is hard. And if it isn’t hard, you’re probably doing something wrong. Writing is a long process that comes with very little certainty and, often, very little reward. For a writer, you have to love the process. And that process is the same whether it is an e-book or a printed book. Traditional or Self Published. In the end, I feel as though a lot of this debate is just noise. The business is going to go where the readers go, and everyone will have to chase them there. It’s that simple. And maybe that’s the point. A book is a book, whether it’s digital, printed on paper, or scribbled on a tower of bar napkins. It doesn’t really matter.
The reader is what matters.
If you’re a writer, write for the reader—not the e-book.
The animal has evolved, but the guts are the same.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A novel of mistaken identity and corporate financial fraud, IDENTITY Is Wall Street with a Hitchcockian flavor. IDENITY tells the story of Paul Majors, a respectable businessman who, in trying to unravel fraud within the Corporate offices of SunSoft’s parent company, gets not only pulled in deeper into the illegal doings there, but into those of another firm as well. Soon he’s on the run across the United States, chased by dirty executives, international underworld figures, the FBI, and local law enforcements, trying desperately to unravel the mysteries he’s caught in and save the 1,500 employees who depends on his leadership. Relevant to our modern times, IDENTITY is an everyman tale about someone battling the frauds of “Corporate”, told as a suspenseful thriller.
IDENTITY, Mark’s first novel, will be released by Pocket Star, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on August 7th. You can pre-order it now for a special sale price of $1.99 at: amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and iTunes.com.
Also, you can win a free Kindle or Nook Touch by entering our IDENTITY giveaway. Please sign up and help spread the word!
